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Salted liquorice.
I had a Norwegian friend who waxed lyrical about this stuff. So when I saw it for the first time in a shop, I grabbed a packet to nibble on while waiting for my train.
Plain black liquorice is delicious and salt makes everything taste better, and the Norwegian seemed like a nice, relatively normal person who enjoyed other things I liked. This was a low risk choice of mid morning snack, I thought to myself.
I was wrong. So very wrong.
This stuff tastes like it was peeled off the bottom of a shoe after walking through the city all day. It's not salt either, it's freaking ammonium chloride.
To paraphrase the Wikipedia:
The mineral is commonly formed on burning coal dumps from condensation of coal-derived gases. It is also found around some types of volcanic vents. It is a product of the reaction of hydrochloric acid and ammonia.
And Scandi's put this on liquorice and like it. Even the kids. Madness. It took my all not to heave into a bin after trying it and like six cups of black tea to get the taste out of my mouth.
I gave the Norwegian the rest of the packet and he laughed at me while I watched him eat it because I looked so horrified.
Reminds me of a story from my wife. As a kid, she was on holiday in Sweden. The ice van came, and she selected a ball of what she thought was chocolate ice. Well, it wasn't...
ammonia
I like black licorice overall, but your description reminded me of my own worst candy experience. I brought these black licorice cat coins at World Market. The cat shapes were appropriate in the worst way. They tasted the way cat pee smells. It was completely unexpected and overpowering. I looked at the ingredients, and there was fucking ammonia in them. Horrifying. I will never understand how anyone could enjoy a candy that tastes like snacking out of the cat box.
Sounds like something that would pair well with Almond Roca for a litter box themed party.
Droppies! They're an acquired taste. I worked with a lot of Dutch people at one point and they were always bringing them in. There was one kind I swear that had a powdered coating it was dipped in which only could have been weed killer.
As a Scandinavian I am ok with this being a general opinion outside of Scandinavia (minus a couple of countries), because that just means there's more for us.
This stuff is like cocaine to me. Liquorice with salmiak is my favorite candy. It's so interesting seeing people who didn't grow up with it dispise it so much. Nowadays I don't but it anymore because I can't stop myself from speed running all the candy once it's in the house.
Swede here, that Norwegian shit is weak. This is what we like.
Bought a bunch of those when I had a short visit to Karlstad recently. I'm a Norwegian, and I'll be the first to admit that the Norwegian kind is way too weak.
It hurts, but it's delicious. Svenskjävlar! is the world's saltiest licorice.
Lmao, you all are built different or something. How many can you eat before it starts melting your tongue?
I mean, yeah, I've been salty liquorice all my life. But this is not something you binge on, it will eat up the roof of your mouth after just a few.
My go to is a combination of a sweet liquorice and a salmiak and chocolate covered almond. Pop one of each and munch away. Usually drink milk to save my stomach lining...
🤣