What is the origin of the term 'Spanish' as used, during my childhood in Yorkshire at least, to mean

What is the origin of the term 'Spanish' as used, during my childhood in Yorkshire at least, to mean liquorice? Is the term still used, and is it, or was it, only used in Yorkshire?

• LIQUORICE is a constituent of the root of the liquorice shrub which grows wild around the Mediterranean, including Spain. The Spanish root is sweet enough to be sucked in its raw state, whereas the root used in confectionery comes from the Eastern Mediterranean and has to be mixed with sugar and treacle to make it palatable. Hence the term 'Spanish' has been traditionally used to refer to sticks of liquorice root sweet enough to be sucked as they are. The connection with Yorkshire arises from the fact that the manufacture of liquorice confectionery has been largely concentrated there. In the the Middle Ages monks introduced the liquorice plant to the Pontefract area where the soil was particularly suitable.

  D. G. Johnson, ex-chairman of Bassett's (Liquorice Allsorts), Truro, Cornwall.

• 'SPANISH' was not confined to Yorkshire. I was using the term in Beaconsfield, Bucks, in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The substance came in strips, 'bootlaces' and sticks about four inches long and, in the first of these forms, also appeared with an aniseed taste and red in colour - 'red Spanish'. I doubt if either colour is still extant in this form, though I have seen 'liquorice' pipes with red on top for 'smoking'. We had those, too, but never called them 'Spanish'.

  Chris Scott, Derby.