Andy McGillivary, age 11, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

Where do we get licorice flavor?

Where do we get the delicious flavor? From the plant world, naturally. Licorice means "sweet root" and the delectable tangy flavor is created in the roots of about a dozen related plants. They are perennial herbs of the pea family and their generous roots are pliable strands that probe down a yard or more into the soil. Their ferny leaves resemble the foliage of pea plants and they bear pea type blossoms, usually tinted with pale violet blue.

When licorice plants are three years old, their roots are ready for harvesting. They are cleaned and boiled to extract the tangy juice. This is concentrated and perhaps dried to make the flavoring essence. Licorice can be coaxed to grow in a few parts of North America but, sad to say, we do not cultivate it as a major crop. Every year we import about 20,000 tons of the dried roots from Turkey and Italy, India and Spain. After the juice is extracted, the root fibers can be used to make that foamy fire extinguisher material.