kadó Memories

How do you find your clientele in pre-digital times? We made liquorice palatable to visitors at Berlin's weekly markets. For the first time, with the help of our employees, we went out on Saturdays to Winterfeldtmarkt (Schöneberg), Kollwitzplatz (Prenzlauer Berg) and Hackescher Markt (Mitte). Our liquorice offer found its customers, how would it be to be able to show the liquorice variety of Europe in a little liquorice shop ...

We found what we were looking for at Graefestrasse 75. A small shop was available for rent for a small amount of money, but it needed a lot of renovation. We signed a long-term contract to the landlord's delight, because he didn't give the "liquorice shop ??" much chance of success. We took care of the installation of a heating system and the first thing the gas fitter did was to turn off the gas in the house - because of leaking gas pipes in the whole house. That's how you get to know your neighbors - sorry, we're the new ones, here to stay!

Together with graduates of the University of Design and our friend and photographer Dirk Soboll, we worked on the corporate design of the soon-to-be liquorice shop. Colours, style, logo, interior design, old scales | cash register plays with "Tante Emma", but the liquorices are offered hygienically and transparently in specially designed display cases. The first liquorice shop in Germany now has a home and is called kadó. Borrowed from Dutch, where it is in turn derived from French, it stands for gift. And that's what we want to be for liquorice monsters and all those who want to become one.

The search for salted liquorice from Scandinavia led to the by-catch of this old gem. The hump-backed Volvo supplied the 3 kadó liquorice stalls at Berlin's weekly markets every Saturday and cruised us through liquoriceophile countries for further liquorice research, thank the EU!

I was nervous! The first pallet of liquorice from Holland drove up, the whole truck three times longer than our shop. 600 kg to stow and sell.

It was a good thing that the idea of a mail-order business came up during the founding brainstorming session. That's how the first of a total of 5 liquorice catalogues came into being, still with order cards to fill in. And in 1998, the fresh university graduates recommended that we get a URL address for the internet. "Eh?" Absolutely, because that would become the future of a mail order business. Print and online - black happiness, any questions?

In Finland, we had made liquorice appointments exactly on 21 June without thinking anything of it. We arrived in Helsinki and the party atmosphere could already be felt and seen. When it became difficult to meet our dates in person, it dawned on us: Mökki-time! Finland's big holidays. All Finns have disappeared to their summer home, Mökki, until September. We begrudge them that, but we didn't travel all the way here for that. And so we are served by the SEO of the house - really all the staff had already toasted the summer and escaped.

After all, we found salt liquorice in Denmark, Sweden and Finland and our assortment grew steadily. Now the pallets came to kadó from there too.

I thought I already knew my way around liquorice, but I was always surprised. In Scandinavia, there are a number of filled sherbet sweets with liquorice or salmiak or, as here, caramel with salmiak. And the combination also tastes very good. In Scandinavia, they seem to be a bit more experimental when it comes to liquorice recipes.

Liquorice fudge is a liquorice caramel: tuff, soft, gentle, vanilla, liquorice, crumbly. A popular liquorice star from the kadó range, which has already made it onto the cinema screen. Whenever a few chunks of hashish appear in a film scene. Liquorice makes it possible.

Liquorice is also often sprinkled. This can be sugar or salt, as here with the black metal guitars. An aromatic variety, soft and spicy. In general, salt liquorice mostly comes from coastal countries. Perhaps because of the harsh maritime climate, it is also very popular there.

And bang - five years are up. The business start-up leave now demands a decision for life. Shall we continue? Yes, we do. A good reason to celebrate the occasion with a nice party again. kadó liquorice shop, even the SFB, which will be called RBB after the merger in 2003, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg...