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Liquorice
Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English; IPA: /ˈlɪkərɪʃ, -ɪs/ LIK-ər-ish, -iss) is the common name of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring is extracted.
Liquorice flavour is found in a wide variety of candies or sweets. In most of these candies, the taste is reinforced by aniseed oil so the actual content of liquorice is low.
In the Netherlands, liquorice confectionery (drop) is a common sweet sold in many forms. Mixing it with mint, menthol, aniseed, or laurel is common. It is also mixed with ammonium chloride (salmiak); salmiak liquorice in the Netherlands is known as zoute drop ('salty liquorice'). Strong, salty sweets are also consumed in Nordic countries where liquorice flavoured alcohols are sold, particularly in Denmark and Finland.[citation needed]
Dried sticks of the liquorice root are a traditional confectionery in the Netherlands as were they once in Britain. They were sold simply as sticks of zoethout ('sweet wood') to chew on as a candy.
