London drops (''Lontoon rakeet'' in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

) are a type of liquorice candy sold in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

first by Chymos, later by

Fazer Fazer () is one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food industry. The company was founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian confectionery" in central Helsinki. Today, it employs over ten thousand people across Finland, Sweden, R ...

. London drops are oblong-shaped sweets about 2 cm long and 5 mm thick. They consist of a soft

liquorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The liqu ...

-flavoured core inside a hard, sugary

aniseed Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and tar ...

-flavoured coating. They are coloured in

pastel colour A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

s, coming in white, pale purple and pale yellow. In the 1980s, British actor Bob Grant appeared on Finnish television in advertisement for London drops, saying the famous

advertisement slogan ''"Niin Lontoon raetta, niin Lontoon raetta"''.Leinonen, Pauliina
Suomalaisen karkkimainoksen tähdellä oli hirvittävä kohtalo huippuvuosien jälkeen – elämä päättyi julmalla tavalla
''

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is ''Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

'' 6 November 2021. Accessed on 8 November 2021.

Good & Plenty Good & Plenty is a brand of licorice candy. The candy is a narrow cylinder of sweet black licorice, coated in a hard candy shell to form a capsule shape. The pieces are colored bright pink and white and presented in a purple box or bag. History G ...

is a similar candy available in the United States. Similar sweets are known as liquorice

comfit Comfits are confectionery consisting of dried fruits, nuts, seeds or spices coated with sugar candy, often through sugar panning. Almond comfits (also known as "sugared almonds" or "Jordan almonds") in a muslin bag or other decorative container ...

s in the United Kingdom, and a liquorice-flavoured sweet called Torpedoes made by

Haribo Haribo ( ) is a German confectionery company founded by Hans Riegel Sr.. It began in Kessenich, Bonn, Germany. The name "Haribo" is a syllabic abbreviation formed from Hans Riegel Bonn. The company created the first gummy candy in 1960 in the for ...

appears to be similar.

References

Brand name confectionery Finnish confectionery Liquorice (confectionery) Swedish confectionery Fazer {{sweden-cuisine-stub