dropje, a dutch treat

have you ever tasted dropje; the dutch version of black licorice?  i dislike it, a lot.  stefan and kai?  they love it.  kai had his first taste when he wasn’t even three years old… behind my back.  when stefan’s parents visit, they always bring treats which invariably includes dropje for their son.  one day, during one of their visits, kai asked for some dropje and i dutifully said no, following my no candy rule. but he kept insisting and normally i wouldn’t give in (i’m strict that way) but i thought it tastes so foul he’ll just spit it out anyway.  guess what? he didn’t spit it out, he didn’t even flinch!  that’s when i knew he had a taste of it before... and the culprit was his oma (stefan’s mother).  now over to stefan...

 



stefan and kai in the holland shopping centre





every childhood is associated with some kind of candy.  these are usually unique to the country or region where you grow up.  in my case, growing up in holland the candies i ate in sometimes large quantities were licorice or 'dropjes' in dutch.  in north america, licorice is usually associated with red tubes of some kind of sweet substance that vaguely tastes like the real thing.  nothing could be farther removed from what i am used to however.

 

in holland, licorice comes in many shapes, sizes and flavors.  the average north american (including connie) hates the taste of black licorice.  thankfully, kai inherited my licorice eating genes so he loves the stuff.  incidentally, the dutch eat about 4.5 pounds of dropjes per year and the dropje market is worth more than $200 million!  it is available in any supermarket, in small baggies, boxes and bulk quantities if you like.  there are also candy stores solely dedicated to licorice, the 'drop-inn' is one of them, i used to visit the one in the local shopping centre of my home town of den bosch on a regular basis. the shop is lined with many bins containing the dozens of types of licorice.  double salt lozenges, sweet little domes (kokindjes), sweet farm animal shapes (boerderijdrop), tangy and salty little tubes (salmiak stokjes) and many, many more are to be found there.  you'd grab a little pointy paper bag, fill it up and pay by weight.  the trick was then to devour it but not eat so much you would get sick.  there would always be a small tin in my mother's kitchen containing licorice as well and it was very usual to have a few sweet and salty treats after dinner in lieu of dessert. 

 

in bc it is not overly hard to find dutch licorice.  i will always make a detour to a dutch store if i know i will be near one and stock up on the real thing.  the holland shopping centre is one such store located in new westminster, i go there when we visit wild rice.  this always makes me giddy with excitement, i will emerge from this shop clutching a small brown paper bag full of licorice and for a moment i am 12 years old again...

 

stefan