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Why is liquorice called Spanish?
Ask for a bit of Spanish in parts of the north and you will get liquorice. Nobody is quite sure why, but there are two good stories.
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In parts of the north of England, liquorice has another name. Ask for Spanish, or a bit of Spanish, and you will be given liquorice. The name comes with not one but two stories.
Where it is called Spanish
Liquorice is colloquially known as Spanish in Cumbria, County Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Wiktionary records the word as a colloquial Northern England name for liquorice.
The monks of Rievaulx
The first story is that the name comes from monks. According to this account, Spanish monks grew liquorice root at Rievaulx Abbey, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire, and the name Spanish stuck to the plant and the sweet made from it. The sources describe this as what supposedly happened, so it is best treated as a story rather than proven history.
The Armada legend
The second story comes from Pontefract, the Yorkshire town most closely linked with liquorice. According to a local legend recorded by Wiktionary, twigs that washed up from the wreck of a Spanish Armada galleon turned out to be liquorice roots, and so liquorice became Spanish. It is a good tale, though it is a legend rather than history.
Liquorice and Pontefract
Whichever story you prefer, the link between liquorice and the north is real. Pontefract in Yorkshire is where liquorice mixed with sugar began to be used as a sweet in the modern way, and it is where Pontefract cakes were first made. The liquorice plant is no longer grown there, though in 2012 a local farmer announced he would reintroduce a liquorice crop, and the town still has a liquorice sweet industry and holds a liquorice festival every year. See Pontefract cakes.
What liquorice is
Liquorice is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family, native to West Asia, tropical Asia, North Africa and southern Europe. A sweet, aromatic flavouring is extracted from the root. The word liquorice comes, through Anglo French and Late Latin, from the Greek glykyrrhiza, meaning sweet root. In Italy, Spain and France the root itself is still harvested, washed, dried and chewed.
In many liquorice flavoured sweets the taste is boosted with aniseed oil, so the actual amount of liquorice is quite low. For a liquorice mixture, see Liquorice Allsorts, and for more regional sweet words, see what people call sweets around Britain.
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Questions and answers
Why do people call liquorice Spanish?
Nobody knows for certain. One story says Spanish monks grew liquorice root at Rievaulx Abbey, near Thirsk. Another, a Pontefract legend, says liquorice roots were found among wreckage from a ship of the Spanish Armada.
Where is liquorice called Spanish?
In the north of England, especially Cumbria, County Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Where does liquorice grow?
The liquorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, is native to West Asia, tropical Asia, North Africa and southern Europe. It was once grown at Pontefract in Yorkshire, though it is no longer grown there, and in 2012 a local farmer announced plans to bring back a liquorice crop.
Sources
- Liquorice, Wikipedia
- Spanish, Wiktionary
- Pontefract, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsPontefract cakesPontefract cakes are black liquorice discs from Yorkshire, stamped with a castle. They began as medicine and sealed Britain's first secret ballot box.
- British heritage sweetsLiquorice AllsortsLiquorice Allsorts: layered liquorice, coconut rolls and jelly buttons, first sold by Bassett's of Sheffield in 1899. What is in them, and how they began.
- British heritage sweetsWhy is sherbet called kali?In parts of northern England, sherbet is called kali. Where the word may come from, how it links to the word alkali, and how sherbet makes its fizz.
- British heritage sweetsWhat people call sweets around BritainSweets, sweeties, spice, kets or lollies? What you call sweets depends on where you grew up. Britain's regional words for sweets, and a few from abroad.
- History and originsThe history of liquorice in PontefractPontefract grew liquorice from at least the 1600s, turned it into medicine and then sweets, and still makes Pontefract cakes, though the fields have gone.
- British heritage sweetsOld fashioned sweets: the A to ZAn A to Z of old fashioned British sweets, from acid drops and aniseed balls to Wham bars and yellowman, with a line on each and a link to its full story.