Flavour Pairings: Liquorice and Mint

This can be a winner, with the fresh blast of mint complemented by the pungent assertiveness of ammonium chloride. In my opinion the ultimate marriage is found in Super Piratos, where the liquorice and mint are faultlessly integrated:


In this relationship the liquorice holds the upper hand, but it can be hard to arrive at a harmonious result. On the next level down we have a duality between liquorice powder and a coating of crunchy mint, but already the mint has been mellowed. The particular sweet I have in mind is akin to the pack on the right, but it's more smarties-shaped:


A mellowing of both mint and liquorice results in a nostalgic taste that is familiar from childhood, albeit separately as mild mint candy and sweet soft liquorice like that found in Allsorts (which—as far as flavour pairings are concerned—won't be discussed here any further. It looks pretty, though). It's is an agreeable all-rounder, but it does nothing to alleviate my cravings:


Finally we have a number of candies where the mint dominates to the extent that there seems to be no point in the addition of liquorice. These include disgusting minty sugar pearls and these jellies:


They may be OK for mint addicts, but why bother with the liquorice?

There you have it, from the sublime down to the abysmal ;)

I'm Seeing Double

It's been a while since my last order, but now that my trickle of supplies has dried up, I returned to Liquoriceheaven and filled up my basket with a gluttonous heap of assorted liquorice, only to be told that the order couldn't be processed.

No worries. I fired off an email and was told that they'll get on the case straight away (apparently there's been a server problem) and a few days later I re-ordered and received a big bag full of liqs :)

But imagine my surprise when another bag arrived not two days after that.



It seems that their server has been working after all, and the first order has gone through. Now let's just hope it hasn't picked up on my previous two attempts or I shall soon be drowning in liqs!

What arrived is—literally—a mixed bag, with quite a few sweet kinds included. But I'm not prejudiced and I have already encountered a few that I like, including one with a nice, old-fashioned jellybaby consistency and earthy sweetwood undertones. There are also quite a few that I don't like, but more about that later.

salmiak chocolate bar is not what's up

People don't often pair licorice and chocolate and this candy bar is a perfect example why.

It was supposed to be milk-chocolate squares filled with salty, oozy licorice filling. Instead it was dried out, cloyingly sweet and mildly nauseating.

CONFESSION: I kept this bar for about six weeks after I received it, unrefrigerated in a humid climate. I didn't know it had been crushed in transit and was rapidly drying out. The flavor and texture were obviously compromised. But my goodness, what an unpleasant candy experience!

Squirts of the leaked filling had solidified to a whitish-gray coating resembling mold over part of the bar. Mmmmm. I won't post a picture of that because I don't want to besmirch the Fazer name and classic black diamond packaging, but it was really disgusting.

Of course I ate it anyway. To my disappointment, even the filling in the uncrushed squares was no longer liquid. The flavor is just terrible. The whole concoction is too sweet, with only hints of saltiness. Perhaps the salmiak flavor was stronger when the bar was fresh? It seems to have evaporated with the filling.

Back to the lab with this one, Fazer! My stomach hurts.