Hi there,
Thanks for visiting our website! Here's a little about who we are and how I ended up owning a licorice store.
Licorice changed the course of my life in 2002, when I was 17 years old. I was spending the summer in Sweden, when my best friend's 6 year old cousin, Hanne, gave me my first taste of salty licorice. It was more of a dare than an act of politeness when she held out her hand offering a salt-coated licorice fish. And honestly, it was more of a desire to be embraced as a Swede than a craving for a mouth full of seawater that I graciously accepted. The flavor was sharp and befuddling, but I kept my poker face on, and before my brain could figure out if what I had in my mouth truly was edible or not, I declared, "I love it!" A lie? Maybe. But by the time we left Sweden, I had definitely acquired a taste for it, and when the plane landed, I was a full-on salt licorice enthusiast looking for a source. Lucky for me, in August of 2003, Licorice International opened a few blocks away from my house.
Licorice International was established in 1996 by a candy store owner, Larry Ring, in upper Manhattan. Larry had people from all over the world come into his shop asking for licorice from their home countries, so he decided to make a business of it and developed a mail order catalogue featuring 50 different licorices from 9 different countries. He ran the business out of his small apartment until February of 2002 when two best friends, Ardith and Elizabeth, purchased the business and moved it to Lincoln, NE where they developed the
licoriceinternational.com website and opened a small retail location in College View on Prescott Ave. I started working for Licorice in 2004, right before the company moved to a larger location on 8th St. in the Haymarket of Lincoln, where it became a downtown staple. In 2019, I purchased the business from Ardith and Elizabeth and traded the single large location for two smaller locations: our Prescott location (across the street from our original location in College View) and our Haymarket Location (one block away from our 8th St location).
We are a small, family owned business that values the relationships we build with our customers. We know our customers, and we know our products. Four out of six employees total (3 full-time and 3 part-time) have been with the company for 20 years, so we've had plenty of time to become licorice aficionados, and we're here to help. We are currently home to over 300 types of black licorice and candies from 15 countries, so it can get a little overwhelming! If have any questions, just give us a call (1-800-LICORICE) or send an email (customerservice@licoriceInternational.com), and be sure to stop by one of our shops if you're driving through Nebraska!
