Spezzatina Rossa Licorice

This is directed to my fellow American licorice aficionados: I have been guzzling down licorice, anisette, and anise products since an early age due to Italian ancestry. Amarelli, Tabu, and a slew of other concentrated licorice products abound in the smoke shops and apothecaries of Mediterranean Europe. I cannot explain to an American user who has never tried these products the intensity and to some degree, complexity, of flavor that comes out of these spezzata/tronchetti. There is nothing like it on the American market at present. Sen Sen, no longer manufactured, may have been the closest analog. Many US stores carry Swedish and German licorice products now and while this is an improvement over the American junk, the northern Europeans are basically cooking up a wheat compound and flavoring it with licorice root or anise oil and adding salt. Not a bad product but no comparison to the Italian goodness. Amarelli pellets are pure, concentrated, licorice root. I am not sure how this stuff gets made but each pellet looks like shimmering, black/brown piece of glass or obsidian. The flavor is unreal... dense licorice, smoke, nuttiness and sweet. The Amarelli Rossa spezzatina are smaller than the Amarelli spezzata but they are both delicious. If you crave licorice, get this. You'll never eat a Twizzler again.

The flavor is pronounced so if you don't like licorice, avoid these. They are not sweet. They last a while in your mouth and for me, they have the added benefit of soothing a sore throat. Even though their flavor is strong, you will still enjoy other flavors after eating one of these so if you're looking for something low calorie to occupy your mouth until meal time, these are great.

Licorice had been crushed into small pieces, as it is quite brittle.

Some people are looking for a Sen Sen replacement. I've never had Sen Sen, so I have no idea if this fits the bill. I crave the taste of black licorice - the soft, high end stuff usually labeled "Australian style." I can go through a bag of licorice in a day and it's hundreds of calories. Or I can have two of these and have virtually no calories. This is a win. Be warned - it is a stronger flavor than the soft chewy candy, but it's definitely the flavor I'm thinking of when I think black licorice.

This tin is so super cute. The licorice drops are just as described though they will take some getting used to. I expect they will help my throat at long events like a symphony or concert where you don't want to drink a lot of water because you don't want to have to leave to use the facilities.

I like to think that I am a huge fan of licorice flavor. I thought that very strongly until I tried some of these. I dislike giving them a low rating because the flavor is too intense - that would be punishing them for doing things right. Rather, I was just mistaken about how much I actually like the flavor of licorice. I found them far too intense for my taste, but these could be enjoyable to someone that likes licorice ten times more than I do (perhaps such people exist - I like my black licorice quite a lot and seem to be in the minority with that view). In short, this is clearly a high-quality product that does exactly what it is intended to do: knock your socks off with licorice flavor. I recently decided I'd rather keep my socks on.

I read other reviews that said basically once you get through the first one the rest are enjoyable. The first one was way to strong I could barely finish it. I said to myself, "Self, don't EVER do that again. Throw them out." A couple hours later I gave another one a try. Not so bad this time. A couple hours later I gave a third one a try. Pretty good. They are an acquired taste. Once you get used to them you will, like me, crave another and another. They are now part of my perk-up regime. These are also good for people who like snapping rubber bands against themselves. ;-)

Seems old ... crumbles ... odd taste. Not at all like what I buy in Italy.