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Why is Swedish candy so popular?
In 2024, Swedish sweets became a social media sensation, and shops outside Sweden struggled to keep up. Here is how the craze started, what fans love about Swedish sweets, and the Swedish habits behind them.
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Swedish sweets have been a Nordic institution for decades, but in 2024 they suddenly caught on far beyond Scandinavia. A few viral videos turned them into a worldwide craze, and shops struggled to keep them on the shelves.
How the craze began
The spark came in early 2024, when a New York marketer, Marygrace Graves, shared TikTok videos of her visits to BonBon, a Swedish sweet shop in Brooklyn run by three Swedish friends, and they went viral. The trend followed a craze the year before for candy salad videos, in which people layered colourful sweets into bowls. Swedish sweets, with their bright colours, odd shapes and satisfying textures, were perfect for the camera.
Demand soared. BonBon expanded its online ordering from about 50 orders at a time to more than 1,000, and had to fly in more stock from Sweden. By late 2024 there were reports of dwindling supplies in Sweden itself, with some Swedish shops putting local customers first. Scandinavians living in the UK turned to shops such as ScandiKitchen in London for their Saturday sweets.
What fans love
People praise Swedish sweets for:
- Textures and shapes. Discs, diamonds, skulls, hearts, twists and ropes, from soft foams to firm chews.
- Flavours. A balance of sweet, sour and salty that is less familiar to many British and American shoppers, including salty liquorice flavoured with ammonium chloride.
- Ingredients. Fans and sellers point to sugar rather than corn syrup, plant based colours, and some sweets made without gelatine.
BonBon's co founder Leo Schaltz summed up the pitch as "a little bit of an upscale candy, but it's affordable."
Those claims vary from brand to brand, and Swedish sweets are still sugar, so it is worth reading the ingredients rather than assuming.
A nation of sweet eaters
The craze has deep roots. Sweden has had the highest sweet consumption per person in the world since at least 2009, with about 18 kilograms of sweets per person per year as of 2014. A lot of it is bought loose, by weight, from candy walls in supermarkets, a system approved for ordinary shops in 1984.
Then there is lördagsgodis, Saturday sweets. Since a health recommendation in 1959, many Swedes have saved their sweets for Saturdays, turning a weekly bag of pick and mix into a family ritual. That tradition is part of what social media fell in love with: see what is Swedish pick and mix?
Swedish and British pick and mix
British pick and mix and Swedish lösgodis work the same way: choose your sweets, fill a bag and pay by weight: see why is pick and mix sold by weight? The difference is in the mix itself, which in Sweden often includes salty liquorice.
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Questions and answers
Why did Swedish candy go viral?
In early 2024, TikTok videos showing trips to BonBon, a New York sweet shop run by three Swedes, went viral. Viewers were drawn to the unfamiliar shapes, textures and flavours, and the shop had to expand its online ordering and fly in more stock from Sweden.
Is Swedish candy healthier?
Not really; it is still sugar. Fans and sellers praise Swedish sweets for using sugar rather than corn syrup and for plant based colours, and some are made without gelatine, but ingredients vary by brand, so check each one.
Where can you buy Swedish candy in the UK?
Scandinavian food shops, such as ScandiKitchen in London, sell Swedish sweets, and some sweet shops and online sellers offer Swedish style pick and mix. Check the ingredients, as recipes can differ from British ones.
Sources
- The Swedish candy obsession is real on TikTok, TODAY
- Swedish candy craze: from TikTok fame to a global sugar rush, Euro Weekly News
- Bulk confectionery, Wikipedia
- Lördagsgodis, Wikipedia
- Salty liquorice, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- Questions people askWhat is Swedish pick and mix?Swedish pick and mix, lösgodis, is loose sweets from candy walls, bought by weight, often for Saturday sweets. Sour gums and salty liquorice star.
- Questions people askWhy is pick and mix sold by weight?Because every scoop is different. Weighing is the fair way to price a mix of sweets of all sizes, and UK law says loose goods must be weighed in metric.
- Questions people askDo Americans have pick and mix?Yes, but they call it bulk or loose candy. Woolworth's five and dime stores sold it for much of the 20th century, and Swedish candy walls are spreading.
- Questions people askWhy do sour sweets make your mouth pucker?Sour sweets are coated in acids. Sour taste cells sense the acid through a channel called OTOP1, and your mouth floods with saliva to protect your teeth.
- Questions people askWhy is black liquorice black?Black liquorice gets its colour from liquorice root extract, which is thickened into dark blocks. Molasses deepens it, and some sweets add colouring.
- Questions people askWhy is chewing gum so hard to get off pavements?Gum bonds to pavements and shoe soles because they are made of similar polymers. Removing it needs steam and scrapers, and costs cities a fortune.