Tyrkisk peber

Tyrkisk peber (Danish for "Turkish pepper", often referred to as Turkinpippuri in Finnish, Türkisch Pfeffer in German, Tyrkisk pepper in Norwegian and Turkisk peppar in Swedish) is a salty liquorice candy flavoured with salmiac (ammonium chloride), produced by the Finnish company Fazer and popular in Northern Europe. Tyrkisk peber was originally invented by Per Fjelsten in 1976 in Jutland, Denmark and was originally made by the Danish company Perelly, before the company was acquired by Fazer.

Tyrkisk peber comes in varying flavours

Original tyrkisk peber

The basic variant is a large, hollow round shell both coated and filled with ammonium chloride powder. It is sold in dark blue, flame-decorated bags. The tyrkisk peber product family has later expanded to include the "Hot & Sour" (a milder variant of the traditional design, produced in four different flavours; Spicy Citrus, Pepper Liquorice, Chilli Melon and Strawberry Surprise) and "Bonfire" (soft, much milder candies) bagged variants, as well as lollipops and filled liquorice. There has also been a chili-flavoured version and a strongly licorice-flavoured version with less of the ammonium chloride and peppercorn flavouring, but these have since been discontinued. However, the licorice-flavoured variant can still be found as one of the flavours in the “Hot & Sour” bags. In Northern Europe there are competing different versions of salmiac-based candy, including pulverpadder (frog shaped candies), rustne søm and spejderhagl.

Tyrkisk peber is used to make the Finnish cocktail Salmiakki Koskenkorva and in similar Scandinavian cocktails. When Perelly manufactured tyrkisk peber, it was also available as powder which was often used to make a cocktail known in Denmark as sorte svin, små grå, hot shot or lakridsshot, in Sweden as lakritsshot, and in Norway as tyrker, små grå or lakrisshot.

Tyrkisk peber is hygroscopic, and if left in an unsealed bag it will absorb water from the air and stick together after a few days.