When I was a kid we used to buy licorice sticks at the drugstore to chew on. It was an actual stick with bark on it. Not candy. Found out later in life that it was actually a root. You can still get it. Also used to go down by the creek where the red birch grew and had a twig of that in our mouth most of the day just scouting around. Too much of that used to give me nose bleeds.
