The Darker, The Better...

I think that there are two kinds of people in this world. Those that love licorice and those that do not. I'm in the first group. I can't remember ever not liking it. I would raid my brothers' and sister's easter baskets to eat all of their black jelly beans and I was the only kid eating the licorice allsorts from my grandmother's candy dish. There is nothing in the world that tastes like licorice. It's as if tar was made into a candy. Dark and robust... it tastes like the color black should taste!

When I moved to Chicago, I tried salted licorice for the first time. There was no turning back. Good and Plentys, black jelly beans, even Panda Bear all paled in comparison. It was like drinking coffee for the first time.

Salted licorice is a popular Dutch candy and I could buy bags of it in the German and Swedish neighborhoods. The added flavor of salt makes this candy into a weird sweet and savory hybrid. When I moved back to Philly, I learned that the Reading Terminal Market sells about 15 different varieties of imported licorice, specializing in salted!

Four years ago, I stopped eating sugar entirely. I pretty much gave up ever eating licorice again. Molasses is the base ingredient, even in "healthy" versions like Panda. And there was no way that I was going to try and make a "Macro" version of licorice candy.

After relaxing somewhat on my dietary restrictions, I bought some licorice last Christmas. It was totally worth the headache and jitters that followed. Now, once a year, I treat myself to a bag of licorice. I pass most of it out to other fellow licorice lovers at my office.

I love the Mookum which looks like a moon face and the ones that look like fingers. Kookabura is my favorite non-Dutch licorice.