Liquorice (confectionery)
{{Short description|Type of confection or sweet food}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Liquorice
| image = Liquorice wheels.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Liquorice wheels from Haribo
| alternate_name = Black liquorice
| country = England
| region =
| creator =
| course =
| type = Confectionery
| served =
| main_ingredient = Extract of the roots of the liquorice plant, sugar, binding agent (starch, flour, gum arabic, or gelatin)
| variations =
| calories =
| other =
}}
Liquorice (Commonwealth English) or licorice (American English; see spelling differences; {{IPAc-en|IPA|ˈ|l|ɪ|k|ər|ɪ|ʃ|,_|-|ɪ|s}} {{respell|LIK|ər|ish|,_-|iss}}){{Cite Merriam-Webster|Liquorice}} is a confection usually flavoured and coloured black with the extract of the roots of the liquorice plant Glycyrrhiza glabra.
A variety of liquorice sweets are produced around the world. In North America, black liquorice is distinguished from similar confectionery varieties that do not contain liquorice extract but are manufactured in the form of similarly shaped chewy ropes or tubes and often called red liquorice. Black liquorice, together with anise extract, is also a common flavour in other forms of confectionery such as jellybeans.{{Cite web |title=Black licorice is a candy that should inspire caution |url=https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/10/28/black-licorice-is-a-candy-that-should-inspire-caution |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=www.heart.org |language=en}} Various liquorice sweets are sold in the United Kingdom, such as liquorice allsorts. Dutch, German and Nordic liquorice typically contains ammonium chloride instead of sodium chloride, prominently so in salty liquorice, which carries a salty rather than sweet flavour.
The essential ingredients of black liquorice confectionery are liquorice extract, sugar, and a binder. The base is typically starch/flour, gum arabic, gelatin or a combination thereof. Additional ingredients are extra flavouring, beeswax for a shiny surface, ammonium chloride and molasses. Ammonium chloride is mainly used in salty liquorice candy, with concentrations up to about 8%. However, even regular liquorice candy can contain up to 2% ammonium chloride, the taste of which is less prominent because of the higher sugar concentration.The Dutch manufacturer Meenk offers detailed ingredient lists of its products: [http://www.meenkdrop.nl/zoet.html regular] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185548/http://www.meenkdrop.nl/zoet.html |date=30 September 2007 }} and
[http://www.meenkdrop.nl/zout.html salty] {{webarchive| url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070907043914/http://www.meenkdrop.nl/uk/braskamp.html |date= 7 September 2007 }}
liquorice candy (in Dutch). {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071215130838/http://www.meenkdrop.nl/uk/Liquorice.html |date= 15 December 2007}} (in English - not all links functional) Some liquorice candy is flavoured with anise oil instead of or in combination with liquorice root extract, because anise has a very similar flavour.[https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm277152.htm Black Licorice: Trick or Treat?] from US Food & Drug Administration, Consumer Updates, 25 Oct 2011.
History
Liquorice extracts have been used as sweets for millenia around the world, originating in China or the Middle East. In England in 1614, Sir George Savile invented the liquorice format still known as Pontefract cakes when he stamped discs of liquorice with the image of Pontefract Castle.{{cite book |last1=Chrystal |first1=Paul |title=The History of Sweets |date=30 June 2021 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-5267-7888-8 |pages=75–80 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RhcuEAAAQBAJ&dq=pontefract+cakes&pg=PA75 |language=en |chapter=Special sweets: Liquorice}} The Dunhill company are credited with the development of liquorice as a confection by adding sugar in 1760.
Production
File:Tyrkisk Peber.jpg, a Danish salty liquorice by Fazer]]
During manufacturing, the ingredients are dissolved in water and heated to {{convert|135|C|F}}. In order to obtain sweets of the desired shapes, the liquid is poured into molds that are created by impressing holes into a container filled with starch powder. The liquid is then dried and the resulting sweets are sprayed with beeswax to make their surface shiny.Perry Romanowski, [http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/licorice How Products are Made: Licorice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102133805/http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/licorice |date=2 November 2011 }}, at enotes.com
Health effects
File:A candy stand displaying a large variety of liquorice in Jyväskylä, Finland.jpg, Finland]]
{{Main|Liquorice#Adverse effects}}
The liquorice-root extract contains the natural sweetener glycyrrhizin, which is over 50 times sweeter than sucrose. Daily consumption of 50 g or more of liquorice candy for as little as two weeks may increase blood pressure by a small amount.{{cite journal |last1=Sigurjónsdóttir |first1=H Á |last2=Franzson |first2=L |last3=Manhem |first3=K |last4=Ragnarsson |first4=J |last5=Sigurdsson |first5=G |last6=Wallerstedt |first6=S |title=Liquorice-induced rise in blood pressure: a linear dose-response relationship |journal=Journal of Human Hypertension |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=549–52 |year=2001 |pmid=11494093 |doi=10.1038/sj.jhh.1001215|doi-access=free }} Glycyrrhizin can cause potassium levels in the body to fall, triggering abnormal heart rhythms, edema (swelling), lethargy, and congestive heart failure in some people.
