Liquorice Allsorts and Liquorice Cream Rock get lumped together as "the liquorice ones" in a lot of pick 'n' mix conversations, but they're structurally almost opposite: one is a mixed variety pack, the other is a single, repeated design.
Liquorice Allsorts: a mixed assortment, invented by accident
Allsorts are exactly what the name says — an assortment, not one sweet but many different liquorice-and-fondant pieces in one bag: layered squares, coconut-topped rounds, sandwich shapes and more, each with its own combination of colour and texture. As the story is usually told, the format itself was an accident: in 1899, a Bassett's salesman named Charlie Thompson was showing a client in Leicester a tray of the company's individual liquorice sweets when he dropped it, mixing everything together. The client liked the jumbled combination enough to ask for it as a single product, and Bassett's — founded in Sheffield by George Bassett back in 1842 — started selling the mix rather than the individual sweets. We stock Taveners Liquorice Allsorts 3kg, a bulk bag from Taveners rather than Bassett's itself — a different, long-established UK confectioner making its own version of the same format, not the original manufacturer's recipe.
Liquorice Cream Rock: one sweet, not a mixture
Cream Rock is a different thing entirely: chunky tubes of liquorice with a soft, fruity fondant centre running through the middle, sold as a consistent single design rather than a mixed bag. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with hard rock candy — it's soft and chewy throughout, both the liquorice outer and the cream filling. It's also, in a sense, related to Allsorts rather than a rival to them: cream-rock-style pieces are one of the components that turn up inside a bag of Allsorts, just scaled up and sold on their own here. We stock Kingsway Liquorice Cream Rock 3kg.
Which one to actually buy
If you want variety in one bag — different shapes, textures and the classic liquorice-and-fondant combination Allsorts is known for — that's the Taveners bag. If you specifically like the cream-rock style piece and want a whole bag of just that, rather than picking it out of a mixed assortment, that's the Kingsway option.
More on liquorice generally
For the wider question of why liquorice divides opinion so sharply — including the genetics behind why some people can't stand it, and why "red liquorice" often contains no liquorice at all — see our separate guide, Liquorice Explained: Red vs Black. Both products here sit within our full Liquorice collection.
Frequently asked questions
What's the actual difference between Liquorice Allsorts and Liquorice Cream Rock?
Allsorts are a mixed assortment of many different liquorice-and-fondant shapes in one bag. Cream Rock is a single, consistent design — chunky liquorice tubes with a soft fruity cream centre.
Who invented Liquorice Allsorts?
As the story is usually told, a Bassett's salesman named Charlie Thompson accidentally dropped a tray of mixed sample sweets in front of a client in Leicester in 1899, who liked the mix enough that Bassett's began selling it as one product.
Is Liquorice Cream Rock actually hard, like rock candy?
No, despite the name — it's soft and chewy, not a hard-boiled sweet.
Do you stock the original Bassett's Allsorts?
We stock Taveners' version — a different, long-running UK confectioner, not Bassett's itself.