“Everything has changed in the center of Seville, but here the position of palodu”, comments Manuel Ordóñez, one of the very few people who still sells licorice sticks in the Andalusian capital. According to his account, today there are only three left: his father, another man and himself. “20 or 30 years ago it was seen a lot at the doors of schools and in the suburbs, but it has been lost over time,” he explains. This street vendor maintains a tradition that has disappeared in many other cities in Spain, where this natural delicacy has been relegated to herbalists and spice shops.
Standing in front of a drop-down table where he offers licorice, in the central Plaza de la Campana, Ordóñez affirms that among his regular buyers there are several children who live in the area: “Those who study in schools around here know him , and some even come to take their little package”. With the variety of industrial trinkets that exist today, seeing a child chew or suck on this stick is extemporaneous, something more reserved perhaps for nostalgic parents or grandparents. However, Manuel assures that the sweetness of the dullness continues to conquer new generations.
whatEU c*** is?
Although there are those who use the term “root” to refer to this edible, the arazu -as they also call it in some parts of Andalusia- or regalissia cane -in the Valencian Community- is actually the rhizome of the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra. A concept that sounds like you gave it in Knowledge of the Environment eons ago, and that the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language defines in an understandable way in four words: “Horizontal and underground stem.”
As collected in A study Published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, the licorice stick grows “along the banks of rivers, streams and banks of ditches, sometimes coming from abandoned crops”. And its consumption is not recent: more than two thousand years ago, the Greek botanist Theophrastus He already spoke of its medicinal uses, according to a scientific article about this plant.
However, it is not very advisable to fill up on licorice until leaving the species in danger of extinction. This rhizome contains glycyrrhizin or glycyrrhizinic acid, a component with more properties than Florentino Pérez, but on which the pharmaceutical Gemma del Caño warns: “We should be careful in cases of hypertension.”
What does it have to do with the licorice candy?
This may be one of the most frequently asked questions. The classic black licorice comes from this edible stick, so it is obvious to think that today it is essential in its preparation. Yes and no: in the list of ingredients of some products, such as East de Miguelañez, appears as an “extract”, which, as Gemma del Caño explains, “is obtained from the rhizomes, purifying it and obtaining its aromas”. But it contains it in a very small proportion: only 2.9%, behind added sugars such as molasses or glucose-fructose syrup.
“This extract is used both in jelly beans that want to taste like licorice, and sometimes in those with anise, since it has a similar taste,” says del Caño. According to this expert in the food industry, with a small amount an intense and recognizable flavor is achieved thanks to the anethole and glycyrrhizin, “which has much sweeter than sugar (although they are different).” “Then you combine it with charcoal coloring -the same one used in canned squid in its ink- and voila”. The fact that we associate this sweet with black, as Gemma points out, is such a masterful move “like making the aroma of smoke together with glutamate taste like chips with ham”.
For gin and to quit smoking
The most common and widespread form of consumption is to chew or suck the licorice directly, already washed and with the scraped rind (although there are those who leave it to themselves). Thus, as with any industrial lollipop, you can taste the powerful sweet flavor provided by the aforementioned component.
But the palodú has other uses, of course. Aida Rodés, a Barcelonan on vacation in Seville, has bought Manuel a packet of licorice de palo to take away the anxiety of smoking on the return flight. A trick that he learned from his grandfather, who did not go to hypnosis sessions or fill his arm with patches: “I remember that when I no longer smoked cigars, I always had the palodul in my mouth.”
“There are people who buy it to add it to some cocktails or gin. They also take a lot of it to make infusions that relieve stomach upsets”, declares Manuel Ordóñez. “They have even come for him to make ice cream palodu”.
According to the study published by the Ministry of Agriculture, it is also used to make candies or to make ratafía, a typical liqueur from Catalonia. Likewise, this document also includes its consumption as a traditional remedy for halitosis, coughs, colds and colds and even to “remove appetite”.
Between the industry and the table
There are companies that, given the widespread use of this rhizome, produce licorice in large quantities. It is the case of Herbes del Molí, which has several production areas in Spain where they harvest around 500 tons of licorice, according to company data. “The main sectors to which we supply this product are herbalists, organic product stores and manufacturers of infusions at an international level”, declare from the commercial department.
Manuel, the protagonist at the beginning of this story, usually sells an average of 12 packets a day with six or seven licorices each if they are fine -at a euro and a half-, and four or five in the case of the thick ones (somewhat more expensive, at two euros). “Although there have been days that they have not bought me anything, and others that a single person has taken the entire table,” he says. And it is not there all year: from the beginning of autumn until the end of the April Fair. About seven months in which, according to Ordóñez, Christmas and Lent are the best times.
This 39-year-old from Seville has been offering liquorice that he grows himself for more than a decade. “The wild plant is still there, where it has always been, what is no longer there are people who collect it to sell it,” he explains. “For me it is a pride to continue the tradition. Now, the day I leave it, it will almost certainly disappear. palodu in Seville”, predicts Manuel. And with it, as in so many other Spanish cities, that image of children chewing a sweet from another time.
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