Winter Selection Box

Lakrids Winter Selection Box. Eight varieties in eight compartments, 325 grams, ready to gift.

Lakrids Winter Selection Box is the large gift format from Lakrids by Bülow's winter collection: eight varieties of chocolate-coated licorice, each in its own compartment. No mixed tin, no advent calendar, no sampler set in tiny portions.

Lakrids Winter Selection Box is a licorice gift box from Lakrids by Bülow, featuring four classics and four winter varieties behind round windows in the black lid. For comparison: one tin contains one variety, the mixed tin contains three, all jumbled together. This box displays eight varieties side by side, each in its own compartment, each visible through a window before the lid is even opened. Copper, black, cream, light brown, red, dark cocoa, pale green, and milk brown: eight colors, eight flavors, and even a glance through the windows reveals which is which. Those who are not yet familiar with Lakrids by Bülow will find the most complete introduction here. Those who know the brand will find two varieties that are only available in winter.

Four classics, four winter varieties, one common core

The Winter Selection Box brings together four classics and four winter varieties. From the core range are A – The Original, C – Sour Strawberry, D – Salt & Caramel, and F – Dark Sea Salt; from the seasonal collection CLASSIC Caramel, Crispy Raspberry, Double Chocolate, and Cherry Sour. The classics cover the house's basic styles: A is milk chocolate with licorice, mild and smooth. C brings strawberry and tartness under a pale green coating. D combines salted caramel with sweetness. F is the darkest variety, dark chocolate with 70 percent cocoa and sea salt.

The seasonal varieties take it further: CLASSIC Caramel based on caramelized dulce chocolate with sea salt, Crispy Raspberry with raspberry powder in a crunchy coating, Double Chocolate with roasted cacao nibs, and Cherry Sour with dried cherry juice and malic acid. All eight share the same boiled strong licorice core, with two percent licorice extract and molasses as a binder. This common core holds the eight together, although the coatings range from milky-sweet to bitter-salty.

For people who dislike licorice, the box is not suitable despite the chocolate; the core is noticeable in every variety. And those looking for a large quantity of one favorite variety will find the portions too small: 325 grams across eight compartments means around 40 grams per variety, about eight to nine pieces.

Try compartment by compartment, from light to dark

The box is designed for comparison, and the order makes the difference. Start with A – The Original as a reference, move through CLASSIC Caramel and D – Salt & Caramel into the caramel flavors, then through Crispy Raspberry, C – Sour Strawberry, and Cherry Sour into the fruit and tartness. Double Chocolate and F – Dark Sea Salt form the dark finale. Those who start in reverse will hardly taste the lighter varieties afterward.

For an espresso after dinner, place the opened box on the table, and each guest takes from two or three compartments. With mulled wine, the cherry holds its own against the sweetness, with red wine F – Dark Sea Salt and Double Chocolate pair well, and with black tea with milk, the caramel. On a cheese platter, the box belongs alongside mild Brie and young goat cheese; with blue cheese, it is too sweet.

An idea for the second day of Christmas: Set up a dessert tasting, with one piece from each compartment per person on a plate, along with a small bowl of crème fraîche and a few walnuts. The guests guess the varieties, and the box provides the answer. Those who prefer it simpler can place the box next to a pot of coffee and let everyone choose for themselves; experience shows that Cherry Sour and CLASSIC Caramel are the first to be empty.

For beginners: Those who only want to know which variety suits them will find the small Winter Selection Box with four varieties more affordable. The large box is worth it if you want to try the classics as well or if more than two people are sitting at the table.

Why two varieties are only available in December

Lakrids by Bülow puts together the winter collection anew every year, and the Selection Box is its shop window. Johan Bülow began in 2007 in Svaneke on Bornholm with a copper cauldron and the goal of taking Danish licorice out of the corner of children's sweets. Today, it is boiled in Copenhagen. Classics A through F bear letters instead of names because they were numbered in the order of their creation; A was the very first variety.

Cherry Sour is the novelty of this season, the house's first cherry variety, approved by the Lakrids Lovers' taste panel with 4.6 out of 5 points. It and Crispy Raspberry are only available in the winter months. Those who discover one of the two for themselves should buy more in January, as they will not be available again until the next winter.

All eight varieties are made using the dragée process: The boiled core rotates in a drum while chocolate is applied in thin layers until the coating makes up about 60 percent of the piece. Four types of chocolate are used: dulce with at least 23 percent cocoa, white with 26, milk with 34, and dark with 70. Rice flour instead of wheat flour binds the cores, which is why they are gluten-free; the house does not use gelatin. Red and copper come from carmine, iron oxide, and beta-carotene, while the pale green of variety C comes from spirulina and turmeric. The cacao nibs on the Double Chocolate are broken, roasted bean pieces; since they are broken from whole beans, a piece of shell is occasionally found underneath. They give the darkest variety a dry, almost woody cocoa tone without additional sweetness.

The box that explains itself

As a gift, the Winter Selection Box needs neither wrapping nor explanation. The black box with pine branches, a candy cane, a cherry branch, and a large red bow is printed both inside and out. Once opened, it remains a picture on the table. The eight windows show what is inside in advance. The box fits well in the hand, does not slip in a bicycle basket, and fits in any mailbox for packages.

It works as a gift for an invitation, as a thank you to the team, and as a gift for people for whom you can no longer give anything else. Those who would prefer 24 individual little doors instead of a box will find them in the Lakrids Advent Calendar. When stored in a cool, dry place, the box will last well past Christmas without any loss of quality.

Eight varieties, eight windows, one box that no one needs to wrap.