Where Is Licorice in Licorice Candy?
Licorice extract used in the Licorice Candy manufacturing is made by boiling the licorice root for hours to cause water evaporation. The resulting “juice” is then dried into a block juice or powder. A certain quantity of licorice block juice is added to the Licorice Candy (usually less than 1% as it is quite costly). Most American style licorice candies won’t have a trace of licorice in them, only sweeteners and starches. Licorice Manufacturing For most of the 20th century licorice candy production was virtually the same as hundreds of years before: batch process with a slow cooking and extrusion. However, in the last quarter of the century a fast, continuous cooking process was developed in an attempt to speed up production and lower the costs. The resulting product was cheaper to make but the old saying “you get what you pay for” proved to be true in this case as well, because the quality and texture of licorice produced this way is distinctively inferior to that produced by a batch
