Salted Anise Lollipops

We launched these jet-black Salted Anise lollipops in our Etsy store this week. A friend who’s originally from Europe first introduced me to salted licorice. I was skeptical, but intrigued. I shouldn’t have been intimidated – it was quite good!

I’ve since learned that salted licorice is popular in several northern European countries: Netherlands, Ireland and Norway to name the ones I’ve been told about. Maybe it’s popular in other countries too, I don’t know! Do you?

photo by Kevin Keeker

Anyway, when we started taste testing different salted flavors I figured that Salted Anise might not fare too well, because it’s an unusual combination in the U.S. We definitely saw that it was polarizing – if people know they don’t like licorice flavors, well, they definitely don’t like them! But the flip side of that is that if people like licorice, especially with salt? THEY GO NUTS FOR THIS LOLLIPOP. Their fevered support helped this little lolly beat out its salty brethren in competition.

Personally, I find that the salt really goes well with the slightly cool and tingly effects of the Anise flavor. Like in our Salted Caramel lollipops, we put grains of sel de mer in the lollipop molds before pouring in the syrup. This creates one salty side with a slightly rough texture, and one smooth sweet side. Heck yeah. Check ‘em out.

p.s. We’re having a 10% off sale in our Etsy store between now and August 22nd, after which we’ll be on a short vacation. Enter the checkout code SUMMERFUN2011.