Swedish Sweets & Candy
Sweden has one of Europe's most distinctive sweet traditions — from the weekly ritual of lördagsgodis (Saturday candy) to the green marzipan dome of the prinsesstårta (princess cake), from the hand-twisted peppermint sticks of Gränna to the nation's unapologetic chocolate obsession. Swedish sweets are less about sugar-soaked excess and more about ritual, nostalgia, and the pleasurable discipline of lagom — even in indulgence.
The tradition stuck. Today, Swedish families visit the lösgodis (pick-and-mix) section of supermarkets every Saturday, filling bags from vast bulk candy displays. The pick-and-mix selection is extraordinary: gummy bears, sour worms, chocolate-covered everything, liquorice in 20 varieties, foam sweets, sour skulls, and much more. Swedish supermarkets devote entire aisles to lösgodis, and the ritual of filling your Saturday bag is a childhood fixture.
The health implications of the Vipeholm study are now viewed with discomfort — the experiments were conducted on institutionalised people with intellectual disabilities who could not consent — but the candy tradition it spawned has become a genuinely positive aspect of Swedish food culture: teaching children that treats are special, not constant.
Chokladboll — The Chocolate Ball
The chokladboll (chocolate ball) — also sometimes called havreboll (oat ball) or negerboll (a historical name now widely abandoned as offensive) — is Sweden's most popular no-bake sweet. Made from oats, cocoa, sugar, butter, coffee, and a splash of vanilla, the mixture is rolled into balls, coated in pearl sugar or desiccated coconut, and chilled. That is it.
The chokladboll is everywhere: cafés, school canteens, petrol stations, home kitchens, office fika tables. It requires no oven, takes 15 minutes to make, and satisfies in a way that fancier pastries sometimes do not. It is fika democracy made edible.
Prinsesstårta — Princess Cake
The prinsesstårta (princess cake) is Sweden's most iconic celebration cake — layers of sponge, custard, and whipped cream, encased in a thin sheet of green-tinted marzipan and capped with a dusted marzipan rose. It is rich, dramatic, and unmistakable.
The cake was created in the 1930s by Jenny Åkerström, a cooking teacher to the Swedish princesses. It was originally called grön tårta (green cake) before being renamed in honour of the royal pupils. Green is the canonical colour, but bakeries now offer pink (for birthdays), yellow (for Easter), and white (for weddings) versions. Sweden even has a prinsesstårtans dag (Princess Cake Day) in late September.
Polkagris — Gränna's Peppermint Sticks
Polkagris (peppermint candy cane) is a red-and-white striped peppermint stick that has been hand-twisted in the small town of Gränna, on the shores of Lake Vättern, since 1859. Amalia Eriksson, a young widow, obtained the first licence to produce polkagris, and the town has been synonymous with the candy ever since.
Today, a dozen small workshops in Gränna produce polkagris by hand, and visitors can watch the process through shop windows — the hot sugar pulled and twisted into gleaming sticks. The original flavour is peppermint, but modern varieties include chocolate, saffron, lingonberry, and elderflower.
Marabou Chocolate
Sweden's relationship with chocolate centres on Marabou (Marabou), a brand founded in Stockholm in 1916 and now the country's dominant chocolate producer (owned by Mondelēz International). The classic Marabou Mjölkchoklad (milk chocolate) bar — sweet, creamy, and unmistakably Swedish — is a pantry staple.
Other beloved Marabou varieties include Daim (crunchy almond caramel coated in chocolate, now sold globally), Plopp (caramel-filled chocolate), Japp (nougat and caramel), and Aladdin — the boxed chocolate assortment that appears at every Swedish Christmas.
Other Swedish Sweet Traditions
Dammsugare — The Vacuum Cleaner
Dammsugare (vacuum cleaner) is a cylindrical pastry made from cake crumbs, butter, and cocoa, wrapped in green marzipan with the ends dipped in chocolate. Its nickname comes from its supposed resemblance to an old-fashioned vacuum cleaner pipe. It is an exercise in Swedish bakery pragmatism — originally a way to use up stale cake — elevated to a beloved classic.
Swedish Waffles
Våfflor (waffles) are heart-shaped in Sweden, cooked in a special heart-patterned iron and served with whipped cream and jam (strawberry or cloudberry). Waffle Day (Våffeldagen (Waffle Day)) falls on 25 March — a date that originated from a misunderstanding of Vårfrudagen (Our Lady's Day), which sounds like "waffle day" in Swedish.
Liquorice
Swedes love liquorice — salmiak (salt liquorice, flavoured with ammonium chloride) in particular divides the world into those who love it and those who recoil. Swedish pick-and-mix includes soft, hard, sweet, salty, and super-salty liquorice varieties. It is an acquired taste that Scandinavians acquire very early.
Fika Pastries Roundup
Beyond the
- Mazarin (almond tart) — Small, buttery almond cakes with a thin icing
- Hallongrotta (raspberry cave) — Thumbprint cookies with raspberry jam
- Drömmar (dream cookies) — Light, crumbly ammonium carbonate cookies
- Kladdkaka (sticky chocolate cake) — A deliberately under-baked chocolate cake, gooey inside, served cold with cream
Continue: Visit Fika to explore the coffee ritual where these sweets belong, or discover Bread & Baking for the savoury side. For regional sweet specialties, see Regional Specialties.