Fazer Candy in Australia

Tyrkisk Peber tastes salty, sharp and peppery, with a fruit-acid edge in the Hot & Sour version. In Australian terms these are hard boiled lollies with a salty liquorice powder centre, and the 150 g bag holds four varieties: Spicy Citrus, Pepper Liquorice, Chili Melon and Strawberry Surprise.

The bite is salmiak, which is ammonium chloride. Fazer’s own declared ingredient list puts it in order:

• Liquorice extract comes third, ahead of the salt

• Ammonium chloride, the salmiak, comes fourth

• Chilli, capsicum and capsaicin appear nowhere on it

That ordering is why the flavour reads as salty liquorice rather than plain salt, and why the heat in the name is not chilli heat. Chili Melon and Pepper Liquorice are flavour names printed on the wrappers, not declarations of what is inside. Expect a salt sting, not a burn.

The colour comes from anthocyanin extract, spirulina concentrate and turmeric oil extract.

Salmiak is the word Swedes and Finns use and salty liquorice is the one that travels in Australia. They mean the same salt. Fazer has sold Tyrkisk Peber since its launch in 1977, and the Hot & Sour bag is vegan and contains no gelatine.

If salty liquorice is what brought you here, Djungelvrål and Lakrisal hold the harder end of the same shelf, and the Nordic Super Salty mix pack puts several of them in one bag.

Tutti Frutti Original is Fazer’s soft fruit chew, and if salt liquorice isn’t for you, this is the Fazer bag that is. The fourth flavour in the bag is one Fazer has never named and simply calls Tutti Frutti.

Ours is the Original Natural Colours bag, so the colour comes from black carrot, safflower, sweet potato, spirulina and apple concentrates instead of added colourings. Fazer’s own words for it are made with natural colours, gelatin-free and suitable for vegans. It contains wheat.

The two bags sit at opposite ends of what Fazer makes:

Karl Fazer opened his first café in Helsinki in 1891, the family still owns the company, and it runs from Vantaa in Finland today. Fazer is Finnish, not Swedish, and a bag of Finnish salmiak is a close cousin of Swedish salt liquorice rather than the same thing. Swedish candy holds both.

We post Fazer anywhere in Australia from our own warehouse in Sundsvall, Sweden, so both bags reach Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and everywhere in between. Take one of each for a bag at either end of the Nordic range.