How Is Liquorice Made? | From Root To Rope

Liquorice candy starts with root extract or anise flavour, then makers cook, shape, and dry a sweet dough into chewy strands.

Liquorice looks simple on the shelf, yet the candy goes through a tidy chain of steps before it reaches that glossy rope, bite-sized wheel, or soft twist. The process starts with flavour. In old-style black liquorice, that flavour came from licorice root extract. In plenty of modern candies, the familiar taste comes partly or fully from anise oil, which gives a similar sweet-herbal note.

That split matters. When people ask how liquorice is made, they’re often thinking of one thing, but the candy aisle holds a few different versions. Some pieces contain real root extract. Some lean on anise. Red “liquorice” often skips the root note altogether and works more like a fruit-flavoured chewy candy made in a similar shape.

Once the flavour base is chosen, the rest of the job is candy craft: build a sweet dough, heat it to the right texture, shape it while it’s pliable, then dry or condition it until the chew feels right. Get the moisture wrong and the candy turns sticky, grainy, or tough. Get it right and it bends before it bites.

How Is Liquorice Made? Step By Step In A Candy Plant

In a factory, liquorice is made in a steady flow. Raw ingredients are weighed, blended, cooked, shaped, cooled, and packed. The details shift from one maker to another, but the skeleton of the process stays close to the same.

It Starts With The Flavour Base

Traditional black liquorice begins with licorice root extract. The roots are cleaned, dried, chopped, and steeped in hot water so their soluble compounds move into the liquid. That liquid is then filtered and concentrated into a dark extract. The extract brings earthy sweetness, bitterness, and that deep herbal note people either crave or avoid.

Not every bag on the shelf uses the root. According to NCCIH’s licorice root page, many licorice products sold in the United States use anise oil instead of actual licorice. That’s one reason two black twists can taste related but not the same.

The Sweet Dough Gets Built

Once the flavour is ready, candy makers build the body of the liquorice. Sugar and glucose syrup or corn syrup bring sweetness and stretch. Flour or starch gives the candy a little backbone. Molasses may deepen the colour and add a dark, round taste. Gelatin, gums, or other binders can tune the chew, depending on the style.

At this point, the mixture still doesn’t look like candy rope. It looks more like a thick batter or paste. The goal is to get the solids, moisture, and flavour evenly spread so the next heating stage works the same way from batch to batch.

Heating Changes The Texture

The blended mass is heated in kettles or continuous cookers. Heat does a lot of the heavy lifting. It dissolves sugars, thickens the mix, reduces free water, and helps the starch or flour swell. The candy maker watches temperature and solids closely. A little extra water leaves the strands slack and sticky. Too little water can turn the finished piece hard on the outside and crumbly in the middle.

Black liquorice often gets its dark shade from a mix of root extract, molasses, caramel colour, or other approved colourings. The deeper the batch cooks, the more rounded the flavour becomes.

Shaping Gives Liquorice Its Familiar Form

When the mass reaches the right consistency, it moves to shaping. Long ropes are usually extruded. That means the warm candy is pushed through dies that create strands, hollow tubes, or flat laces. Some styles are cut into bites right away. Others are twisted, curled into wheels, or filled at the centre before cutting.

Freshly shaped liquorice is still warm and soft. It needs time to settle. Cooling lines, drying tunnels, or conditioning rooms let the texture firm up without snapping.

What Goes Into Liquorice Candy

The ingredient list changes with the brand and style, but most liquorice candies pull from the same pantry. A basic batch often includes:

• Sweeteners: sugar, glucose syrup, corn syrup, or invert syrup
• Body builders: wheat flour, starch, or modified starch
• Flavour: licorice root extract, anise oil, fruit flavourings, or salt blends
• Colour: molasses, caramel colour, fruit concentrates, or approved food colours
• Texture helpers: gelatin, gums, oils, or emulsifiers
• Finish: glazing agents, waxes, sugar sanding, or sour coatings

The FDA lists licorice extract powder as a flavoring agent and non-nutritive sweetener in food. That tells you where the root fits in the recipe: it’s there for taste more than bulk.

Wheat flour shows up in many classic black liquorice recipes, which is why the chew feels closer to a soft dough candy than a hard sweet. Some modern brands swap in starches or other systems to change the bite or meet label goals.

