Traditional licorice candy isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but it certainly has an enduring presence whether tucked inside the nightstand of a grandparent or happily gobbled up by boisterous teens in the back of a dark movie theater.

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Remember the giddy excitement that welled up inside the pit of your stomach when, upon completing a marathon Trick-or-Treating run, it was finally time to dump the contents of your bloated pillowcase all over the floor?

Amid random carpet crumbs and tufts of dog fur, the next crucial step would then be to sort, categorize, and ultimately pawn off all candy rejects upon easily swayed siblings and casual acquaintances who failed to grasp the unspoken yet inarguable confection hierarchy that still exists to this very day.

In my post-Halloween candy sorting circle, anyone with a shred of sugar sense knew that scoring willing Good & Plenty adoptees was an exercise in sheer futility.

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I bought these at a flea market for only 69 cents, while in search of a Leonardo Pez Dispenser to complete my collection of the new TMNT dispensers. They were on the counter in a jar and it was a total impulse buy simply because it said “Raspberry” on the package. I wasn’t even sure exactly what it was when I bought it. It’s called a Raspberry Bar, but it also says it is licorice. But the ingredients say it’s mostly molasses. In fact, there are only 4 ingredients total, Molasses, wheat flour, citric acid, and natural flavor.

The bar itself is a super dark red, almost black even. The bar is about the length of a Snickers, though much skinnier. The candy is also a little sticky to the touch, I assume from their use of molasses. The taste wasn’t exactly full on raspberry, as I expected it to be. The taste definitely reminded me of something, and my friend who tried it agreed.

It took a while, but we finally hit on it – dried apricots. It tastes like dried apricots and raspberries. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I thought the candy was pretty good actually – it was just a little different than I was expecting. The Panda Licorice company is located in Finland, but their candy appears to be fairly easy to get in stores or online. Amazon carries the Raspberry and a few other flavors of Panda Licorice.

• Panda Licorice webpage (in English)
• Panda Licorice at Amazon
• CandyBlog.net’s review of Panda Bars

candy, sweets, licorice, finland, raspberry, molasses, panda