Katjesdrop ("little cats licorice") is sweet, soft licorice moulded in the shape of a sitting cat. It is one of the most familiar Dutch drops and a typical first drop for children: mild, chewy and without the sharp salmiak finish of salted drop. The word is used generically in Dutch for cat-shaped sweet drop, but it is also closely tied to two brands, the Dutch Katja and the German Katjes.
Origins
The name is older than either modern brand. Local-history research in Groningen has traced newspaper advertisements from the 1880s to the 1900s in which the firm N. Kater & Co. sold "Katjesdrop" from round tins to shopkeepers, and complained that its product was being imitated everywhere. Why a cat is not documented; a simple, compact silhouette that survives moulding and tumbling is the usual explanation.
Katja and Katjes
Today's best-known katjesdrop comes from the Fassin family business. Its Dutch arm, now Royal Fassin, began in 1911 in 's-Heerenberg as a trading company in pest-control products and turned entirely to confectionery in the 1960s, eventually under the Katja brand. In 1950 the business was divided between two Fassin brothers: Klaus Fassin led the German company in Emmerich am Rhein, which became Katjes, while Helmut Fassin continued production in the Netherlands. So Katja (Dutch) and Katjes (German) are related but separate companies — and both sell cat-shaped licorice. The Dutch firm was renamed Royal Fassin in 2005 and received the royal predicate in 2010.
What it is made of
Katjesdrop is a sweet drop: licorice extract, sugar and glucose syrup, a binder and flavouring, with little or no salmiak. According to Royal Fassin's history, both the Dutch and German companies replaced animal gelatine with plant-based alternatives during the 2010s, which made their products suitable for vegetarians; as always, check the current label.
Looking for Wikipedia?
There is no separate Wikipedia article on katjesdrop. The Dutch-language article on Royal Fassin covers the Katja brand and the family history, and the general article on drop lists katjesdrop among the common kinds.