Enjoying lollies on Saturdays is so ingrained in Swedish culture that there’s a word for it: Lördagsgodis, which translates to "Saturday sweets" or "Saturday candy". On this day, hordes of Swedish children () head to the shops to fill a bag with a mix of lollies like salty liquorice, sour peach lips and elderflower fish.
While the experience is pure joy, . It all started in 1946 when researchers forced patients in a mental health hospital to ingest caramel candy and other sweets to study the effect on their teeth.
Following the publication of the study linking high sugar consumption to tooth decay in the 1950s, the Swedish Government organised a public health campaign encouraging people to limit their sweets consumption to once a week. And so Lördagsgodis was born.
Credit: Supplied by by Yum Yum Swedish Candy
"It's an experience because you were part of building your bag with lollies. It was more than just buying a block of chocolate or a bag of lollies, you actually picked out the candy yourself, which made it more of an experience for kids and family," Curl says.
and head to sweet shops or supermarkets with a large selection of sweets.
"In supermarkets in Sweden, there's probably 300 varieties of candy. The best part is to pick and mix whatever you like. You have your little coins, and you can pick between chocolates and sweet and sour and salty – all kinds of flavours.
Every single bag of candy has a different personality.
Malmö-born Damir Brkic, the cofounder of says, "Every single bag of candy has a different personality, so you always look in other people's bags to see what they have."
He launched his Sydney-based Swedish candy shop during the pandemic. Its popularity has been steadily increasing, with a big boom in recent months because of the trend of Swedish sweets taste tests on TikTok.
Brkic is not surprised, as he thinks Swedish candy is in another league. The . There's also – think passionfruit and pineapple, jalapeño or wild strawberry and pomegranate. Colours are vibrant and shapes are fun. But mostly, Swedes expect the best. "You don't mess around with Swedish candy. If a candy is not good, it will not sell; Swedes have high standards," says Brkic.
He imports all his candy from Sweden and sells them online and at markets around Sydney. At the latter, he often recommends to new customers despite most Australians being initially hesitant.
"Sweden is a very big fanatic of liquorice. There's a lot of variety like salted liquorice, but also different flavours like raspberry liquorice or toffee liquorice," he says.
Brkic loved chocolate as a child, and as he grew up, turned to sour candy. Now, he enjoys Swedish Fish (which comes in a variety of flavours like lingonberry and lemon) and liquorice, the sweet and salty raspberry liquorice being a standout.
His advice to build a great Lördagsgodis bag is to have a bit of everything: sweet, sour and salty candy, as well as chocolate. Consider textural variety too, like a chewy caramel mushroom in the same bag as a slightly harder raspberry-flavoured Ferrari.
"Any mood is a good move in terms of candy," he says.
Meanwhile, Curl, who's a mum to a pre-schooler and a newborn, hasn't decided yet if she'll introduce Lördagsgodis to her children. But her eldest gets a dose of Swedish candy at birthday parties.
"When there's a party, we don't want to limit, we just want them to enjoy. That's the time where they can go a bit crazy and go enjoy the lollies," she says.
All the Swedish children's birthday parties she attends have a game of what's called fishpond.
"Parents are on one side of a sheet and the children are on the other side with a fishing rod, which they throw over the sheet. Often, the parents hang a shoe at first, and the kid would be a bit disappointed, but the next try, you hang the lolly bag, a bag of pick and mix," she explains.
Needless to say, it's always a hit.
MORE SWEDISH SWEETS
How to watch Eurovision Song Contest 2024
