# Origin of salty liquorice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578 "2009-09-18T12:25:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/1 "2009-09-18T12:25:44Z")
I’ve just finished my last _Salte Fisk_ and am sad because I will have to wait for my brother’s Danish girlfriend to visit again before I can get any more. It should be vile: it’s sal ammoniac mixed with candy and liquorice flavorings. And really, it is quite revolting, but there’s something compelling about it for me. My brother’s girlfriend brings it over from Denmark all the time (my brother hates the stuff) and she and I have indulged in many different types of this delicacy, including hard diamond-shaped candies that are almost fizzing inside with a heap of ammonium chloride that makes our eyes water and noses run. Yet neither of us can stop eating the stuff. So my question is: why? Who on earth would have decided to put ammonium chloride into candy? Why would that pungent chemical be deemed suitable for children’s confectionery? When did it start being used? (Wikipedia lists a book about it, [Salmiakki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmiakki_(book)) which would probably answer my questions, but it’s only published in Finnish.) Supplementary question: why do I (and clearly much of Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe) persist in eating it, despite the unpleasantness of the flavor? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/2 "2009-09-18T13:01:39Z")
\<\\> I’m glad my local grocer carries salmiak drop. Being in a community of nederlander-americans has a few advantages. You can also order the stuff online here: [Dutch Sweets- Dutch Sweets](http://www.dutchsweets.com/index.php). Try their [herring drop](http://www.dutchsweets.com/product_info.php?products_id=39)! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/3 "2009-09-18T13:06:30Z")
youse guys can have my lifetime supply of every form of liquorice … blargh [too much medication as a young kid back in the 60s that was either liquorice or artificial grape flavored to actually be able to now swallow anything with either flavor] ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/4 "2009-09-18T13:08:02Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > youse guys can have my lifetime supply of every form of liquorice … > > blargh [too much medication as a young kid back in the 60s that was either liquorice or artificial grape flavored to actually be able to now swallow anything with either flavor] I disliked licorice too until I tried the salty variety. Now I can’t get enough… ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/5 "2009-09-18T13:11:47Z")
I don’t see the issue. People like sweet, salt, and fat as treats, the combinations thereof being determined by cultural familiarity and personal taste. _De gustibus, they do nothing!_ ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/6 "2009-09-18T13:53:44Z")
I should say then, it isn’t really salt. It’s ammonium chloride, not sodium chloride. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/7 "2009-09-18T15:04:27Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I should say then, it isn’t really salt. It’s ammonium chloride, not sodium chloride. But it still registers as ‘salty’ on the salt receptors on the old taste buds. Just as different sugars register as sweet on those sweet receptor taste buds. Differently sweet, yes. But sweet nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/8 "2009-09-18T15:25:25Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > But it still registers as ‘salty’ on the salt receptors on the old taste buds. OK, fair enough. But table salt doesn’t go up your nose and fizz and make your eyes water like this does. Yet I (and you) like this shit? What’s wrong with us?! ---
**Author:** ![kevlaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kevlaw/32/2281_2.png) [@kevlaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevlaw)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/9 "2009-09-18T16:13:11Z")
A local candy store sells it. I find it absolutely revolting but can’t resist it. I always eat the first piece as a joke but then eat more and more and can’t get enough of it. It tastes like I imagine cat vomit would taste. It’s definitely the nastiest thing that I enjoy eating. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/10 "2009-09-18T16:19:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Eating my compost heap would probably be more pleasant. > > After a few seconds’ sucking, a cough-mixture flavour kicks-in – rather like Benylin or Nyquil – with a dash of gasoline and artificial sweetener, all of which riding just below the all-pervading flood of no-sodium salt flavour. Perhaps a touch of garlic-like acridity is in there, too. > > These things would probably be quite good for you if you are an oral masochist with hypertension. With regard to its taste-appeal, possibly the same effect is at play here as with American salt water taffy, but Salmiak Liquorice is the very antithesis of salt water taffy – a dark, introverted, miserable Ingmar-Bermanesque plague victim to the American product’s blue-eyed farm boy. > > Eventually, sadly, the liquorice softens and melts away; your tongue is left moderately darker. Your breath smells faintly like floor wax, and you feel like something is missing from your life. > > …and then you want another one. > **[ARTICLE 29 DATA PROTECTION WORKING PARTY | Opinion 5/2009 on online social...](https://alecmuffett.com/article/109395)** > > Revisiting this mid-2009 PDF from the EU regarding “SNS” or “Social Networking Services”, is a delight of then-vs-now-isms, e.g.: “if you have too many Facebook Friend… ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/11 "2009-09-18T19:06:12Z")
