Liquorice

[Eastender]

Hi, being brought up in the Eastend of London, does anyone know why we call liquorice, Spanish.  Could never work out why.  Hope someone can tell me. cheers

[Artemis]

Haven't a clue, but I was brought up in Manchester and we also called it Spanish. 

[Quizmonster]

Pontefract - earlier pronounced Pumfrit - was the centre of the liquorice trade in England in the 19th century and hence the liquorice sweet called Pomfret or Pontefract cake. There was also a childish treat called "Spanish wood", which was basically just raw liquorice-plant root, so-called because it was imported from Spain, that youngsters sucked. Given the Yorkshire connection, it is not surprising that - just across the Pennines - Manchester folk would use the same terminology. Presumably, if Londoners used it, too, it must have spread throughout the land.

[darkstar]

this wood you talk about.  In Liverpool we use to eat a wood/root type thing,  we called it I think   sticky lice could this be the same

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a website entitled 'Merseytalk'. If you scroll down the page, Darkstar, you will see 'sticky lice' listed as licorice root. So, yes, it would seem to be precisely the same.