You either love it or hate it.

As I type this the beagle is at my feet saying “please, please, please” to me. When Pippin was puppy he had the unfortunate habit of whining to beg for something. Food, toy, walk – whatever it was, he’d do a loud whine and then a puppy yip if was really serious about it. I trained him to give a soft ‘whoof’ of air instead. If you ask him to mind his manners (typically when he’s very excited about something) he’ll sit down and ask please very sweetly. A soft whoof through his beagle lips is ever so much more appealing than a whining yipyip.

The reason he’s on his best behavior and asking mom so sweetly for attention is two-fold. First, I went off and left him with those rotten kids for 3 whole days! How could I?! Don’t I know that he’s the sweetest most loving boy in the world and no one –but no one—could ever care for him as well as mom?! And then the second reason; I brought home licorice from the coast. Beagle shaped black licorice candies. The rest of my family can’t stand the odor of black licorice much less the taste of it; so it’s rather a selfish and lovely treat for me to get. I get it all to myself. Mostly. Begging beagle eyes and soft whoofs and the long tendrils of dog drool leaking out the side of his lips testify quite clearly that my Pippin is as in love with the black-as-tar confection as I am.

We went into a shop on Broadway in Seaside Oregon called Palapa Beach, just a block down from the hotel. The proprietress – a lovely dimpled lady named Ginger – shared her wares with us for the better part of an hour. She sold a great many things you’d expect to find in a gift shop at the beach; lotions, jewelry, postcards, collectables but the eye catcher is a 30 foot long candy counter. Nearly every gift oriented shop on the beach sells salt water taffy. Go to the beach, you buy salt water taffy. The ocean and this traditional confection go hand in hand to most tourists. Not so of Ginger’s shop. That’s not to say she didn’t have taffy, she most certainly did, in a little stand with maybe 25 flavors. Ppphhht. Nothing to write home about. She sells it, one supposes, because it’s expected. It is not her specialty.

She has over 60, yes m’dears you read correctly, sixty (!) varieties of licorice. Salt licorice, strawberry licorice, caramel coated licorice, hard licorice, soft licorice, chewy tar licorice, Scottie dog licorice, bat licorice, chalk licorice, cinnamon and black licorice, big fat squares of oily strong licorice and of course the beagle shaped licorice. I nearly lost my mind sampling (she is quite the candy pusher, is Ginger, handing over bits and pieces of everything she has with a smile and “if you like this, you’ll just loooovee this”) and gave over to the special pleasure that is had from that minty first bite and then the rich, saliva inducing unique flavor that is licorice, whether it’s from licorice root, star anise, fennel – I don’t care, gimme black licorice!!

So I came home with a pound and a half of black licorice. It’ll likely take me months to get through it all, even sharing with Pippin. No one else will eat it (oh darn!) but even with my strong desire for that black gold I’ll go very lightly, tip toeing through the stash, make it last and savor every evil bite.