Aniseed it, and you don't...

Mango and green apple liquorice from Darrell Lea

Darrell Lea's soft-eating liquorice is always a firm favourite. Forget the Dutch-style salty liquorice, the gaudy liquorice all-sort, the tarted-up liquorice bullet. Darrell Lea liquorice straight from the packet is manna from heaven; soft, pliable and sweet with aniseed.

So we were intrigued and excited when Darrell Lea released two new flavours: mango, and green apple.

Opening the waxy bags released great wafts of fruity tanginess, but alas, the taste sensation did not eventuate. It was all smell and no substance. The anticipatory foreplay lured us in, but when it came to crunch time, it couldn't come up with the goods.

The texture's fairly similar to the aniseed-style but both the mango and the green apple tasted rather synthetic (I know--and I should be surprised?) and a little too tart for my liking.

Sorry Mr Lea. We prefer the original. Product diversification is all well and good, but sometimes the original will always remain the best.

6 Comments:

At 7/02/2005 1:45 am, eat stuff said…

I agree the original Darrel lea rocks.. I didnt know they made the other flavours... I think the problem is that aniseed flavour is easy and it doesnt have to be artifical where as apple and mango can never live up to the expectaions... at least I dont need to try them to figure that out though :) thanks AG
At 7/02/2005 3:32 pm, Kelly said…

I've seen these too (and eaten the apple one). I thought it was OK, but it begs the question, can it really be called liquorice if it's not aniseed flavoured? I tend to think that it's just liquorice *shaped* :)
At 7/02/2005 5:16 pm, Anonymous said…

ooh i tried the apple licorice and was UNpleasantly surprised with the artificial taste... the display stand looked so pretty but alas it was such a letdown...
At 7/02/2005 6:23 pm, pinkcocoa said…

ohh very colourful and eye-cathcing pic here! To be honest I never really like liquorice, probably I just dont like the aniseed taste. So you are saying there is no liquorice flavour in these green apple and mango liquorice. Doesnt it make them more like green apple or mango chewies?
At 7/05/2005 1:05 pm, Niki said…

Yeah, I think licorice has to have an aniseed taste, even if you don't like that taste. Otherwise it's just sweet, chewy lolly.
Although, having said that I do like the raspberry flavoured licorise they sell at Coles supermarkets. It tastes like there's a touch of aniseed flavour in it, and it has a most wonderful putty-like texture. That's the only flavoured licorice I go for.
At 11/16/2010 12:05 am, Spencer @ Moo-Lolly-Bar said…

I'm not generally a fan of licorice but I don't mind the Ricci's Mango or Apple Licorice. Its pretty morish.