Licorice Root

Licorice, called liquorice in the Commonwealth spelling, is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant in the bean family native to West Asia, tropical Asia, North Africa and Southern Europe, from which a sweet, aromatic flavoring is extracted; major producing countries include Turkey, Greece, Iran and Iraq. In confectionery it appears in many candies and sweets, though many modern products reinforce the taste with aniseed oil while using little actual licorice; the Netherlands is known for a wide range of licorice confections called drop, some combined with mint or ammonium chloride for a salty variant, and Britain's Pontefract cakes combine licorice with sugar. In the Mediterranean the natural dried root is often chewed directly as a mouth freshener, with Italy particularly favoring an unsweetened licorice extract formed into small black pieces, and licorice root is also used to prepare traditional chilled beverages across the Arab world, the Mediterranean and Turkey.