Whether you’re a lifelong fan or someone trying to understand the appeal, here’s the full story behind Liquorice Allsorts, what’s actually in them, and where to pick up a bag or two.
Liquorice Allsorts are one of those sweets that split a room. Half the people in it will reach for them without hesitation, the other half will actively avoid them and wonder who keeps buying them. The answer is: a lot of people. Liquorice Allsorts have been one of the UK’s best selling bagged sweets for over a century and they’re still shifting in serious numbers today.
The History of Liquorice Allsorts
How They Were Invented
The origin story of Liquorice Allsorts is one of the more entertaining ones in British confectionery. In 1899, a salesman named Charlie Thompson was visiting a buyer for a sweet company in Leicester. He was carrying a tray of samples and accidentally dropped the lot, mixing all the different liquorice varieties together on the floor. The buyer, rather than being put off, was intrigued by the mix and placed an order for the assortment as it landed. The product launched shortly after.
The company was Bassett’s, and they’ve been making Liquorice Allsorts ever since. Bassett’s is now owned by Mondelez, the same company behind Cadbury, but the Allsorts recipe has stayed largely consistent across more than 120 years of production.
Bertie Bassett
The brand’s mascot, Bertie Bassett, is a figure made entirely from Liquorice Allsorts pieces stacked together. He’s been around since 1929 and is one of the most recognisable sweet mascots in British confectionery history. The design hasn’t changed much and neither has the appeal: Bertie Bassett is immediately associated with the product in a way very few mascots manage after nearly a century.
What’s Actually in Liquorice Allsorts
The Different Pieces
An Allsorts bag contains several distinct types of sweet, each with a different combination of liquorice and sugar paste layers. The main varieties you’ll find in a standard bag include the layered sandwiches of liquorice and pink or yellow coconut-dusted fondant, the round liquorice tubes with a coloured sugar paste centre, the flat round discs dusted in hundreds and thousands, and the larger round bobbly pieces that are pure liquorice with a sugar coating.
Not everyone’s favourite piece is the same. The coconut-dusted layers tend to divide opinion as sharply as liquorice itself does. The hundreds and thousands discs are consistently the most fought-over piece in a shared bag.
What Does Liquorice Actually Taste Like?
Liquorice has a flavour that’s hard to describe to someone who hasn’t had it. It’s aniseed-adjacent but distinct from aniseed, with a slightly bitter, herbal quality underneath the sweetness. The flavour comes from the root of the Glycyrrhiza glabra plant, which has been used in food and medicine for thousands of years. In Liquorice Allsorts the liquorice flavour is balanced against sweet fondant and sugar layers, which softens it considerably compared to pure liquorice. Browse the full liquorice flavour range if you want to find options across the intensity spectrum.
The Different Brands and Formats
Maynards Bassetts
The original and most widely recognised. Maynards Liquorice Allsorts are the standard bag format most people grew up with, and a box of 10 individual Maynards bags is a solid option for sharing or stocking up. The recipe is the benchmark everything else gets compared against.
Fudge Factory
The Fudge Factory Liquorice Allsorts 2kg bag is for serious buyers. Two kilograms of Allsorts is a significant quantity, and at that volume it works out considerably cheaper per unit than buying individual bags. Good for sweet tables, pick n mix setups, or anyone who goes through them at a rate that makes smaller bags impractical.
Pells Gift Jar
The Pells Liquorice Allsorts 2.25kg gift jar is a different format entirely. The jar presentation makes it a genuinely good gift option for anyone who loves the sweet, and 2.25kg means it’ll last a decent while. It also looks good on a desk or shelf in a way a paper bag doesn’t.
Are Liquorice Allsorts Good for You?
The Liquorice Debate
Liquorice root has a long history of use in herbal medicine and is sometimes cited as having anti-inflammatory properties. In the quantities present in a bag of Allsorts, though, you’re eating a sweet rather than a supplement. The sugar content is substantial and nobody’s recommending Liquorice Allsorts as a health food.
There is one genuine warning worth mentioning: consuming very large amounts of liquorice regularly can affect blood pressure due to a compound called glycyrrhizin. This is only a concern with genuinely excessive consumption over a long period, not from eating a bag of Allsorts. But it’s the reason you’ll sometimes see health guidance around liquorice specifically, which you don’t see with other sweets.
Are Liquorice Allsorts Vegan?
Standard Maynards Liquorice Allsorts are not suitable for vegans. They contain beeswax and shellac, both of which are animal-derived. Some other brands produce vegan-friendly liquorice allsorts, so if this matters to you, check individual product pages before buying. The vegan sweets section has clearly labelled options across the range.
Are Liquorice Allsorts Gluten Free?
Maynards Liquorice Allsorts contain wheat flour, which means they’re not suitable for people with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance. Check individual product pages for alternatives. The gluten free sweets section has options specifically labelled safe.
Liquorice Allsorts for Events and Gifting
Sweet Tables and Pick n Mix
Liquorice Allsorts work well on a sweet table because the colour variety is genuinely good. The mix of pinks, yellows, blacks and whites looks appealing in a jar or bowl, and they hold their shape well. They’re also a crowd divider, which sounds like a negative but actually means the people who love them will go back repeatedly while the people who don’t will leave more for everyone else.
For a larger pick n mix setup, buying the 2kg Fudge Factory bag gives you enough volume to fill a display jar and keep it topped up through an event without constant restocking. Pair them with something from the retro sweets range and you’ve got a proper classic British sweet selection going.
As a Gift
The Pells gift jar is the obvious choice here. A 2.25kg jar of Liquorice Allsorts is a thoughtful gift for anyone who loves the sweet, and it looks good enough that you don’t need to wrap it. Free UK delivery on all orders over £20 makes it easy to send directly.
Liquorice Allsorts have been around since 1899 because the combination works. The mix of textures, the balance of liquorice and sugar, the variety within one bag: it adds up to something that people keep coming back to. If you haven’t had them in a while, they’re worth revisiting.
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Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about Liquorice Allsorts