2007oct05. There are no more licorice whips. Let me explain. Currently, America’s leading purveyor of licorice-based products, the American Licorice Company, produces several types of rope-like licorice products under the strange moniker “Red Vines.” There has been an internal war at ALC for awhile now concerning product nomenclature; currently the website seems to indicate that “Twists” is winning (“Original Red Twists” etc) and “Vines” is being engulfed (the package reads “Sugar Free Vines,” the header reads “Sugar Free Vines Strawberry Twists” etc). At one time, some of these “licorice twists” were called "licorice whips" (this makes this item entry doubly wrong – there’s no licorice in the strawberry variety and they’re no longer called “whips”). But we really know what licorice whips are, they’re those long pieces of licorice that hang on wooden poles at your local ole’ fashioned general store ain’t they now? Like the one that Smithers expertly handles during this cartoon segment? Like the ones Ernie disproportionally segments on a Sesame Street segment? No, no, and also no. Hold on to your butts, my internet friends. I’m going to show you a real licorice whip. History ... comes alive!!!
That’s right. A licorice whip was shaped like a whip, not a rope. The image comes from this page of the Confectioner’s Gazette from December 1922.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle. The other half? Trying to stitch this info into witty cocktail party chatter when you’re also half in the bag. “D’you know that lickrish ... lickrish ... where’z my drink?”
