Licorice Fennel Tea

Licorice fennel tea blends licorice root, whose sweetness comes from glycyrrhizin rather than sugar, with fennel seed, the dried fruit of Foeniculum vulgare. The cup is sweet, warm and aniseed-scented. Best in a covered mug at 95°C, six to eight minutes.

Origin & Story

Licorice tea tastes sweet without any sugar in it. The root of Glycyrrhiza glabra holds a compound, glycyrrhizin, that is thirty to fifty times sweeter than sucrose, and the sweetness arrives slowly and lingers, which is why a few pieces of root can sweeten a whole pot.

The best-known licorice in Italy comes from Calabria, where Liquirizia di Calabria has protected designation of origin status, reserved for licorice from the Cordara variety of Glycyrrhiza glabra, grown or wild in the region. It was the first PDO granted for two products from the same plant, the root and its extract.

Fennel brings the rest of the flavor. The seed is the dried fruit of Foeniculum vulgare, and its aniseed note comes from anethole, the aromatic compound it shares with anise and star anise, which is why all of them are described as licorice-flavored. Licorice gives the sweetness and fennel the warm, green anise.

Fennel has long been an after-meal seed. In India, roasted or candy-coated fennel seeds, mukhwas, are passed around at the end of a meal as a mouth freshener, and a cup of fennel and licorice tea plays the same role of ending a meal, in a warmer form.

Steep 3 g of crushed licorice and fennel in 240 ml of water at 95°C for six to eight minutes in a covered mug.

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