Kopalnioki (English: ''

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 liq ...

'', German: ''Lakritz Bonbons'') is a hard

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spli ...

n candy without filling, with a mint-

anise 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 t ...

taste, common since the end of the nineteenth-century.

Ingredients

The candy are produced from sugar,

oil,

hypericum ''Hypericum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Hypericaceae (formerly considered a subfamily of Clusiaceae). The genus has a nearly worldwide distribution, missing only from tropical lowlands, deserts and polar regions. Man ...

extract,

melissa Melissa is a female given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (''mélissa''), "bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (''meli''), "honey". In Hittite, ''melit'' signifies "honey". ''Melissa'' also refers to the plant ''M ...

and mint as well as colouring - carbo medicinalis.

Etymology

The name of the candy (''kopalnioki'', a variation of the dialectal Polish word for coal mines, ''kopalnie'' or coal miners, ''kopalnicy'') can be explained by the dark colour and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

chunk shape of the sweet. Other explanations state the candy was given to coal miners to protect their

throat In vertebrate anatomy, the throat is the front part of the neck, internally positioned in front of the vertebrae. It contains the pharynx and larynx. An important section of it is the epiglottis, separating the esophagus from the trachea (windpi ...

from

particles. Coal miners would often take a few pieces for their children and as such popularised the sweet.

References

{{Reflist Silesian cuisine Polish cuisine Polish confectionery

Ingredients

Etymology

See also

References