DID YOU KNOW? The many medical used of licorice are legendary even today, thought to relieve everything from menstrual issues to respiratory problems. In its original form of a root, licorice was chewed to clean the teeth. Eventually, that root sold as a treat in penny candy stores for over 100 hundred years.
A Brief History
When John Josselyn brought the licorice plant to Boston from England in the sixteenth century, he described it as a “precious herbs.” He gave the root to the Native Americans and introduced them as a fermented licorice drink that was a curative for colds and provided good chewing to clean the teeth. The Blackfoot Indians later used the root to cure earaches.
The licorice is an amiable plant that prefers sun but can handle shade and dies back in the fall so it’s not affected by frost. Like Native Americans, European Americans considered licorice medicinal, used for everything from a diuretic to a cure for respiratory ailments. But, post Civil War, American plantation owners of the South had another use of licorice in mind. Licorice was an important flavoring for tobacco. In fact, by 1876, three-fourths of all licorice entering the country was not for candy or tea but for tobacco.
One article published in 1888 explained: “It may be surprising to know that the United States uses annually 20,000,000 pounds of licorice in her tobacco factories…Besides what is used in tobacco factories, the article is largely used for other purposes. This country annually pays out about 7,000,000--a big sum that would be at home if farmers would only grow the plant.” The article went on to state how easy the plant is to grow, harvest and sell but to no avail. Licorice growing remained a cottage industry.
Ao why didn’t licorice take off as an American crop? Southern farmers needed literal seed money to grow the crops. And the Northerners, who help the purse strings, weren’t about to help. And so…we enjoy licorice as a candy, we chew the root for fun, and we enjoy licorice tea…most of it grown somewhere else.
Licorice – Cultural Connections – Oxford University Text…Pretty stilted!
Candy is an outlier among foods. Its existence is not to support a dietary need. It’s not rich in protein, for example. It doesn’t aid digestion. We eat candy because we like it and, because of that, if only momentarily, it makes us happy. But that doesn't mean candy exists in a void: the roots of most candies are wrapped around our culture, no matter where we live. A perfect example is “licorice” which started as a root of the glycyrrhiza glabra plant and ended up as a multi-colored treat with no licorice in it at all.
Three Attributes of Licorice
Three attributes of licorice demonstrate the timeline of candy well. First is its global reach. Made from the root of the glycyrrhiza glabra plant, licorice is a native of Southern Europe and Asia where it has grown for thousands of years. From there, it appeared in India, Africa, Europe, and, in the 16th century, North America. Like most candies, its origin was medicinal. The ancient Greek physician and botanist, Dioscorides recommended licorice as a curative for asthma, sore throats, mouth ulcers, and stomach distress. In the 13th century, Flemish author Jacob van Maerlant described licorice as a remedy for coughs and respiratory conditions. Starting in the sixteenth century, the Blackfoot Indians of North America used licorice to cure earaches. When chewed, the end of the licorice root splays out forming a small brush that people in various parts of the world chewed to clean their mouths and teeth.
Multi-Colored Licorice
The American Licorice Company has followed a unique path since it started in 1914. The company’s first product was black licorice, what they called Black Licorice Vines. In 1920, they introduced a new candy called Raspberry Vines. Although it was red, chewy, and had a fruit flavor. Shortly after, in 1925, the silent film star Charlie Chaplin needed to eat a boot in his movie “The Gold Rush”. So, he asked the American Licorice Company to make a licorice boot. The company ultimately made two – one extra in case the first was damaged.
One of the American Licorice Company’s most enduring selections, Raspberry Vines, has a more prominent role in the movie kingdom. Made in the 1920’s they were renamed “Red Vines,” in the 1950s. Packaged in a cardboard tray they were well-suited for movie theater concession stands. Their timing was good: in the late 1940s and 1950s, televisions were taking over the American entertainment landscape. To get the public back into the theaters, and make a better profit, movie theaters built luxuriant concession stands.
Today, Red Vines, the “Original Red Twists,” is one of the top-selling movie theater candies in the United States. Red Vines, like other modern licorice company selections, contains no licorice. While the public still refers to them as licorice, companies must call them “twists.
