Lemon Drop

• Type: Muggle sweet; Password
• Prominent Consumers: Albus Dumbledore
• Maker: Various Muggle confectioners

A Lemon Drop is a small, hard, lemon-flavoured boiled sweet, a type of Muggle confectionery. They are typically yellow and translucent. In the original British editions of the novels, this sweet is referred to by its common UK name, the sherbet lemon, which is a hard lemon-flavoured shell with a fizzy sherbet powder centre.

Lemon Drops possess no inherent magical properties. Their significance in the wizarding world is derived entirely from their use by Albus Dumbledore.

• Password: The phrase “Lemon Drop” served as the password to gain access to Dumbledore's office during Harry Potter's second year at Hogwarts Castle. When spoken to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's study, the gargoyle would spring to life and leap aside, revealing a spiral stone staircase.
• Personal Preference: Lemon Drops were Albus Dumbledore's favourite Muggle sweet. He often carried a supply with him and would frequently offer them to visitors, including Minerva McGonagall and Harry Potter. This gesture served as a friendly icebreaker and was a key part of his kind and slightly eccentric persona.

The first mention of Lemon Drops (as sherbet lemons) occurs in the opening chapter of the first book. After delivering the infant Harry Potter to Privet Drive, Albus Dumbledore offers a Lemon Drop to a visibly stressed Minerva McGonagall, who declines. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter learns that “Lemon Drop” is the password to the Headmaster's office. He uses it to gain entry and speak with Dumbledore for the first time in his study. Dumbledore was known to change his password periodically, always using the name of a different sweet, such as Cockroach Cluster or Fizzing Whizbee.

Though a simple object, the Lemon Drop plays a subtle but important role in the series.

• Characterisation: The sweet is a primary tool for establishing Albus Dumbledore's character. His fondness for a simple Muggle candy highlights his humility, his lack of prejudice against the non-magical world, and his gentle, grandfatherly nature, which contrasts sharply with his immense power and mysterious past.
• Symbolism: The Lemon Drop symbolises Dumbledore's philosophy of tolerance and his appreciation for the Muggle world. His choice of a Muggle sweet as the key to his office—the very heart of magical power and knowledge at Hogwarts Castle—is a quiet statement against the pure-blood supremacy championed by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

A notable difference exists between the original British publications and the American editions of the books. In the UK editions, the sweet is consistently called a “sherbet lemon.” The American editions changed this to “lemon drop,” a more commonly understood term for a hard lemon candy in the United States.