Swedish Candy

Swedish candy, or godis, runs from milk chocolate to the gummies, sour sweets, foam shapes and salty licorice that Swedes scoop from bins and buy by weight. The custom of saving it for Saturdays, called lördagsgodis, grew out of Swedish dental research carried out between 1946 and 1951.

How to choose Swedish Candy

  • Sweet or sour. Sour pieces are sanded with acid, usually citric or malic, so the sourness hits the moment they touch the tongue. Sweet pieces keep the fruit flavor up front.
  • Gummy or wine gum. Gummies get their clear, firm, springy set from gelatin, which is stirred in after the syrup cooks because high heat breaks it down. Wine gums, set mostly with starch, are opaque and shorter, with a slightly pasty chew.
  • Salty licorice. Nordic licorice is often seasoned with salmiak, or ammonium chloride, a salt that tastes salty and sour at once.

About Swedish Candy

Swedish candy is the sugar confectionery Swedes call godis, sold both in bags and as lösgodis, loose sweets scooped from bins and paid for by weight. The bins hold gummies, foam shapes, sour pieces and salty licorice side by side.

Pick-and-mix, or plockgodis, reached Swedish shops in the 1980s, once selling loose candy by weight was approved in 1985. Swedes now eat around 17 to 18 kilos of candy a year each, by one recent count.

Keep an opened bag clipped shut so sour coatings stay dry and gummies stay soft. A mixed bowl suits movie nights and long drives.

At a glance

Also called
Godis, lösgodis, plockgodis
Main types
Gummies, sour candy, foam candy, salty licorice
Made from
Sugar, glucose syrup, gelatin or starch, food acids

Swedish Candy questions

What is lördagsgodis?

It means Saturday sweets. Studies at the Vipeholm hospital in Lund, run between 1946 and 1951, linked frequent candy eating to tooth decay, and the advice that followed was to eat sweets on only one day a week. Saturday became that day, and the habit is now a custom with its own word.

Is Swedish candy made with gelatin?

Not always. Gelatin, which is made from animal collagen, gives classic gummies their clear, springy chew, but candy can also be set with pectin, starch or gum arabic. Wine gums are often pure starch. Read the ingredient list on each bag, since makers differ and one mixed bag can hold both kinds.

What does the word godis mean?

Godis is the everyday Swedish word for sweets or candy. It is a shortened form of godsaker, meaning good things, with the casual ending -is. Loose candy is called lösgodis, and the self-serve walls of bins are plockgodis, candy for picking.

Sources: The Local Sweden; University of Southern California taste research, reported by Big Think.

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