Liquorice is one of the more divisive things in a pick 'n' mix tray, and the reason isn't really about taste preference in the usual sense — it's closer to genetics and labelling than most people assume.
Real liquorice, and where it comes from
Traditional black liquorice gets its flavour from liquorice root extract, a genuinely ancient ingredient with a distinctive sweet-bitter, slightly aniseed-adjacent taste. Pontefract Cakes are the clearest example on our shelves — round black discs stamped with the Pontefract castle seal, made to a recipe dating back to 1760, with treacle, wheat flour, gelatine and 4.5% liquorice extract listed plainly in the ingredients.
"Red liquorice" is a different thing entirely
Here's the part that catches people out: a lot of what's sold and shaped like liquorice — twists, laces, and fruit-flavoured "liquorice finish" bites — contains no liquorice extract at all. Check the ingredients on Vidal's fruit-flavoured liquorice-finish bites and you'll find sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, wheat flour, citric acid and fruit flavouring, with liquorice extract nowhere on the list. The "liquorice" in the name refers to the shape and the chewy wheat-flour-based texture, borrowed from the traditional format, not the flavour inside it.
This is also why "I like red liquorice but hate black liquorice" isn't really a liquorice preference at all — in most cases, you're comparing an actual liquorice-flavoured sweet against a fruit-flavoured sweet that's simply shaped like one.
Why some people find real liquorice unpleasant
The compound behind liquorice's distinctive taste, glycyrrhizin, is registered very differently depending on a person's TAS2R38 gene, which governs bitter-taste perception. The same compound reads as pleasantly aromatic to some people and sharply, unpleasantly bitter to others — a genuine, well-documented taste-genetics split rather than one group simply being fussier than the other.
The gluten point, again
Because wheat flour is doing structural work in most liquorice-style sweets — both the real kind and the fruit-flavoured "liquorice finish" kind — the whole category is one of the more reliable places to find gluten in a pick 'n' mix tray, even in products that otherwise read as fruity and unrelated to traditional liquorice. Worth knowing if you're shopping gluten-free — see our gluten-free sweets guide for more on this.
Where to find it
Our Liquorice collection covers both ends of it — genuine Pontefract Cakes for the traditional taste, and Vidal's fruit-flavoured, liquorice-shaped bites for the "I like the shape, not the flavour" crowd.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't red liquorice taste like liquorice?
Because it usually isn't liquorice-flavoured — it's fruit-flavoured confectionery shaped like traditional liquorice, with no liquorice extract in the ingredients.
Is liquorice gluten-free?
Generally not — wheat flour is a common structural ingredient across both traditional and fruit-flavoured liquorice-style sweets.
Why do some people hate the taste?
It's largely genetic — the TAS2R38 bitter-taste gene affects how strongly people register glycyrrhizin, liquorice's key flavour compound.