Lördagsgodis: The Swedish Candy Obsession

Saturdays in Sweden are a special day, especially if you are a kid. It’s Lördagsgodis, translated in English as Saturday’s Candies. It is the day to stuff yourself silly with candy (in swedish: godis). As a Swedish child, Saturday is a special treat day to eat sweets and go to the candy store.

Shopping for candy is more of an adventure than eating it for me. The colors, the shapes, the sizes! Truly is eye candy of candy. Swedish grocery stores have bins stacked 10-20 bins wide and 6 bins tall. That can be as much as 120 different varieties of loose candy! It’s Jelly Belly madness for Americans who have seen the Jelly Belly bins at the candy store. Loose candies can be jelly, hard, chocolate, licorice, gummy, marshmallow, sweet, sour, just about anything you can imagine.

On top of the loose candy selection like our Swedish Fish, there are the chocolates, Läkerol, and more. I’ll have to take photos of this amazing obsession. Even full fledged candy stores all over the city exist!

To really get hyper, Easter time is when Swedes really go crazy for candy. People, adults and children, eats lots of godis. Chocolate, loose candies, whatever.

Yet, what I haven’t figured out is how Swedes are still slender. I can count the number of fat people on both my hands, and that’s in all of Sweden. And candy bins along with candy isles are the quintessential staple of any grocery store. Even convenience stores and gas stations have loose candy. And yet they are skinny.

Maybe it’s the coffee and snus and skiing but I am fascinated by their obsession with sweets. Remember the Swedes even have a day for waffles.
How to buy plockgodis (loose candy) on Saturday:

• Licorice {lakrits}- you either love it or hate it. If you buy any, get another bag. Trust me, their taste will ooze onto all the candies and turn your chocolates into lakrits. Eww, gross.
• Avoid buying candy late on Saturday. The thousands of kids will have already picked over the good stuff and drooled on what remains.
• Also avoid buying candy on Saturday afternoon as you will be there in the crush of madness.
• As a matter of fact, avoid buying candy on Saturday and buy on Friday afternoon. But beware of Fredagsmys (friday cosy) as thousands of adults will swarm the candy and snack sections.
• Avoid the chocolate candies.  They’re heavy and will weigh down your bags.  Just saying.
• Buy candy from the grocery store where it normally costs 69-89SEK per kilogram.  7-Eleven and Pressbyrån charge upwards of 179SEK per kilo.

There’s also the strange ice creams in Sweden, like Piggelin and Päron and Sitting Bull. Not sure yet if that’s part of the Lördagsgodis.

Oh, my favorite are the sour candies, like the blue bottle caps. The licorice candies are a definite no go, unless it’s a licorice Jelly Belly jelly bean. And what candy do you save space for on sweet Saturday?

No related posts.