I love Good & Plenty. I have only had a few other licorice products but none of them were nice and sweet. I see salted and Australian licorice in the stores but I suspect they are quite different. I do intend to buy some Australian the next time I see them.
What about Liquorice Alsorts? They look amazing but I don’t think I have ever come across any.
My headmaster at school (in the 150s) was referred to (but never in his hearing) as liquorice. This was because he had black hair and came from Pontefract.
If by Australian licorice you mean things like Darrell Lee soft liquorice [a contender for the ‘Two correct spellings’ thread as well], its great stuff - both soft and sweetish.
Liquorice Allsorts look brilliant, but everyone I’ve ever had has been a disappointment. The liquorice is thin and hard (prob. has to be for structural reasons), but the coloured fondant just tastes like chemical diabetes.
If you want to try something really nice in the liquorice line then find chocolate bullets, preferably dark chocolate. Little matches of good liquorice covered in crisp chocolate. I think they are an Australian - NZ speciality, and my sources say the ones sold in the UK are Darrell Lee imports.
Fyna (makers of kids candy cigarettes Fags, now sold as Fads) also do excellent chocolate bullets.
Are Snaps still sold? Seemed like a Good & Plenty alternative.
I prefer Panda licorice, from Finland. It’s soft and sweet, and lacks the overly medicinal aftertaste of Australian licorice. It is made with only four ingredients: molasses, wheat flour, licorice extract and anise seed oil.
In my (Canadian) experience Good & Plenty has been much harder than Licorice Allsorts, but maybe it’s an issue of freshness or the lack thereof. No argument about the square-shaped diabetes nuggets, though; the dragee-coated round ones are OK, though.
Alsorts can be delicious but if you purchase it in the US, you might find it to be stale and stiff. The rate of turnover on the shelf isn’t nearly as high as it is in the U.K. I’ve had similar issues with Snaps. I used to eat those and Good & Plenty like crazy.
The flavor of salt licorice is a shock to the system if you are used to sweet licorice. It’s definitely one you won’t forget. I like it, but rarely actually crave it.
You win the “Back in my day” award on longevity alone!
I love black licorice. And I have found that Good & Plenty has an excellent back licorice flavor.
I love licorice. I like Allsorts. I like licorice whips - tie them in little knots before you eat them. I like stale Good and Plenty. I really like licorice chalk with a little minty taste to the candy shell and a very light salt touch. Other salted licorice makes me feel like I’m getting a nosebleed. Not exactly licorice, but candy coated fennel seeds have a similar taste and are good for your digestion.
I grew up with Black Knight liquorice, which came in a variety of shapes, including straps and twists and tubes of differing lengths. I don’t eat it much anymore, but am not averse to it when it comes my way.
Liquorice Allsorts were also common during my childhood, and for a while instead of cuboid they came in the form of bars, which I particularly enjoyed.
do they still make good and fruity? which i ate a lot of I cause i like red licorice
Since my mother and maternal grandparents migrated to America from Great Britain, I grew up on Allsorts-- possibly the most British candy there is. It’s like somebody asked “what are two flavors we could combine in a candy that would guarantee kids would hate it? By Jove, I’ve got it–black licorice and coconut!”
At least, that would be the reaction of my kids and Mrs. Solost. I, as a kid, very much enjoyed Allsorts. I haven’t had any in years, but I can still imagine that unique taste of coconut and black licorice together. When my kids were younger I got all the mini Mounds and Almond Joy bars at Halloween, and all the black licorice jelly beans at Easter. It was a fine arrangement.
My dad was a big fan oflicorice. His version of choice was nibs. Sort of a stack of 6 or so tubes. I thought they were made by Switzer’s/Twizzlers, but my google is showing their modern nibs as solid cylinders. Back in the day, it seemed as tho black Twizzlers were the standard, but now it seems red ones have assumed dominance.
IMO, Good n’ Plenty are tasty, but barely qualify as licorice, due to the candy shell. And Snaps are just some weird tough distant relative to licorice. A lot of the Australian licorice is quite good, but IMO it is important to get candy that is fresh and soft. Disappointing to have it be tough and chewy.
I vaguely remember Gramps taking me to a local OG drug store when I was a tyke, it had the the creaky wood floors and glass cases full of candy and gum drops. The licorice gumdrops were great, but they may well have been stale. I think maybe licorice candy has always been somewhat of a slow mover. I learned to like them that way and couldn’t figure out why all the licorice was soft and gummy.
I grew up with Bassett’s Allsorts in the house:
I remember loving them, then, but haven’t had them since adulthood.
Apropos of nothing …
We’re like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.
–Jerry Garcia
Grateful Dead
Also …
I love salted licorice. There’s two types one is “salted” by way of chemicals and can have a really weird after-taste and then there’s actual salted licorice. I used to stock up when we’d go to Solvang in California (it’s a little Norwegian tourist town).
A while back, I scored 5 bags at a buck a piece of Twizzler licorice. Probably on the low end of exoctic, but its good, and was cheap!
It is remaining soft so far.
I love licorice. I tried salted for the first time a few years ago. It was great. Now, I want licorice.
I like the black jellybeans in any assortment. Find a store that sells Jelly Belly beans in bulk single-flavors, and get the licorice ones. A bit softer and more flavorful than Good & Plenty (which is still a nostalgia fave of mine).
I like Allsorts, even if the fondant bits give me a slight “candy corn” vibe.
A good friend of ours runs the US operations of a Danish company and goes to headquarters once or twice a year. She’ll sometimes bring back Danish licorice (salted and sweet) and share. Very good licorice culture in Denmark, it would seem. Italian licorice candies are also good–I’ve gotten them at an Italian specialty market in The Hill neighborhood of St Louis.
I endorse the recommendation upthread of the “chocolate bullets” form of Australian licorice. Soft tubes of the black stuff filled with chocolate–what could be bad? Our daughter worked at a franchise location of Rocket Fizz in high school, and would bring some home from time to time.
I often wonder if love of licorice/liquorice (Red Vines/Twizzlers are emphatically not in the category) is heritable. My mother loves it, my father loathes it. I love it, but my wife does not. My kids both really like it.