Liquorice

In Britain, the word liquorice usually signifies a sticky black sweet made from gelatine and sugar with some liquorice flavouring. Horrible and tooth-rotting. And nothing like the genuine spice.

Liquorice shrubs	Liquorice inflorescence	Liquorice root

Species:	Glycyrrhiza glabra.
Origin:	Eastern Asia.
Source:	Liquorice is native to China and is cultivated as a culinary and medical plant in both China and India.
Used Part:	Root and the juice extracted from it.
Family:	Fabaceae (bean family).
Effect:	The aroma is reminiscent of anise or fennel but considerably stronger. The taste is sweet, warm and medicinal.
Etymology:	The name liquorice and the Latin genus name glycyrrhiza derive from Greek glykeia rhiza "sweet root" (the modern Greek name is glikoriza).
	In Latin, the Greek plant name became liquiritia, influenced by liquere "to flow" for the liquid form of liquorice juice. The British spelling liquorice has conserved that Latin form. Liquiritia is the source of many names for liquorice in modern European languages, e.g. German lakritze and Czech lékořice. In most Romance languages the sounds "l" and "r" were exchanged, e.g. French réglisse and Spanish regaliz.
	The German name is süßholz "sweet wood" and the Dutch name is zoethout. Many languages, both European and non-European, can trace their name for liquorice from the Indo-European root swadu "sweet" or "pleasure" (constructed from swa "give" and du "juice") or medgu "honey" or "sweet".
	The characteristic sweet taste of liquorice is reflected in the names in Indic languages, e.g. Sanskrit madhu "sweet" or "pleasant" and Bengali yashthimodhu. Outside of India, related names include Lithuanian saldymedis, Hungarian édesgyökér and Bulgarian sladuk koren which translate to "sweet root".
	The Chinese name gan cao for the related species glycyrrhiza uralensis means "sweet straw" or "sweet herb". The name has been loaned to Vietnamese as cam thao, to Korean as kamcho and to Japanese as kanzō. The Japanese kanji symbols literally mean "sweet grass" or "sweet plant".
	The Latin species name glaber "bald" or "hairless" refers to the seed pods which have a smooth surface, as distinct from species of the genus with hairy fruits.
Uses:	Liquorice has traditionally been used more as a medicine than as a spice and use against diseases of the upper respiratory tract date back to Ancient Egypt.
	To Western tastes, the dominating sweetness of this plant seems inappropriate for savoury dishes. However, small amounts of liquorice substantially improve Chinese five spice mix and liquorice is often used to flavour Chinese master sauce.
	Liquorice is the base of traditional sweets in Northern Europe, particularly lakritz in Northern Germany and salmiakki in Finland. These consist of the evaporated juice of liquorice together with lemon or salmiac as optional flavourings but usually without sugar.
	More recently, liquorice-based sweets have been suspected of causing high blood pressure. Glycyrrhizin has been shown to have a hypertensive action but it is unclear whether the quantity involved in liquorice sweets could have a significant impact on health.
	Several different spices such as cloves and cinnamon are termed "sweet", with the meaning of "aromatic". Of the culinary spices that genuinely taste sweet (anise, fennel, star anise, cicely, tonka beans, long pepper and vanilla), none exhibit as strong a sweetness as liquorice.