Salmiakki - Salty Liquorice
I was just looking up my salmiakki, you remember the Finnish salty liquorice candies that I mix with vodka? Well, it turns out that the salty taste is not salt. It is Ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) that makes it taste that salty. Up to eight percent in the hard candies. Looking for it I seemed to find two kinds of responses, natives and converts exulting it and Americans commenting on its strength and wondering if it was ok to ingest substance that when broken down make two parts, ammonia and a product that can eat steel, hydrochloric acid, neither of which I would want to ingest in their natural state. On a brighter note, I finally found a store in the USA that will mail order them, so I put in an order.
Cheers,
Beyond