Liquorice root: traditional use

Practice within Chinese food and drink culture and its written classificatory systems.

Whose practice

Chinese formulaic practice, in which gancao — Glycyrrhiza uralensis — is among the most frequently included components of compound preparations

When

Long-established in the written formulary tradition

How it is made

Dried sliced root, decocted with other components rather than infused alone. It is a component of formulae far more often than a drink in itself.

What the tradition says it is for

Recorded in that tradition as the harmonising component of a formula — the part included to bring the others together — which is a stated role within a system rather than a purpose attached to the root on its own.

This is a case where translating the stated purpose out of its system destroys it. 'Harmonising' has a meaning inside the formulary tradition and no meaning outside it, and rendering it as a general benefit would be inventing a claim the tradition does not make.

Living practice. A description of something people do now, compiled from published accounts rather than from practice.

Practice across the Middle East and North Africa, where several of these plants are everyday hospitality rather than speciality goods.

Whose practice

Egyptian street and Ramadan practice, where erk sous is a cold drink sold by vendors from brass urns

When

Established; strongly associated with Ramadan

How it is made

Root steeped cold or hot, strained, and drunk cold and heavily foamed. Sold by the glass in the street rather than made at home.

What the tradition says it is for

Recorded as a cooling drink of the hot months and specifically as one of the drinks of Ramadan, alongside tamarind and carob.

The vendor with the urn and the brass cups is a recognisable street figure in Cairo, and the drink is a seasonal institution rather than a general beverage.

Living practice. A description of something people do now, compiled from published accounts rather than from practice.

Household and café practice across Europe, carried by habit rather than by a written system.

Whose practice

Northern European confectionery practice, principally Dutch, Nordic and British, where the extract goes into sweets rather than into a cup

When

From the nineteenth century in its industrial form

How it is made

Extract, boiled down and made into confectionery, frequently salted in the Dutch and Nordic versions. Not usually drunk.

What the tradition says it is for

Recorded as a confection, and in the older British practice as a chewed stick of the dried root itself.

Included because it is where most Europeans meet the flavour, and because it means a reader's expectation of liquorice is set by a sweet rather than by a root.

Living practice. A description of something people do now, compiled from published accounts rather than from practice.

The written herbal tradition of Europe — a chain of texts, which attests what authors recorded rather than independently attesting what people did.

Whose practice

The European written herbal and pharmacopoeial tradition, in which liquorice appears from the classical texts onward and later as a flavouring in pharmacy

When

From antiquity

How it is made

Decoction of the dried root, and a boiled-down extract.

What the tradition says it is for

Recorded in that literature in connection with the throat and the chest, and separately as the standard means of making other preparations palatable.

The second of those is the more consequential and the less remembered. Liquorice's place in pharmacy was substantially as a masking flavour, and that role is exactly the one it plays in a modern blend.

TeaHQ synthesis. TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.