You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–16, which are based on Reading Passage 1.
Liquorice
Liquorice is a type of sweet snack with a semi-firm consistency, often black or red in colour, flavoured with the extract of the root of the liquorice plant. In recent years it has been marketed as a healthier snack food because it contains almost no fat per serving. It is one of the oldest forms of confectionery, and continues to be a popular product today.
Liquorice has a long history. In thirteenth century Europe, liquorice root extract was widely used to treat ailments such as coughs and sore throats. It seems likely that merchants who sold these remedies then combined it with honey to produce the first liquorice sweets. Later, in the fifteenth century, when sugar was more readily available, this was used instead of honey. Around this time, liquorice pastilles, which were made in rough moulds, were widely known. The kind of liquorice we eat today is understood to have originated in Holland at the start of the seventeenth century. It became one of the standard products when the confectionery industry developed in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, liquorice accounts for a significant portion of the global non-chocolate confectionery market.
In modern production, corn syrup (also known as glucose syrup) and sugar are the two primary sweeteners of liquorice. The sugar used is derived from beet and sugar cane. It is supplied as small, white crystals, which readily dissolve in water. Since the grade of the sugar is not critical to the consistency of the liquorice, a less refined type can be used, thereby reducing the cost of production. Corn syrup is a thick liquid made from maize (corn) starch. As well as providing sweetness, it keeps the product soft, inhibits sugar crystallisation, and prolongs the product’s shelf life by limiting the growth of microbes.
The ingredients are bound together with wheat flour. Wheat flour is primarily composed of starch and protein which, when combined with water, create a paste that can be stretched without breaking. These properties allow the liquorice mixture to be moulded in various ways, creating, for example, straws, shoelaces, twists and ribbons.
Many other ingredients may be incorporated into a liquorice recipe to produce the familiar confectionery. To give the flavour and colour, liquid liquorice extract is used, although since this is quite expensive, it is often diluted with aniseed oils. Liquid caramel may also be used for a similar purpose. Other natural flavours obtained from fruits, berries, honey, molasses, and maple sugar can also be used in liquorice. The strength of the different tastes can be increased by the addition of artificial flavours.
A conventional method of mass-producing liquorice begins by making what is known as a ‘slurry’. Batches of this are made by pouring the ingredients into stainless steel tanks, which are equipped with components for steam heating and water cooling. They also have mixers which sweep the sides of the tanks to stop the mixture burning as it is warmed. Once the slurry has passed quality tests, it can be pumped to the cooker.
The main objective of the cooking stage is to reduce the moisture content of the slurry. By using high-pressure cooking methods some manufacturers have cut the cooking time down to just a few minutes. Once the mixture has become a semi-solid paste, it goes through a device called an extruder. Here the paste is pushed out through a small hole as one long rope of liquorice onto a moving platform called a conveyor.
The liquorice then travels to the cutter. It is important that it travels slowly enough to cool to an appropriate temperature, thus allowing the product to harden. When the liquorice rope arrives at the cutter, it is cut into pieces of the required length.
From the cutter, the liquorice pieces are moved to the packaging equipment. As they go, they may be coated with a special glaze, giving the product an attractive shine. Once at the packaging stage, the liquorice pieces are stacked up. When enough pieces are in place, a plastic wrapper is placed around them, which is sealed at both ends. The package is moved to a stamping machine, which puts a code on it, and then multiple packages are put into individual boxes.