Salmiak (ammonium chloride) is a rock salt. It is industrially produced for the food industry, a white sour-salty tasting fine granulate. A maximum of 7.99 percent salt is permitted in the recipe, this must be labelled as "Extra strong adult liquorice - not children's liquorice".In October 1996, I took my LiquoriceLiquorice is a natural plant product of the liquorice root. Its black colour comes from the vegetable carbon dissolved in the cooking process. Pure liquorice tastes sweet-tart, bitter. The consistency is hard as candy. to the Winterfeldtmarkt in Schoeneberg for the first time. It was to do Market Research – because I had this idea… Having grown up near the Dutch border, I was missing a “proper” liquorice selection in Berlin and wanted to find out if other people felt the same way.
It turned out that some customers knew liquorice and in particular, Salty LiquoriceIn northern Europe, people like to eat salty liquorice. Salt (sodium chloride), sea salt or salmiak salt is added to the liquorice. A maximum of 7.99 per cent salt is allowed in the recipe, this must be labelled as "Extra strong adult liquorice - no children's liquorice". from Holland or Denmark. To other customers, liquorice only meant the wheels and pipes available in regular supermarkets. For some of the stronger pastilles, you even had to go to the pharmacy! That was the status quo on liquorice in 1996.
Soon, I started to offer my liquorice selections on a few of Berlin’s Markets. I drove my friend Frank’s old Volvo Amazon to Holland to buy goods. Apart from “Drop” (Dutch for liquorice) there were many other yummy “Snoepjes” (sweets) so the range was very dutch at the beginning.