My sense of adventure with licorice from around the world is starting to ruin my appreciation of licorice. I’ve found that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to appreciate other versions, especially the salted styles from Northern Europe, that I’m spending less of my time just eating the products I’ve already found I love.
After my earlier experiments with German licorice, more specifically, licorice from Haribo (Lakritz Parade, Goliath Lakritz-Stangen and Sali-Kritz) , you’d think I would have learned something. I found most of the licorice I bought there downright inedible by my preferences. Yet when I was at Mel & Rose Wine and Liquors last month, I bought yet another Haribo licorice product. At the very least while I was in Germany I could rationalize that the candy was cheap, most under one Euro per package, here it was over $3.00.
They’re called Haribo Pearlico. The ingredients seemed to indicate that they were a children’s licorice, with no ammonia salts. My mouth may say otherwise.
I admit that I was attracted by the look of them. Each is a large mounded gumdrop shape. They’re soft enough to be squished with firm pressure. The ingredients are all natural, so the muted tones of the little candy spheres coating the licorice center is made from vegetable dyes.
At the center of each is a soft licorice gumdrop made with treacle flavor and licorice. It’s earthy, soft and relatively smooth. The candy sphere are soft and crunchy, not dense like the American version that might be found on SnoCaps. If you’ve ever had the Haribo Raspberries, you’ll know what I mean.
The licorice center has a lot of molasses flavor, some deep ginger and beet notes, burnt sugar and soft anise. But every once in a while I was getting a real whiff of ammonia. At first I thought that certain colors were ammonia (yellow in particular) but it turned out that they were all the same, just very mildly “salted” licorice.
As a first introduction to the world of salted licorice, they’re good. The textures are fun, though the colors remind me of something that’s been left in the sun to be bleached, like old plastic toys found washed up in October on the beach.
The center contains a combination of gelatin and agar-agar so it’s not quite suitable for vegetarians.
Related Candies
- 12 European Licorices
- Panda Candy Coated Licorice
- Haribo Sali-Kritz
- Krema Batna
- Haribo Pontefract Cakes
- Barratt Liquorice Catherine Wheels
- Marich Black Heart Licorice
I’m not a licorice lover, unless it’s red, so maybe it’s just me, but that candy does not look appealing. It looks like a wasp’s nest. And the cut-into one looks particularly icky. BUT you write about it so beautifully, you make me want to try it to see if I get any “deep ginger notes”. Keep up the great work.
hi,? think you made a mistake,you cant even find a water under a euro in germany.? been there 2 days ago and find it.a 250gr pack of it was 3.20 euros .by the way ? like them thanks!
Where are you shopping? I picked up most of my candy at the grocery stores (Rewe & Aldi). I did notice the convenience marts were far more expensive. Also, some candies have price controls on them set by the manufacturers. I couldn’t find anything from Lindt anywhere off of their list price. (I was in Cologne and took the subway out the the more suburban areas to do my major candy shopping.)
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