Liquorice (confectionery)

Liquorice candy (licorice in American English) is flavored with the extract of the roots of the liquorice plant, and usually anise oil as well. A wide variety of liquorice candies are produced around the world. In the U.S., liquorice candy (excluding similar candy varieties that are not flavored with liquorice extract, see Red "liquorice"">Red "liquorice" below) is known as "black licorice" and commonly consists of chewy ropes or tubes. In the Commonwealth a mixture of various liquorice candies is known as liquorice allsorts. In the Netherlands, Northern Germany and Nordic countries, salty liquorice contains ammonium chloride as an additional "spicy" ingredient.

Composition

The essential ingredients of liquorice candy are liquorice extract, sugar, and a binder. The binder is typically starch/flour, gum arabic, or gelatin, or a combination thereof. Additional ingredients are extra flavoring, beeswax for a shiny surface, ammonium chloride, and molasses to give the end product the familiar black color. [ [http://www.venco.nl/downloads/proefwerk_drop_Venco.doc Information on Venco liquorice candy] (In Dutch, MS-Word format)] Ammonium chloride is mainly used in salty liquorice candy, with concentrations up to about 8 percent. However, even regular liquorice candy can contain up to 2 percent ammonium chloride, the taste of which is less prominent due to the higher sugar concentration. [The Dutch manufacturer Meenk offers detailed ingredient lists of its products: [http://www.meenkdrop.nl/zoet.html regular] and [http://www.meenkdrop.nl/zout.html salty] liquorice candy (in Dutch).]

Production

During manufacturing, the ingredients are dissolved in water and heated to 135 °C. In order to obtain candies of the desired shapes, the liquid is poured into molds, that are created by impressing holes into a container filled with starch powder. The liquid is then dried and the resulting candies are sprayed with beeswax in order to give their surface a shiny appearance.

Health effects

The liquorice-root extract contains the natural sweetener glycyrrhizin, which is over 50 times sweeter than sucrose. This ingredient has various pharmaceutical properties, the most important ones being that it acts as an expectorant (facilitating removal of mucus from the lungs by coughing) and that it increases blood pressure. The latter effect can become significant with a daily consumption of 50 g or more of liquorice candy for as little as two weeks. [Sigurjónsdóttir, H.A., et al. [http://www.nature.com/jhh/journal/v15/n8/abs/1001215a.html Liquorice-induced rise in blood pressure: a linear dose-response relationship.] "Journal of Human Hypertension" (2001) 15, 549-552.]

Liquorice is also a mild laxative, and has several varied uses in herbal medicine.

Red "liquorice"

In the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, there is also a product known as red liquorice, which is extruded in a way to resemble liquorice, but is made with strawberry, cherry, or raspberrycite web | url = http://www.rjslicorice.co.nz/Raspberry_Nutritional__Ingredient_Info_48.aspx | title = RJ's Natural Raspberry Licorice nutritional & ingredient info | publisher = RJ's Licorice ] flavorings as the main flavorings rather than liquorice. More recently similar products have been introduced in a wider variety of flavors including apple, mango, blackcurrant, watermelon and strawberry, among others. Twizzlers (by Hersheys) and Red Vines are the most well known product brands of this type in the United States, in Australia these are produced by Darrell Lea and several other companies. However, it should be noted that while the common name for this candy has now become "red liquorice", or often simply "liquorice", this candy has little connection to actual liquorice in flavor. Consequently, the term "black liquorice" (or "black licorice") is redundant and has become a retronym in North America.

Specific varieties of liquorice candy

*Black Jack
*Crows
*Good & Plenty
*Liquorice Allsorts
*Liquorice Bridge Mix
*Liquorice Bullets
*Liquorice comfits
*Liquorice root
*Liquorice Torpedos
*London drops
*Kookaburra Liquorice
*Nigroids
*Panda licorice
*Pontefract Cakes
*Poor Bens
*Red vines
*Salty liquorice
*Turkish Pepper
*Twizzlers
*Rips' Licorice Belts

References