My (Dutch) advisor in grad school loved the stuff. I think it’s just about as revolting a substance as I’ve ever put in my mouth. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/12 "2009-09-18T19:12:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I disliked licorice too until I tried the salty variety. > > Now I can’t get enough… I dont like anything remotely flavored even similarly: anise, fennel, a few other herbs have undertones of the flavor … the smell trigers my hurk reflex. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/13 "2009-09-18T19:14:02Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I dont like anything remotely flavored even similarly: anise, fennel, a few other herbs have undertones of the flavor … the smell trigers my hurk reflex. Me too. But then I tried salty licorice. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/14 "2009-09-18T19:19:04Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Origin of salty liquorice? Heaven. Actually, I really like to keep it in my desk. It’s the only candy I can keep around for a long period of time because I can’t eat more than a piece or two in a sitting. There was also a spicy red liquorice that was available in Denmark until it was discontinued in the last couple years. Likewise heavenly. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/15 "2009-09-18T21:47:08Z")
Sal Ammoniac and licorice are both expectorants. I suspect they _started_ as medicinal drops for coughs, etc, then later got more sold as candies 'cos they’re _nom_. Kind of similar to the way distilled alcohol moved from medicine to tipple. I love them. Although lately my tastes are tending towards the sweeter _skoolkruit_. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/16 "2009-09-18T22:22:17Z")
I’ve got a bag of Venco Munten Drop right here, picked them up for a Dutch friend while I was in St. Maarten. I must drop them off to her soon - my god they are disgusting, but my resolve not to eat them is weakening. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/17 "2009-09-18T22:37:00Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Kind of similar to the way distilled alcohol moved from medicine to tipple. Oh, I suspect distilled alcohol was tippled from the very first few moments of its production. Later they discovered it was a useful solvent to dissolve meds (like opium) in. Now there’s a cocktail! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/18 "2009-09-18T22:46:30Z")
OK, based on this thread, I ordered a bunch of salty licorice (along with my supply of Swedish snus) from the Northener. I got these: # Salta Katten, Fazer - 2 pcs. # Salmiak Pastilles, Läkerol - 1 pcs. # Giants Salmiak, Läkerol - 1 pcs. Does anyone know any of these brands and what their reputation is? I’ve also noted that there’s a lot of warnings out there indicating that a licorice habit can cause hypertension. I guess I should be careful with getting too hooked on these things, eh, as I’ve got slightly elevated blood pressure as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mogle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mogle/32/12021_2.png) [@Mogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogle)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/19 "2009-09-18T23:11:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > OK, based on this thread, I ordered a bunch of salty licorice (along with my supply of Swedish snus) from the Northener. I got these: > > # Salta Katten, Fazer - 2 pcs. > > # Salmiak Pastilles, Läkerol - 1 pcs. > > # Giants Salmiak, Läkerol - 1 pcs. > > Does anyone know any of these brands and what their reputation is? Even though I recognize the name, I can’t say I’ve ever tried Salta Katten(The Salty Cat), but Cloetta Fazer is, as far as I know, one of Scandinavia’s largest, if not the largest, candy manufacturer. I can’t think of anything with their name on it that I know is bad. Läkerol is a well known brand of cough drops, I’ve never had one I didn’t like, though I can’t vouch for those particular flavors. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578/20 "2009-09-19T00:44:46Z")
I don’t care for the stuff, but if you do Google up “Liquorice International.” The stuff from the U.S., England, Ireland and Australia is mostly sweet. Move across to the continent and the stuff starts getting salty real fast. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-salty-liquorice/510578.md?page=2)