Cushy seats, giant screens, and sound systems so powerful you can feel the bass rattling your ribcage make up a huge chunk of the moviegoing experience, but it’s never quite complete without a soda and a snack. In fact, movie theaters make more money on snacks than actual ticket sales. It has to be the right kind of concession too — something you can eat without taking your eyes off the screen, isn’t messy, and that doesn’t get you side-eyed by strangers because of how strong it smells. Even then, not all movie snacks are created equal; one, in particular, isn’t worth lining up at the concession stand for.
Chowhound took on the herculean task of tasting and ranking 17 different classic movie theater snacks you’ll find at most cinemas and sadly, Good & Plenty ended up being the worst of the lot. Despite being one of the United States’ longest-living branded candies, there wasn’t a lot of love for these licorice-flavored sweets. We found the anise flavor far too “biting and sharp,” while the texture of the candy was comparable “to a wadded-up piece of chewing gum.”
The one redeeming factor was its rather tempered sweetness; Good & Plenty isn’t so cloying that you can’t eat several pieces in one sitting, provided you actually like the taste of black licorice of course. Unfortunately, licorice itself is an incredibly divisive flavor — some of us find it virtually inedible, in fact — so you may be better off getting something else at the movies just to be safe.
What makes Good & Plenty so divisive in the first place?
There are several reasons why people might find Good & Plenty so repulsive, many of which stem from just how confusing the flavor of black licorice can be. For some, licorice tastes overwhelmingly sweet due to the presence of glycyrrhizin, a glycoside found in licorice root. Glycyrrhizin can be up to 50 times sweeter than sucrose, the sugar we’re most accustomed to. On the other hand, plenty of people think licorice is disgusting because of its bitter aftertaste. Certain phenolic compounds in licorice root extract, like liquiritigenin, activate the bitter taste receptors on our tongues. While Good & Plenty’s candy coating masks the bitterness for some, others may be more sensitive to these compounds, making it a fairly unpleasant snack.
There’s also a chance that the dislike for licorice candy is cultural. The flavor is often described as medicinal, which could be because we’re conditioned to equate the taste of licorice with actual medicine. Licorice has a long history of medicinal use dating back to Ancient Greece, where it was reportedly used to treat ulcers. In fact, the invention of modern licorice candy is attributed to George Dunhill, a chemist who added sugar to licorice lozenges to make them more palatable.
And yet, in countries like Denmark, where licorice is more embraced as a treat, the candy is so beloved that there are festivals celebrating it. Good & Plenty may not be a welcome sight at the movie theater, but it certainly has its place in the world.
