In the Middle Ages, liquorice root, the main ingredient for making liquorice, was cultivated in Bamberg. Fields of liquorice surrounded the Bamberg Cathedral, as seen on the farmers map from year 1500. The root was beside honey a popular sweetener and an important economic asset of the region, exported for example as far as to Venice. The farmer had to reap the liquorice strand unscathed, which requires a lot of manual work still today. This, since liquorice is a tap-rooted plant and the roots first dig vertically into the ground and then starts to branch off.
Painted pictures of liquorice decorate the ceiling in the Bamberg Cathedral and also the coat of arms of the city. The trade with liquorice altered since Italy, Spain, France and Iraq could get greater liquorice crops and offer better prices thanks to the advantageous climate in their countries. Cultivating liquorice in Bamberg came to an end and from now on the knowledge was only to be read and found in books.
One day in 2010, members of the ''Garden City Bamberg'' found their way back to their roots and founded the Bamberg Liquorice Company with the ambitious goal to start cultivating the long lost root again. Read all about how it all happened and what came to follow in this article "Bamberger Süßholz". kadó is a member of the Liquorice Society and therefor in title of being able to purchase some of the harvested glycyrrhiza. In this pretty little package you will find–after an about 500 years long slumber–the first Bamberger glycyrrhiza, available at kadó.
