On our last trip to A'dam my husband and I were shopping in a lingere store and this lovely Dutch woman offered candy to my husband. He didn't want to be rude since they had been so helpful so he took it. She was watching as he took it from her to ensure that the little morsel made it to his mouth. Mind you - she was sucking on one of these too...

He made one of those faces like "MMMmmMMMM - Yum, Gee Thanks!" and then secretly spit it out. It tasted like an herbal, licorice, dirt drop. Kinda like Ricola spliced with black jelly beans and dirt. I know this because she actually gave him two and he was so kind as to share the second with me. Mine ended up being spat on the ground (which I would NEVER normally do) with horror.

The point of this is to ask - What in God's green Earth did we eat?!

Sounds like you were given what is called drop, a non-alchoholic jagermeisteresque liquorice candy that the good folks of the Netherlands seem to adore. Its not harmful, unless melted down and used for a pigment in jailhouse tattooing. Definitley an acquired taste to say the least.

peace -fb

It's actually called a "dropje" (pronounced "drop-ia", accent on first syllable)[spelling corrected by the invisible editor]. As fb says, it is a favourite treat amongst Dutch people, but I also think it tastes vile. You did right to accept, as it would be a breach of ettiquite not to seem to enjoy it.

ST

right on - thanks ya'll!

Dropjes....and also Hopjes! If you've been feening for that particular flavour, here's a website that will allow you to satiate your craving from afar:

http://www.dutchcandystore.com/index.php/cPath/22

You know, I kind of like Dutch candies! When in Rome I guess... ;-)

~uber.

Craving them? God no!!! I need to learn how to say I am diabetic in Dutch next time to get out of eating it again!! :)

Starr, repeat after me:

"Ik heb diabetes"

You are now in the clear! :)

~Uber.

Weird old coot that I am, I like the Dutch licorice. It reminds me of the real licorice that I used to get as a kid. I usually bring back 2 or 3 kilos to share with friends and family. Zouts and dubble zouts are a special treat.

I was told that some 50,000 kilos of the stuff is sold daily in the Netherlands????

Enjoy, Oldster

"Drop" is one of the two things that dutch crave for when abroad (the other one is cheese, of course). Drop comes in many tastes and is our favourite candy, much to the surprise of foreigners, q.e.d. The salted variety is good for your sore throat when you've caught a cold. There also a laurel-tasted kind which has the same effect. Drop is as dutch as wooden clogs and windmills.
K.

Beautiful is Uberchef's Dutch Candystore , hey , ever tried a "Negerzoen" (kiss of a negro) , my wife likes them (LOL).
The basic ingredient for drop is zoethout (translated as sweetwood) , it's the root of a plant, the boil of it is the basic substantion for drop, added with salt or sugar, starch etc. In the old days we could buy 5 cts. zoethout at the candystore, just to lick and gnaw at .....
And don't forget , stroopwafels are also typical Dutch .....!

Our favorite description of "drops", and this was from a Dutch person was a combination of black ink and ear wax.

Texan

Strange country: their sweets taste like earwax and their cheese like plastic. The only upside is to increase the chances of these "delights" reaching the far flung (and far-between) corners of the dutch empire tasting no worse than when they left Clogland.

Apologies for bumping this topic - haven't been here for a while and am catching up on the musings & rantings of more regular visitors. Seriously though, I simply cannot understand why the cheese counter of my local Albert Heijn (for those lucky enough to not know it's a major supermarket chain here) is full of 100's of yellow balls of plastic that all tastes the same regardless of whether it is "old" or "young" or has cumin seeds or large holes or ... or ... urgh.

Ah but the real question is why would any sane person expect to find 'good' cheese at an Albert Heijn? With so many excellent, high quality cheese shops, there is no reason to suffer with the AH brands.

DELETED

High quality cheese shops - not where I live. And, I have yet to find a cheese shop in NL - decent or not - that even pretends to sell a decent Cheshire.