Spezzatina Rossa Licorice

This tastes just like sen-sen from the old days! It is exactly what I was looking for! I’ve ordered two tins, three times now. If you’re looking for that intense licorice flavor in a little tablet, I would highly recommend this brand.

Tasty Italian licorice

I love black licorice and these taste nothing like it. They taste like bitter, salty, old chemical medicine. NOPE

Some people are looking for a Sen Sen replacement. I've never had Sen Sen, so I have no idea if this fits the bill. I crave the taste of black licorice - the soft, high end stuff usually labeled "Australian style." I can go through a bag of licorice in a day and it's hundreds of calories. Or I can have two of these and have virtually no calories. This is a win. Be warned - it is a stronger flavor than the soft chewy candy, but it's definitely the flavor I'm thinking of when I think black licorice.

They taste pretty good but leave your tongue temporarily stained black.

This tin is so super cute. The licorice drops are just as described though they will take some getting used to. I expect they will help my throat at long events like a symphony or concert where you don't want to drink a lot of water because you don't want to have to leave to use the facilities.

This is directed to my fellow American licorice aficionados: I have been guzzling down licorice, anisette, and anise products since an early age due to Italian ancestry. Amarelli, Tabu, and a slew of other concentrated licorice products abound in the smoke shops and apothecaries of Mediterranean Europe. I cannot explain to an American user who has never tried these products the intensity and to some degree, complexity, of flavor that comes out of these spezzata/tronchetti. There is nothing like it on the American market at present. Sen Sen, no longer manufactured, may have been the closest analog. Many US stores carry Swedish and German licorice products now and while this is an improvement over the American junk, the northern Europeans are basically cooking up a wheat compound and flavoring it with licorice root or anise oil and adding salt. Not a bad product but no comparison to the Italian goodness. Amarelli pellets are pure, concentrated, licorice root. I am not sure how this stuff gets made but each pellet looks like shimmering, black/brown piece of glass or obsidian. The flavor is unreal... dense licorice, smoke, nuttiness and sweet. The Amarelli Rossa spezzatina are smaller than the Amarelli spezzata but they are both delicious. If you crave licorice, get this. You'll never eat a Twizzler again.

Seems old ... crumbles ... odd taste. Not at all like what I buy in Italy.