When I lived in Scotland (exchange program year in University) I remember asking my roommates "what's blackcurrant?" And they looked at me like I had asked what an apple was.
We actually had to go search online and figure out why I'd never heard of them.
For me, it was Skittles! I traveled to the UK, bought some Skittles, and almost spit them out (blackcurrant instead of grape). Had to look up what it was. Still haven’t tried the real thing, only in candy form.
I had the reverse happen in the US (from Australia). Had no idea that the purple/black sweets would taste like grape. Expected flavours were currants, aniseed, or possibly blackberry.
We do have licorice candy, but it will be black, not purple, and it wouldn't be mixed with other flavors of candy, since a large number of people seem to hate it. (Sometimes mixed jellybeans will include licorice.)
Eating too much black licorice (50g/day over a couple of weeks) can have detrimental health consequences for some people. So, moderation. Also some people get palpitations from black licorice.
We actually had to go search online and figure out why I'd never heard of them.