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If you're in the market to buy gourmet licorice, then you want to make sure that you know what you're getting. The array of flavors (everything from fruit-flavored licorice to root beer licorice to pina colada licorice), and the dozens of online retailers and manufacturers can be convenient, but it can also make it hard to choose.

When shopping for gourmet licorice in a candy store, it's easy to know the quality of the licorice you're considering—just ask for a free sample. One taste and you'll recognize the unforgettable rich, fragrant, complex flavor of real licorice root extract. When buying gourmet licorice online, you can choose from hundreds of manufacturers and countless flavors, but no one has yet discovered how to do a virtual taste-test.

So, what should you look for in gourmet licorice? First, the original black licorice candies were made with the extract of licorice root, and the best red licorice and black licorice candies are still made the same way.

Especially among the fruit-flavored licorice product lines, it is normal to see food colorings and even some artificial flavors on the ingredient list. Still, the complexity of real licorice flavor is set off very nicely by natural fruit flavorings, so if you can find fruit-flavored licorice made with real fruit extracts, it's well worth a try.

Old fashioned black licorice got its dark color in large part from molasses syrup. To allow licorice to be made in the glossy, jewel-toned ropes of every color, many makers have added clear corn syrup into the recipe. This is perfectly acceptable in gourmet licorice. However, when buying black licorice, it's worth a try to see if you can find some that is still made with molasses, because the wild-honey taste of molasses is a perfect complement to real licorice extract.

Real gourmet licorice is like any other truly good thing in life—once you've tried it, only the best will do!