From cookie dough licorice to licorice with lemon cheesecake flavor: we tested Venco’s new licorice candies
Strange flavor combinations: they’re nothing new to us. From bizarre chip flavors to crazy Easter eggs, we’ve seen it all before. The quintessentially Dutch brand Venco is now throwing its hat into the (licorice) ring too. The licorice manufacturer has come up with 3 new bags featuring some pretty striking flavors: cookie dough, brownie and kletskop; lemon cheesecake, caramel macchiato and vanilla latte; and honey, caramel and banana. I put them to the test. Is this utterly disgusting, or will it become our new guilty pleasure?
Let’s start on a positive note. The licorice candies are gluten-free and free from artificial additives, according to the packaging. And there’s something good to say about the packaging itself, too. It’s a greener ‘plant pack’, meaning up to 50% of the packaging is made from plant-based material. Sugar cane, in this case. Good job, Venco. I hope I’ll be doing just as well during the taste test.
Cookie dough, brownie and kletskop licorice
I can’t contain my curiosity and tear open the ‘cookie bag’ first: Zacht & Rijk. I HAVE to know what licorice with cookie dough, brownie and kletskop flavors tastes like. To get straight to the point: the smell coming from the bag makes me gag. It’s an incredibly sweet smell that screams it’s going to make me nauseous. I gag for a moment, but then get over it and take the first candies from the bag. The bag says that the darkest color is the brownie-flavored licorice. I pick that one out immediately. I bite off just the brownie piece. And, is it brownie? Um… Well, no. I don’t taste anything that even remotely resembles chocolate. Not the second time either. And not the third time, when I eat the candy whole in one go. I don’t like this one. Actually, it’s pretty gross. Chemical, and I simply can’t make out what it tastes like. Next.
Just not a match together
I have to dig around quite a bit to find the cookie dough and kletskop flavors. Eventually I find a lighter-colored candy. That’s the cookie dough licorice. Look, now I can taste what it promises. A little vanilla-like, soft… Cookie dough, in other words. Combined with the licorice, which tastes slightly salty compared with the wine gum piece, it gives me another slight error message. I just don’t think they work together. The kletskop licorice also tastes quite a lot like a cookie. And it should (according to the ingredients list) taste like peanuts too. I can’t detect that. Just a lot of chemical junk.
This one gets a fail too. And my God, I feel so nauseous. Already. I’m struggling, while I can normally polish off a bag of licorice in no time.
Lemon cheesecake, caramel macchiato and vanilla latte
On to the next bag: Vol & Romig. Am I looking forward to it? No. Certainly not when I open the bag and an even fouler smell comes out than from bag 1. Well, here goes. I start with the lemon cheesecake. Do you know what it tastes like? A Strepsils throat lozenge. Still, I dare say this is the nicest licorice candy so far. That freshness does have something going for it. I can feel my nausea subside for a very brief moment.
Until I taste the vanilla latte. I’m telling you… this is absolutely HORRIBLE. I know I have to taste it again for a fairer verdict, but every fiber of my being resists. That bitter note from what I assume is the coffee flavor… It’s simply not nice. The caramel macchiato is somewhat better: softer in flavor and not as bitter as the vanilla latte. But no. Once again, it’s just too chemical. Yuck.
Caramel, banana and honey
I’ve been putting off the final taste test. It genuinely feels as though I’m torturing my organs from the inside. I’m not exaggerating when I say that by now I want to curl up on the couch under a blanket and wait for the nausea to subside. But I’m a fighter. And the final bag—Zoet & Verfijnd—should, in my opinion, be the least intense. We know licorice with honey, and caramel and banana sound less chemical and intense than cookie dough and vanilla latte.
My fighting spirit takes a serious hit as soon as I open the bag. There it is again, that disgusting chemical smell. I almost throw in the towel. But I carry on. Candy 1: the honey licorice. Fortunately, this is simply honey licorice as we know it. So nothing new. I’m glad I’m not throwing up, but Venco: is this really something new? Candy 2 is the caramel licorice. I can indeed taste a hint of caramel and, would you believe it, I actually quite like it. Mild in flavor and not overwhelmingly sweet. Finally, the banana licorice. I find it a milder version of Apenkop. But think about it: how much do you feel like eating Apenkop candies when you’re extremely nauseous? Zero. None. My self-respect and self-pity grow by the minute.
Drop it, Venco
I was starving when I started this taste test. Great strategy, I thought, because that would mean I could eat a lot more. It says enough that I was literally nauseous after just one candy. I admit it: some of the candies are actually okay. The lemon cheesecake licorice and the caramel candy, for example. But overall, you can simply leave these bags gathering dust on the shelf. It’s all just so horrendously chemical. You might as well take a bite out of a plastic toy.
And that’s while the packaging says ‘free from artificial additives’… Venco, as far as I’m concerned, you can drop these flavors. And if you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to lie on the couch under a blanket (with a bucket beside me).
Still want to risk this fiasco? You can take a bag home for € 2.59. Don’t complain afterward: I warned you.
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