Thursday, November 22, 2007
Licorice AssortmentOn my recent trip to San Francisco I was excited to check out the licorice assortments at both Miette Patissiere and The Candy Store, as both were known for their large variety for sale. I wasn’t disappointed at all! (The only sad part was that they were $12 a pound.) Fruit Filled Rockies - these are gorgeous little nibbles. The dark licorice tube is filled with a firm fondant-style fruit creme. Not quite sweet, they do have a salty bite through and through. There are two different pinks there, one raspberry and the lighter one is, as far as I can tell, orange. The brown one is more smoky, with a strong salty component. 6 out of 10 Schoolkrijt by Venco (Netherlands) is a very common licorice in Europe, kind of like our Good & Plenty but much milder. It’s much like the Rockies, in that it’s a tube of licorice filled with a creme. Then the whole thing is panned with a crunchy mint shell. The flavor combo is kind of medicinal, like a cough drop, but I rather like that. Peppermint, licorice and some molasses. I’ve had these a couple of times before, but this particular sampling was very fresh. The outside was crisp and the inside was soft and chewy. UPDATE: Seems I couldn’t get these out of my mind and have bought at least two pounds (not at once) since this review for personal consumption. So the rating gets updated to a 9 out of 10 Griotten by Venco (Netherlands) were completely new to me. If I’ve seen these before I’ve completely blocked them out. They look like little raw sugar cubes, but pick one up and it’s too light for that. Why, it’s a little spongy too! It’s like a cross between a marshmallow and a gummi. Soft and chewy, but not too dense or tacky. The flavor is mild, with only a delicate hit of licorice and anise and not terribly sweet either with a mix of the grainy sugar coating and a little salt. 7 out of 10 Heksehyl Zoete are also something that I’ve never tried before. Kind of a baby step in the licorice world, they’re more of a molasses candy than a licorice one. The smoky molasses is a good background for the light licorice flavor. No salt here, just a light coating of sugar to pull it all together. Very soft, very chewy. Kind of chocolatey. 7 out of 10 Kokindjes (Netherlands) were one of the few salty licorices I picked up. The cute little buttons are nice and soft. While I like a hard glycerine-style licorice sometimes (Katjes), I really enjoy the chew of licorice as a feature. As a lightly salted licorice, it was very mild, but I was disappointed that it didn’t have a huge licorice kick. There was a slight metallic tinge for me and a fleeting glimpse of damp cat-inhabited basements. 5 out of 10 Honey Tops (Netherlands) were the one piece that I thought was one that I’d had before, it didn’t look quite the same, not quite as amber and there is no bee on this hive. The flavor is a round with only the slightest honey tint, some mild licorice (no anise). They’re pretty firm. These and the Kokindjes were the last ones I finished. 5 out of 10 (I was guessing at the brands here based on who sells what. There could be other companies that make these same varieties.)
POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:09 pm |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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Ahhh…I miss my licorice! I love schoolkrijt. Kokintjes are good most of the time, but it differs by brand, I find them better if they are a little more lightbrown in color. The heksehyl is also available in a salty version, you should try it sometime (if you haven’t already)!
You cannot get salted liquorice anywhere in my town. When I lived in a larger town with an actual dedicated sweet shop I used to love the little salted cats and coins and the salminak(not sure on that spelling) rock. They also used to sell dried liquorice root though I never tried it.
I miss that shop, the chocolate coated raspberries and licorice bullets were good too.
$12.00 is way too much to pay for a pound of licorice (we call it drop). I’m not sure if you can get it in the US, but you might want to try Meenk instead of Venco. Meenk is really, really nice.
ohhh man i LOVE liquorice,
i have family in holland who always bring me 1kg of mixed types over =)
I’d really love to try the Schoolkrijt. Actually I’d pretty much like to try everything here.
I just got my order of Griotten in, since I’ve been drooling of just the thought of them after seeing them here. Oohh, Cybele, they are GOOD! I just wish I could have found some of the Heksehyl Zoete too! I also got some single salt Zout since I’ve never had it before…
I don’t know how good they are, but Steinmart sells fruit Rockies for a pretty good price.
Kokinje (kokintje)was originally the name of a candy from the province of Zeeland; also called boterbabbelaars (butterbabblers);. they’re made from sugar, glucose-sirup, butter and vinegar and still widely available. They originated from the 18th century and the word itself comes from Cogaigne: The Land of Cocaigne, lazy-lusciousland.
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