Excessive black liquorice consumption can cause chloride-resistant metabolic alkalosis and pseudohyperaldosteronism.{{Cite journal|last1=Sabbadin|first1=Chiara|last2=Bordin|first2=Luciana|last3=Donà|first3=Gabriella|last4=Manso|first4=Jacopo|last5=Avruscio|first5=Giampiero|last6=Armanini|first6=Decio|date=2019-07-18|title=Licorice: From Pseudohyperaldosteronism to Therapeutic Uses|journal=Frontiers in Endocrinology|volume=10|pages=484|doi=10.3389/fendo.2019.00484|issn=1664-2392|pmc=6657287|pmid=31379750|doi-access=free }} In one particularly extreme case from 2020, a man from Massachusetts ate a bag and a half of black liquorice every day for several weeks, leading to death due to chronic high levels of glycyrrhetinic acid, a principal metabolite of glycyrrhizinic acid. The resultant pseudohyperaldosteronism led to hypokalemia so severe that the man suffered a fatal heart attack.{{Cite journal|last1=Edelman|first1=Elazer R.|last2=Butala|first2=Neel M.|last3=Avery|first3=Laura L.|last4=Lundquist|first4=Andrew L.|last5=Dighe|first5=Anand S.|date=2020-09-24|editor-last=Cabot|editor-first=Richard C.|editor2-last=Rosenberg|editor2-first=Eric S.|editor3-last=Pierce|editor3-first=Virginia M.|editor4-last=Dudzinski|editor4-first=David M.|editor5-last=Baggett|editor5-first=Meridale V.|editor6-last=Sgroi|editor6-first=Dennis C.|editor7-last=Shepard|editor7-first=Jo-Anne O.|editor8-last=Tran|editor8-first=Kathy M.|editor9-last=Roberts|editor9-first=Matthew B.|title=Case 30-2020: A 54-Year-Old Man with Sudden Cardiac Arrest|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|language=en|volume=383|issue=13|pages=1263–1275|doi=10.1056/NEJMcpc2002420|pmid=32966726|pmc=8568064|hdl=1721.1/135269|issn=0028-4793}}{{Cite web |url=https://apnews.com/04cf918055b735ea69483dd00e281253 |title=Too Much Candy: Man Dies from Eating Bags of Black Licorice |last=Marchione |first=Marilynn |date=September 23, 2020 |access-date=September 23, 2020 |publisher=AP News |language=en-US}}
Red liquorice
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}
Image:Red Haribo licorice wheels in an open bag.jpg
In many countries{{which|date=December 2024}} there is also a product sometimes known as red liquorice (red licorice), with a recipe very similar to a common type of liquorice confection (a starchy or gummy binder with sugar added, extruded into the shape of a rope or tube with a chewy consistency), but instead of liquorice is made with other flavourings such as strawberry, cherry, raspberry, or cinnamon. More recently, products have been introduced in a wider variety of colours and flavours, including apple, mango, blackcurrant, and watermelon.
While the common name for these confections has become "red liquorice" or often simply "liquorice" due to their shape and texture, they do not have the taste of liquorice since there is no actual liquorice in them. "Black" in "black liquorice" would formerly have been redundant, but has become a retronym in North America.
Varieties
File:Rainbow licorice candy.jpg ]]
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- Choo Choo Bar
- Crows
- Good & Plenty
- Liquorice allsorts
- London drops
- Negro, a brand of liquorice sold in Eastern Europe known for its dark colour, attributed to the use of activated carbon in its recipe
- Pontefract cake
- Red Vines
- Salty liquorice (Salmiak liquorice, a specialty popular in Northern Europe)
- Sugarelly, a liquorice drink
- Turkish pepper
- Twizzlers, the 1845 original ones
- Victory V, liquorice throat lozenges that formerly contained ether and chloroform as active ingredients
- Vigroids
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See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- [http://www.food-info.net/uk/products/sweets/liquorice.htm Liquorice] at www.food-info.net
{{Traditional British sweets}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Finnish confectionery