What kind of a sweet shop would we be if we didn’t sell Liquorice? Some might argue and say that the world wouldn’t miss it if it didn’t exist, whereas for others, it’s a flavour that evokes many a childhood memory.

In our shop, we sell over 10 different types of liquorice, and that’s not including the Aniseed flavoured sweets. But day after day, we hear a complete mix of reactions to the stuff – some of them would rather go without any sweets (!) than have a quarter of the sticky black herbal candy, while others will go for Pontefract cakes, liquorice allsorts and comfits (“Oh, and throw in a Catherine Wheel while my wife isn’t looking”).

Rumour has it, the black stuff has been around for over 3000 years, so  why and how on earth did someone find out that you could boil the root of a plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra to be precise) and be left with a sweet solid or syrup ingredient? Interestingly, it is the sweetest natural eating herb making it 50 times sweeter than sugar – but I’m still not putting it in my tea. To start with, the flavour was added to many medicines to disguise the unbearable chemical tastes. It was then added to drinks, used as a mouth freshener, or in China, it’s commonly used as a spice

Pontefract in Yorkshire was the British birthplace of the sweet form of liquorice, where they discovered that by mixing sugar with the liquorice, you could create a hugely popular confectionary business to line your pockets with profit, and hence we sell the “Pontefract Cakes” as they were rather obviously named.

By far the most popular, and probably the most famous liquorice in the UK these days is Liquorice Allsorts. Those clever PR people at Bassetts have done a great job creating the sweetie character “Bertie Bassett” back in 1929 who apparently “has no plans to retire despite being in his Eighties”! To quote Cadburys “Liquorice Allsorts were discovered by chance in 1899 when a Bassett's employee Charles Thompson accidentally dropped various kinds of sweets when demonstrating to a wholesaler.  The buyer liked the assortment so much that he asked how much it would be to buy the batch in that form.“ So there you go!

In the Netherlands, Liquorice is one of the most popular varieties of sweets. They prefer mixing it with table salt which makes one of the most popular varieties called Zoute Drop (Salted liquorice to you and me). Liquorice is loved far and wide across Europe in all sorts of forms.

So if you like liquorice, you have a lot to choose from, from colours and flavours, to texture and sweetness (let alone which of the medicinal benefits you choose to believe). But how many of you are dedicated to it enough to try a raw Liquorice Root? Can you handle walking down the road chewing on what can only be described as a slightly muddy twig? Come and have a go if you think you’re sweet enough!