Types of Swedish Candy

Walk into any Swedish supermarket and you will encounter a candy landscape unlike anything in most other countries. The sheer variety of types — sweet licorice, salty licorice, foam candy in every shape, sour-coated gummies, and dozens of chocolate formats — reflects a confectionery culture built over more than a century of production and preference. Understanding the six major categories of Swedish candy helps make sense of why Swedish candy shelves look and taste so different from candy sections elsewhere in the world.

1. Swedish Licorice (Lakrits)

Swedish licorice — lakrits — is one of the most central and distinctive categories in Swedish candy. Unlike the soft, sweet-only licorice familiar to Americans or British candy lovers, Swedish licorice spans a wide spectrum from mildly sweet to intensely flavored, with textures ranging from soft and chewy to hard and brittle.

Swedish licorice is flavored with licorice root extract (from the Glycyrrhiza glabra plant), which provides the characteristic earthy, slightly anise-like sweetness. Premium Swedish lakrits products often emphasize the natural licorice root flavor over artificial additives. Top brands include Malaco, Cloetta, and various specialty producers.

In lösgodis bins, licorice pieces appear as soft pillows, hard drops, tubes, braids, and novelty shapes. Licorice is also commonly combined with other flavors — chocolate-covered licorice, fruit-flavored licorice, and salt-coated varieties are all popular.

2. Salty Licorice (Salmiakki)

Salty licorice — salmiakki in Swedish — is the most polarizing category in Swedish candy and arguably the most distinctively Scandinavian. Made from standard licorice with the addition of ammonium chloride (salmiak), salty licorice has a complex savory-sweet-salty taste with a faint ammonia note that surprises most non-Scandinavian first-timers.

Swedes — like Finns, Danes, and Norwegians — grow up with salmiakki and develop a genuine appreciation for its unusual flavor profile. It is one of the few candy flavors with no real equivalent elsewhere in the world, making it a defining feature of Scandinavian confectionery identity. Products range from lightly salty to intensely concentrated.

The name "salmiak" derives from sal ammoniac, the old chemical name for ammonium chloride. For those new to salty licorice, it is best approached as a flavor to be learned gradually rather than consumed in quantity at first taste.

3. Foam Candy (Skumgodis)

Foam candy — skumgodis in Swedish — occupies a unique place in Swedish candy culture. Made from a whipped mixture of sugar, glucose syrup, and gelatin (or pectin in vegan versions), foam candy has an airy, light texture unlike any other candy type.

The most famous foam candy product in Sweden is Ahlgrens Bilar — car-shaped pink, red, and white foam candies that are Sweden's best-selling candy product. Beyond cars, foam candy comes in skulls, bears, flowers, strawberries, and hundreds of other shapes. The foam texture creates a distinctive melt-in-the-mouth experience.

Skumgodis is beloved across all age groups in Sweden and is central to the lösgodis pick-and-mix tradition. Many foam candy varieties are now available in vegan (pectin-based) formulations, making skumgodis one of the most accessible Swedish candy categories for plant-based eaters.

4. Sour Candy

Sour candy is one of the fastest-growing categories in Swedish lösgodis, particularly popular among teenagers and young adults. Swedish sour candy (surt godis) typically consists of gummy or chewy pieces coated with crystallized citric acid, malic acid, or tartaric acid for an intense sour hit that gradually gives way to sweetness.

Popular sour candy forms include sour worms, sour strips/ribbons, sour skulls, and sour-coated licorice. The combination of sour-sweet is a classic flavor profile in Swedish candy, and the intensity of sourness in some Swedish products can be surprisingly strong compared to typical American sour candy.

5. Pick-and-Mix (Lösgodis)

Pick-and-mix — lösgodis — is not a candy type in itself, but rather the dominant Swedish candy retail format that encompasses all the above categories. The lösgodis system allows shoppers to create completely customized candy bags from dozens of open bins, priced by weight.

The cultural significance of lösgodis in Sweden cannot be overstated. It is the primary vehicle for the lördagsgodis tradition, the social ritual most associated with candy buying, and the format that drives both variety and discovery in Swedish candy consumption. Swedish lösgodis walls are more extensive and better-stocked than pick-and-mix sections in almost any other country.

6. Swedish Chocolate

Swedish chocolate — primarily dominated by Marabou — has its own distinctive character. Swedish milk chocolate tends to be creamier and slightly less sweet than Belgian or Swiss equivalents, with a smooth texture that has made it Sweden's definitive comfort food chocolate. Beyond Marabou, Daim, Polly, and various imported brands fill the chocolate category.

Swedish chocolate culture also encompasses the Aladdin assortment box — the classic Christmas gift chocolate — and a tradition of small chocolate pieces in lösgodis bins. Chocolate-coated licorice and chocolate foam candy pieces add complexity to the category.

Swedish Candy Types at a Glance