Not Chocolate

We have a sharing table at work, where we leave used books or other items for coworkers to take, or food items to share. The table happens to be right outside my office, which makes it hard to avoid sampling the sweets and other yummy things left out to share.

At first I walked right by those cute little diamond shaped bits of dark brown candy. But as the afternoon wore on, my resistance wore down. Finally, late in the day, I popped a few of these little gems into my mouth.

They weren’t chocolate. They were REALLY NOT CHOCOLATE! More like, salty licorice. Exceedingly strong salty licorice, and quite startling when expecting chocolate.

A coworker who was passing by commented that not everyone likes ammonium chloride. Uh-what? He says, yeah, they’re coated in it. And it’s a bit acidic.

First of all, that sounds scary. Secondly, how do you know that? Do you read German? (We are guessing this is German.)

Turns out he just knew about this kind of candy. This particular coworker, who is younger than my children, knows everything. At christmas time we had a “history of santa” trivia game and he blew us all away. Like, how does he even know these things? I do get some second-hand credit for having hired this genius.

Anyway, if you like knowing things too, here’s some relevant wiki entries. And just remember, not everything that looks like chocolate, actually is chocolate.

Ammonium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula NH₄Cl and a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammoniumchloride are mildly acidic. Sal ammoniac is a name of the natural, mineralogical form of ammonium chloride. The mineral is commonly formed on burning coal dumps from condensation of coal-derived gases. It is also found around some types of volcanic vents. It is mainly used as fertilizer and a flavouring agent in some types of liquorice. It is the product from the reaction of hydrochloric acid and ammonia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_liquorice

Salty liquorice, salmiak liquorice or salmiac liquorice, is a variety of liquorice flavoured with the ingredient “salmiak salt” (sal ammoniac; ammonium chloride), and is a common confectionery found in the Nordic countries, Benelux, and northern Germany.^[1]Salmiak salt gives salty liquorice an astringent, salty taste^[2] (hence the name); the flavour can be considered akin to tannins—a characteristic of red wines, which adds both bitterness and astringency to the flavour. Consuming salmiak liquorice can stimulate either a savoury or unsavoury palate and response.^[1] Anise oil can also be an additional main ingredient in salty liquorice. Extra salty liquorice is additionally coated with salmiak salt or salmiak powder, or sometimes table salt.

Salty liquorice candy and pastilles are almost always black or very dark brown and can range from soft candy to hard pastille variety, and sometimes hard brittle. The other colours used are white and variants of grey. Salty liquorice or salmiak is also used as a flavouring in other products, such as ice creams, syrups, chewing gum and alcoholic beverages.