Licorice--both the plant and the candy made from it--is sweet. Many fans suggest it is 50 times sweeter than table sugar, though some researchers have placed it at more than 150 times sweeter than sucrose.
Licorice is a hardy, herbaceous perennial growing up to 4 feet in height with pea-like, purple-blue and white flowers borne in short spikes in late summer followed by reddish-brown seed pods. It has large green leaves divided into oval leaflets.
Licorice has been used medicinally for 3,000 years and was recorded on Assyrian tablets and Egyptian papyri. The Latin name Glycyrrhiza glabra, comes from glykys meaning "sweet, and rhiza, "root. Traditionally, the dried root has been used for dry cough, sore throat, lung disorders and laryngitis.
