Darrell Lea – Mixed Fruit Soft Australian Licorice

Licorice as a candy often bets a bad rap. While I do love my some licorice, I totally see why people wince or cringe at the mere word. The term gets kind of confusing these days, as I see a lot of snacks brand themselves as licorice, but I have to wonder if I personally consider them licorice. I feel like most licorice candy these days is just to denote a certain style of candy, usually wheat based. Traditional licorice has licorice extract or root in it, but I guess it’s evolved into what it is today because people liked the general idea and texture, but the black licorice flavour was just not a big hit as the candy became more of a kid thing.

I’m not too familiar with how Australian licorice became associated with the soft, cylindrical shaped licorice that seems so much more common these days. The one thing I can say about this style of licorice is that it’s much easier to eat more of in one sitting. Until you start feeling bloated on account of the oil that’s used to keep them slick and not stick together or clump into a giant mess.

The bag comes with three flavours, strawberry, mango and green apple. A potential plus for some snackers out there is that these are vegan friendly, and are plant based, so no gelatin. Unfortunately if you can’t handle gluten, look elsewhere since this is a wheat based candy, and the first ingredient is wheat flour.

Right off the bat, these things smell really good. They have such a strong smell that I’m fairly certain if someone opened a pouch of these, you’d be able to smell it from fifteen feet away. They smell quite fruity, and I am almost certain you’d be able to guess which flavour is which from smell alone.

I’m not sure if it’s how each one is flavoured, but the texture is actually slightly different between each flavour. The softest is green apple, and it’s my favourite in terms of texture. It’s got a very soft almost slightly fudgy texture. When I think of soft licorice, this is exactly what I imagine it would be if it was fresh off the conveyor belt. The flavour is a fairly muted apple from what I’m used to. Green apple tends to be the overpowering flavour, but that’s not the case here and I appreciate that. If you want that kick in the mouth green apple flavour though, look elsewhere.

Mango is a bit firmer than green apple, and reminds me more of a fruit snack, and while not as soft as green apple its nowhere near as plastic in texture as generic dollar store licorice. If the green apple was a 3 on the softness scale, with 1 being the softest, mango would be closer to a 5. A good middle of the road.The flavour reminds me a lot of a thick, pulpy mango juice. Flavour wise I’d say this is the strongest, and my favourite. It reminds me of those mango desserts that use Alfonso mangoes, which I quite enjoy.

Strawberry is the firmest, and reminds me the most of traditional licorice which I guess people consider firm or hard. It’s not exactly soft, but it’s not quite as plastic as more generic brands like Twizzlers. On the firmness scale, this is about a 7. It’s got a decent strawberry flavour, but isn’t different enough from generic strawberry to set itself apart.

Between the green apple and mango, I’m loving this bag. Strawberry is kind of middle ground, where I could take it or leave it. If the bag was just green apple and mango, I’d probably prefer that. It’s hard to say which of the two I enjoy better, since green apple has a better texture when I want soft licorice, while mango has the superior flavour. I’m fairly certain Darrell Lea sells those as individual flavours though, so depending on my mood I might just pick one or the other.