The most important ingredient that we use to make our Danish gourmet licorice is raw licorice powder, whether it's for cooking the pure licorice itself or as a finishing touch for the coating of the chocolate-coated licorice. While you may be familiar with the taste of raw licorice powder, something completely different is the taste of the licorice root itself, from which the raw licorice is extracted.
If you've ever gone to buy a licorice root at the pharmacy, you've probably been surprised. Well, maybe even disappointed. Because the usually rich and strong flavor of the licorice confection can only just be sensed in the raw licorice root.
Licorice root is a yellowish root with roughly the same consistency as ginger. If you pick it straight out of the ground, rinse it and bite into it, it is very juicy. Here it has a flavor similar to fresh garden peas. The licorice flavor itself is only a hint.
The process of making raw licorice powder involves several steps to transform the licorice root into the finished product that we know and love. The licorice flavor only truly shows itself when the licorice roots are cut into small pieces and boiled to make an extract. The root pieces are then filtered out and the extract is evaporated to remove the water. What remains is a hard lump of raw licorice. It can then either be sold as a whole or granulated into a coarse or fine powder.
If you would like to try our own finished licorice you can find it here! We also have our chocolate coated licorice here if that is more for your taste!