Drop history

Egypt

The earliest signs of the use of liquorice is at the Egyptians. Archeologists have discovered large amounts of dried liquorice roots in the 3000 years old gravetomb of farao Toetanchamon.

Greek & Roman

The ancient Greeks and Romans also knew about the wholesome effects of the liquorice root extracts. They used it as a medicine against coughing and pain in the throat.

The Greek named the plant 'Glycyrrhiza' which means 'sweet root'. This ancient Greek word transformed via 'liquiritia' into the actual 'liquorice'. The Americans simplified this word even further in 'licorice'. 'Glycyrrhiza' is now the generic name of the plant group.

Europe

The European liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) has its origin in the Southern parts of Europe where it was initially harvested from the wild. Around 1100 the plant was cultivated in these regions and it spread over the rest of the continent as well.

The liqurice roots were chewed because of their typical sweet anise-like flavour and because of the medical effects. Also Napolean chewed liquorice.

In the 17th century, a popular French drink 'coco' was prepared from the liquorice root. And still today, well-known drinks such as 'Pernod' and 'Ricard' use liquorice as a main ingredient.

China

Chinese liquorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis & Glycyrrhiza inflata) was already mentioned in the first century standard work about medical herbs, 'Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing'. Liquorice was, and still is, one of the most important ingredients of Chinese herbal medicines. The Chinese word for liquorice is 'gan-cao' which means 'sweet herb'.

United states

The United States have their own native species (Glycyrrhiza lepidota). Some Indians groups used to chew the roots or the leaves. But the American variety is now only marginally used. Alomost all liquorice used in the United States is imported from Europe, Middle East or China.

The secret

The secret of the liquorice plant is 'glycyrrhizin' (or glycyrrhizic acid). This component is over 50 times sweeter than normal sugar and it forms up to 25% of the root weight. This explains the sweet flavour and why its so popular to sweeten several products.

Modern Western medicine

Shortly after World War II, modern Western medicine started to get interested in liquorice. Liquorice was not only used as a medicine on its own, but because of its sweet taste is was often uesed to sweeten other medicines. A domestic medicine which was used in the Netherlands appeared to be a good treathment against stomach ulcers. The Dutch physician, F. E. Revers demonstrated that the liquorice sweetener was in fact the active ingredient in that medicine.

Liquorice versus drop

But so far for liquorice. This site is about drop (remember that I use the Dutch word 'drop' to indicate the typical Northern European liquorice candy). The Dutch, German and Scandinavian drop are a world on their own. As explained above, liquorice is an excellent sweetener. Although liquorice is an important ingredient of drop, drop is rather salt or very salt. For some reason the Northern Europeans started to add salt (often ammonia salt) to the liquorice candy. The salt balances or overrules the sweet flavour. Outside Northern Europe this salty flavour is not very appreciated in a candy. And in combination with the black color, it makes drop a real weird product.