Ingredient
Liquorice
A root that is fifty times sweeter than sugar.
The story
Liquorice comes from the root of a plant grown across southern Europe and the Middle East, and in England around Pontefract in Yorkshire, where it was cultivated for centuries. The sweetness comes from glycyrrhizin, which is around fifty times sweeter than sugar, which is why only a tiny amount of extract goes into a black sweet. It was used as a medicine long before it was a sweet, for coughs and sore throats, which is why so many traditional black British sweets taste medicinal.
