Trying to develop my palate a bit No.1

Just wanted to keep the content coming and since I'm not quite there with the Talisker review I thought I'd drop this one in. I was in the supermarket just now buying some smoked salmon to try with the Talisker and I saw these Norwegian sweets.

I'm not sure how to get the pictures side by side,  but I'll carry on. You can't see the name easily here, but it's Lakerol. They make loads of flavours of these little pastel things and I think these were two new ones that no one was interested in buying. They had a whole pallet of each flavour for 5 koner a packet. Nothing in Norway is as cheap as that so I think these must have been a bit of a flop. The usual flavours are liqorice, salty liquorice, cactus and various fruit flavours. I'm hoping if these are liquoricey type flavoured it might help me develop my palate a bit. I'm often a bit unsure whether I'm tasting liqorice, fennel, caraway, aniseed or whatever. That group of flavours seems to come up quite often too.

The white one here is called "Sparkling" and the black one is called "Black Diamond".Sounds very posh but tells you nothing about the flavour, which could be why they didn't sell. I like the packaging, it does look very sophisticated for a packet of sweets. I think the light coloured possibly looks more womany. They're like tiny cigarette boxes, which the part of me that's still ten years old thinks is cool.

Sparkling

Here they are. The colour didn't show up very well on the coffee table so I put them on the back of my latest phone bill. Going by the name and colour I suspect they were aiming for a kind of champagne flavour, but they got a generic fruity sweets flavour. Possibly a bit of an artificial grape flavour if you're willing to suspend your disbelief for a moment. Actually quite nice. I'm not sure what the full price was but I'm happy paying 5 kroners.

Black Diamond

These ones smell of liquorice so I was a bit more hopeful that these would help me develop my palate. They do taste of liquorice too but it's not very sweet. In fact quite bitter, especially as you swallow. They taste foul to me and I hope never to have to taste one again. Black diamond? Black off!

I realize "black off" is technically meaningless, but I'm sure you got what I meant.

News

I was sampling the Talisker with my nordic friend Mr. Hovstad last night and chatting about tasty things. It turns out he has a humidor full of rather expensive cigars he's willing to share. I also picked up a miniature bottle of Linie aquavit when I was out buying the Talisker. It's a kind of botanical infused vodka, aged in sherry casks as it's being sailed to Australia and back. The website has videos about it all and it's quite fascinating. There's a review of that on its way.