It started with box 11. It traveled in the heat from the Dark Overlord Media. It traveled far enough for the black and white licorice taffy to escape the confines of the plastic bag. And once free, it was hungry.

The attack made me wonder what licorice was exactly (besides a disgusting candy).

It turns out that licorice is a sweetener, which is why so many candies have it as a primary ingredient. And apparently there numerous types of licorice, providing a choice for what tastes sweetest to the eater. Licorice comes from Europe and the Middle East, with different locations specializing in either fresh, or dried, or extract.

But the coolest thing about licorice is that you can make split pea soup with it or peanut butter sandwiches.

All right, that would actually be the most unappetizing soup and sandwich combo ever. But licorice is a legume, like peas and peanuts. It’s categorized by the pods for the seeds and not taste.

And if you did happen to order that licorice soup and sandwich combo, you could eat a piece of licorice to help ease your stomach, because the chemicals in licorice are key ingredients in that type of medicine.

But if you’re allergic to licorice, don’t try the medicine. The doctor websites also seem to think that perhaps the allergy could be to legumes in general, so if you have a peanut allergy, that’s something to think about. With the proliferation of little kids with peanut allergies, there should be pretty good anecdotal evidence about licorice allergies sometime soon (but that’s probably just my cynical side talking).

Sometimes when  you win a prize, you learn more than you ever wanted to about a candy you don’t like to eat.