Stage	What Happens	Why It Matters
Root Prep	Licorice roots are cleaned, dried, and cut	Sets up even extraction and cleaner flavour
Extraction	Hot water pulls flavour compounds from the root	Creates the dark herbal base used in black liquorice
Concentration	The extract is filtered and thickened	Builds stronger taste without flooding the batch with water
Mixing	Sugars, syrups, flour or starch, and flavourings are blended	Forms the candy mass and spreads flavour evenly
Cooking	The mixture is heated to a target solids level	Controls chew, shelf life, and stickiness
Extrusion	Warm candy is pushed through dies into ropes or laces	Creates the final shape with a steady thickness
Cutting Or Twisting	Strands are cut, twisted, rolled, or formed into bites	Turns the rope into the style sold in stores
Drying	Pieces cool and lose a little moisture	Sets the bite so it bends instead of smearing
Finishing	Coatings, sugar, or glazing may be added	Improves shine, flavour, and handling
Packing	Candy is sealed in bags or trays	Keeps moisture and texture in a narrow range

Why One Liquorice Tastes Different From Another

Liquorice has more range than people expect. The sharp herbal note in one brand may come from real root extract. Another may lean more on anise, which smells like fennel and feels brighter on the tongue. Molasses can add depth. Salt can sharpen edges. Flour can make the chew denser. A fruit-acid coating can turn the whole thing snappy and tangy.

Black Liquorice

This is the version most people mean when they ask about liquorice. It’s dark, slightly bitter, sweet, and chewy. Good black liquorice usually has a clean pull when you bite it. It shouldn’t crumble like a cookie or stick to your teeth like soft caramel.

Red Liquorice

Red ropes borrow the shape of liquorice but not always the flavour logic. They’re usually fruit-flavoured chewy candy made with similar shaping methods. Strawberry, cherry, or mixed berry notes replace the herbal root taste. That’s why some packs say “twists” or “soft candy” instead of plain liquorice.

Salted And Filled Styles

Nordic-style salted liquorice adds ammonium chloride for a salty, sharp punch. Filled ropes wrap a soft centre inside the extruded shell. Layered candies can blend liquorice with coconut, vanilla, or fruit notes, which changes both flavour and chew.

Style	Main Flavour Base	Typical Texture
Black Liquorice	Licorice extract, anise, molasses	Dense, chewy, slightly elastic
Red Liquorice	Fruit flavourings and sweet syrups	Soft, stretchy, less herbal
Salted Liquorice	Licorice or anise plus ammonium chloride	Firm chew with a salty finish
Filled Ropes	Liquorice shell with fondant or cream centre	Chewy outside, soft middle
Laces And Wheels	Usually the same candy mass in thin extruded form	Lighter bite from the smaller profile

What Makers Watch Closely During Production

A good liquorice batch comes down to control. Candy makers keep a close eye on a few pressure points:

• Moisture: too high and the candy sweats or sticks; too low and it turns tough
• Temperature: this shapes chew, shine, and shelf stability
• Die shape: this decides rope thickness, tube width, and bite feel
• Resting time: fresh ropes need time to settle before packing
• Ingredient balance: sugar, syrup, flour, and flavour must pull in the same direction

That’s why liquorice from small craft makers can feel a little different from mass-market brands. The core process may match, yet the recipe ratio, drying time, and finishing touches can shift the result in a big way.

Can You Make Liquorice At Home

You can make a home version, though it won’t feel exactly like factory rope unless you have the right equipment. A stovetop method usually cooks sugar, syrup, flour or starch, butter, and flavouring into a thick paste. That paste is kneaded, rolled into ropes, and cut once it cools enough to handle.

Home batches are often softer, shorter-lived, and less springy. Factory lines have tighter control over solids, pressure, and drying. Still, homemade liquorice can taste fuller because you can push the molasses, anise, or root extract to suit your own palate.

What To Check Before You Buy

If you want real root flavour, scan the ingredient panel for licorice extract or licorice root. If you only see anise or natural flavour, the candy may still taste familiar, just not in the same way. If you avoid wheat, read the label with care, since classic recipes often use flour. Food labels must declare major allergens, and FoodSafety.gov’s allergen guidance lays out how those sources are shown on packs.

One more thing: black licorice isn’t just candy flavour chat. Large amounts can be rough on some adults because glycyrrhizin from real licorice can affect the body’s mineral balance. That won’t matter for the average small portion, but it’s a good reason to know whether your candy contains actual licorice extract.

So, how is liquorice made? In plain terms, it’s a cooked candy dough shaped into strands and dried to the right chew, with the flavour coming from licorice root, anise, or both. Once you know that, the bag in your hand starts to make more sense. You can tell why one rope tastes dark and earthy, why another tastes bright and sweet, and why texture says as much about the maker as flavour does.