[Sca-cooks] licorice, was food on St Val's day

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I remember the little black Sen-sens - not only anise flavored (real 
low on my flavor list), but also tasted rather soapy to me. Obviously 
not a favorite of mine. However, they have some re-creationist 
cachet, as they are mentioned in the rap piece from "The Music Man", 
you know, "We got Trouble, right here in River City..." They were 
"popular" around the turn of the last century to take the smell of 
tobacco or alcohol off one's breath, supposedly.

I don't mind the little oval hard candies around an anise seed - i 
can suck the candy and spit the seed out. I have had rose, jasmine, 
and lavender, at the very least, if not some others, maybe orange 
blossom... The tins are always much better than the little "breath 
fresheners", but they are a grand affectation if one does historic 
costume events that cover the 19th and early 20th centuries, or even 
if one puts on certain aesthetic airs in the modern world (like 
Vintage Goths).

Now i just carry the Altoids Ginger wafers (they are truly curiously 
strong - unlike their mints which i find curiously weak) or Zingo's, 
which are little caffeinated mint wafers, which kept me going on the 
long drive from Merzouga (almost on the eastern border of Morocco), 
across a stony desert plain with *no* road, over the Atlas Mountains 
in the ice and snow with about 1-1/2 lanes, no guard rail, a straight 
drop down the side, no shoulder, and loaded semis coming right at 
you, all the way to Essaouira on the Western coast of Morocco...

I am also old enough to remember the flat black licorice ribbons 
wrapped around the hard red candy that looked like phonograph 
records... Cute, like the candy cigarettes, made of stuff rather like 
Necco wafers (which i also find unpleasant in flavor)...

Anahita
non-smoker, non-black-"licorice"-candy eater