About Lakrisal

I just got back from a weekend in Iceland with Mrs Snappy and some friends. What an amazing place. Incredible sites to see and things to eat. A weekend is just not enough time and we only explored a tiny corner of the country. Perhaps we will return once more to explore that strange land.

Having spent our whole day out in the Icelandic countryside (volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, fault lines etc…) when we were ready to hit the shops on Sunday they were mostly closed so I didn’t get to buy anything much that was typically Icelandic except for these superb little roll of sweets called Lakrisal.

Lakrisal are small round lozenges that are an Icelandic mix of liquorice and salt and hit just the right spot for me. I say ‘for me’ because, as it turns out, this uniquely Scandinavian flavour doesn’t tickle everyone’s palate. I only bought a small roll of about 15 lozenges, so upon my return I hit the internet to see if I could get some more of these little Icelandic wonders and it seems that they have their own little following online. Some people are fascinated with them.

Rachel Maddow at MSNBC has written extensively about Lakrisal starting here…

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/06/14/12224351-i-dont-think-this-is-meant-to-be-candy?lite

and she has even persuaded Nirvana bass lord Krist Novoselic to try one too.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/07/06/12603584-novoselic-vs-lakrisal-round-1?lite

Lots of people are pitting their loved ones against Lakrisal to see if they can cope with it’s awesome flavour with quite frankly worrying results, mostly on the part of the parent in this case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDmJvieJ_Zc

Krist took the investigation one step further. Ammonium Chloride, a key ingredient in Lakrisal, is also used to  help clear the calcium deposits from his goats’ urethras (!), so he wanted to see if the goats would eat Lakrisal. Apparently they don’t like them much.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/24/13457155-novoselic-vs-lakrisal-round-2?lite

Personally, I love Lakrisal and am on the hunt for a regular supply. Salty liquorice rocks and the fact that not that many people around these parts like it, it means there’s more for me.