When you hear sherbet (powder) described by the "science is fun" camp, it's made of three components: a sugar, an acid, and a base (almost always bicarb). I also think this is the kind of sherbet that's in kids sweets.
I prefer the taste without bicarb, as I'm sensitive to the "soap" taste of bicarb, and it lingers in the mouth longer than the acid and sweet tastes.
I've tried decreasing the bicarb to the point where I find it undetectable (which is way below stoichiometry) and, to be honest, I may as well put none in at all.
Without a base, the taste is much closer to what sherbet tastes like to me in "grown up" food (for example, as a coating on a dessert).
Do professional chefs omit the base entirely? Do they use another base (but, to be honest all bases taste soapy, but maybe some are "faster" the taste can be masked in the other flavours)? Or do they process the base in some way to a similar effect (grinding, etc)? Or an addition to mask it?
