Cough candies

Liquorice root is the dried root of the liquorice plant ((Glycyrrhiza glabra), which grows wild and is grown in the Mediterranean, Iran, Russia, Turkey and China. The root grows as low as about 1 meter deep and it must be at least 3 years old before reaping.

The entire plant smells and tastes of liquorice due to its contents of potassium and calcium salt and glycyrrhicin acid. These glucosides have a sweetening effect which is 50 times as powerful as that of cane sugar. Furthermore, the plant also contains a wide range of other substances, including more casual aromatics like anethole and geraniole.

The extract of the liquorice root is usually used for manufacturing of liquorice, but at Sømods Bolcher weu se the clean liquorice root in the hard-boiled candies.

Our cough candies are made from our basic mass, which is 20 kilo grams of coarse sugar that is boiled almost to 180 degrees Celsius. This basic mass is, like all of our ingredients, 100 % natural. This liquid golden sugar mass is poured onto our production table, where black colour is added to the entire mass. Our black colour is activated charcoal, and the only reason that we dye our hard-boiled candies with liquorice black is that people today think of liquorice as something black. Liquorice essence is black, since is changes its colour during the process of extraction, but the pure liquorice root is brown.

After the black colour has been added, the liquid mass is folded until firmer. In this face, the sugar cools down from 180 degrees to about 110 degrees Celsius. Then the liquorice powder and powder ammonium chloride is added and kneaded thoroughly into the sugar mass. The ammonium chloride is added to counterbalance the extremely sweet liquorice powder. Natural liquorice is about 50 times sweeter than cane sugar, which is why ammonium chloride is necessary to create balance and make the liquorice saltier. Cough candies are not hurled, as we want the candies to remain black.

Cough candies are rolled to their final form. This rolling device is one the original machines of the factory, and it is more than 125 years old. The only modification to the machine is a motor that is attached to it as a replacement to the winding handle that ran the machine for 100 years. The sets of rollers that are used are one of the most iconic on the factory. It dates back to about 1950 and has the initials MS written on it as a reminder of three last generations of Søemod’s – Martin, Michael and Mike Søemod.

This iconic hard-boiled sweet is the number one hard-boiled sweet with liquorice to be enjoyed as “the pure hard-boiled liquorice sweet”. The combination of ammonium chloride and liquorice is perfectly balanced for all of the Nordic liquorice-lovers, and this hard-boiled sweet also creates the base for many of our other mixed hard-boiled sweets with liquorice. It is clear to taste that it not essence but the purely natural produce that had been added to the sugar, which gives an experience of the liquorice which is rarely experienced elsewhere. This hard-boiled sweet is enjoyed by great and small.