Licorice sticks with sea salt

Liquorice dipped in dark chocolate and salted

Sea salt liquorice sticks from Lakritsfabriken are soft salty liquorice sticks from Helsingborg, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coarse sea salt flakes. Three layers in one bite – cocoa, salmiak, salt crystal. 45 g per pack.

Sea salt liquorice sticks are Swedish liquorice with chocolate, just as Martin Jörgensen makes it in Helsingborg: soft sticks of salty liquorice with 6% liquorice powder, drawn through dark couverture and sprinkled with sea salt while still damp. The chocolate provides cocoa bitterness, the salmiak adds the Nordic note, and the salt provides a little shock on top. Each stick is finger-long.

Cracks, melts, pulls together

First the chocolate shell cracks, then the liquorice underneath yields softly. The sea salt comes a moment later, hitting the center of the melt.

The dark chocolate here is not just a sugar coating, but a counterpart. Its bitterness keeps the sweetness of the liquorice mass in check, while the salmiak works against it from below. And then those coarse, irregular salt flakes that flash briefly between the teeth – salty, cocoa-bitter, anise-fresh, all in the same second.

The stick is as thick as a finger and so soft that you can bite through it without pulling. It is slightly flattened at the bottom because it cured on a tray there – a small piece of evidence that it is hand-dipped here rather than machine-coated.

The salt flakes are visibly sitting on top, sometimes densely scattered, sometimes individual. No two sticks look the same, and that is exactly what reveals the manual workmanship.

Cocoa bitter, salty, anise-fresh – the three keep each other in balance. If you take away one layer, the whole thing tips into sweetness.

With espresso after a meal

One stick with an espresso, that's all a dinner needs as a conclusion. Cocoa meets cocoa, and the salt makes both more alert.

It also pairs well with a bold red wine, a Barolo or a mature Bordeaux – the tannins and the salmiak have an interesting conversation with each other. Salt and bitter substances push each other forward, and the wine's fruit seems clearer afterward.

As a small gift, the sea salt liquorice sticks almost always work because the slim pack piques curiosity: not everyone in this country knows about liquorice with chocolate and salt. Served with coffee without comment, the slim sticks reliably ensure questions at the table.

On warm days, the refrigerator is the right place for the pack. Cold, the couverture cracks louder and the salt stands out even more clearly.

If you like it spicier, reach for the sticks with chili flakes. Things get milder with milk chocolate and liquorice granules, and the whole spectrum is in our liquorice selection.

It all started at a festival

On April 9, 2011, Martin Jörgensen introduced his liquorice for the first time at the liquorice festival in Stockholm. Sweden's first premium liquorice, says Martin about what he brought with him back then.

The trained chef and later sommelier had set his mind on the idea that liquorice could be more than mass-produced goods from a large factory. Soft instead of hard, real anise oil instead of flavoring, rice flour instead of wheat – plus combinations that didn't exist before. Chocolate and sea salt on salty liquorice were part of it from the very beginning.

Since 2019, the liquorice root for his liquorice has been grown on 8 hectares in Southern Sweden. From his own field to the dipped stick – almost no one else in Europe does that.

Today, his liquorice is in shops in London and Paris, goes to the USA and Germany, and the assortment includes over twenty different varieties. It all started with a booth at a festival. You can read the full portrait of the factory at Lakritsfabriken from Helsingborg.