Thursday, April 14, 2005

Oldtimers Äkta Saltlakrits

Oldtimers allegedly makes liquorice like your Grandma used to know—good, old-fashioned candy with none of that in-your-face fizz or other nasty surprises. Packed with flavour, they'll still blow your head off.

Not surprisingly, Oldtimers includes some of my favourite liqs and I grab them whenever I can. Intruigingly, the one I have currently on my desk has its inscription entirely in Swedish (my last one was all Dutch), a language I struggle with. In fact, I can't be asked to decode what it says: something about this recipe dating back to 1931.

The thick, oval soft liquorice is imprinted with a bow, oddly enough, and satisfyingly substatial and soft to chew—soothing like a baby's dummy. It releases a gentle, earthy flavour with a hint of powdered root and only a hint of saltiness that builds up into a gentle glow. I am surprised to learn that it contains malt extract.

Definitely a favourite, but almost a little too understated.

8/10

1 Comments:

Blogger Magnus Nygren said...

Here is a translation.

Some time ago when we moved one of our packing machines, we realized that we had had a gold mine right in front of our nose for over 60 years, or rather our feet. So that the machine would stand firm, someone had placed a book under it's feet. It proved to be a hand-written collection of candy recipes. The recipes were based on top-quality ingredients and the candy had according to author a texture and taste that would suit more mature taste buds. It was here we found the recipe for Oldtimers Salt Licorice. No one knows who is behind the recipes, but all are carefully dated. The recipe for this liquorice were recorded October 8, 1931. Which we took as a starting point when we would find a suitable motif to decorate the licorice. There is an old story of Axel, who worked to staple together boxes here at Aroma. The same day as the recipe was written, he happened to staple he's thumbs together instead of a box. The always proper Axel - who always wore bow tie - did not flinch. The story goes that he calmly walked to the nearest colleague and asked him to remove the staple. Then he straightened his bow tie and went on to work with the boxes. It is rumored that behind the proper facade, he contributed many new recipes. Was it he who wrote recipe collection? As a tribute to Axel and the time when recipe was created, we have chosen to adorn the licorice with a bow tie. But the mystery of the recipe collection remains unresolved. Maybe it was Axel behind the recipes, maybe it was someone else. Do you have any clues? In that case write to me and tell me. Sven-Gunnar Molin, quality Manager, Aroma.

5:57 PM  

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