By 
The first time I went to Sweden, I expected to be awed by the natural beauty, blown away by the history, and enticed by the meatballs—and while the landscape had me instagramming an endless stream of blue skies and water—it was the candy that really won me over.
"How could someone travel across the Atlantic Ocean only to be captivated by candies?" you're asking yourself. It was easy. First, every grocery store has an aisle or three devoted to candy and I love nothing more than wandering through grocery stores when I travel. Food lovers, please back me up: Nothing says vacation like a stroll through aisle five.
Swedish supermarkets stock a vast array of easy-grab candy bags, but what I found truly thrilling were the miles upon miles of candy-stuffed bulk bins. They have every single type of Swedish sweets imaginable—allowing you to create your perfect candy mix. Mine includes chocolates, super-salty licorice, bubblegum-flavored mushrooms, forest berries, and gummy rats. (Don't ask.)
Here are some of the best ones I encountered. Thankfully, most of them are available on Amazon, so you don't even have to leave the continent to get your own.
These itty bitty gummy monkeys are the size of my pinky nail, but chewy as all get out. Their flavor is reminiscent of cherry—but by the time you've finished chewing them, you've kind of forgotten what flavor they are.
Hard on the outside and soft in the center, each of these fruit-shaped sweets tastes like the festive sugar drenched candy it mimics. A bag of Tutti Frutti gummies can go quick, so buy two.
Gelé~Hallons are gumdrops worst nightmare. I say this because these conical goodies are irresistibly squishy and coated in a layer of seriously satisfying sugar. Crunchy and chewy: What's not to love? But not only do you want to eat a handful, you kind of want to play with them too—which, IMHO, is the making of candy greatness.
If you love sweet candy, you will love Supersurt—or super sour—a candy that lives up to it's name. Each disk is thin, but it packs a serious burst of tang. (Our own site director could barely handle it.) Unlike the other candies, these are more hard-chewy, so you're forced to eat the whole candy in one bite (not that I'm complaining).
Gott & Blandat is a classic Swedish mixed bag filled with pastel fish (Swedish fish to the untrained eye), lightly salted licorice, and forest berries. As far as I'm concerned, Forest berries are the best of the bunch—they stick to your teeth in a "I just want to eat ten more" kind of way.
Dumle might not be gummy, but they are definitely chewy. These candies come covered in either dark or milk chocolate—and then filled with either regular or licorice-flavored caramel. If I could eat these for breakfast I would, and I might.
Bilar are the quintessential Swedish candy. There bags of Bilar everywhere you turn. To be honest, it's hard to form an opinion around these candies because I didn't grow up eating them: Their slightly spongy texture and their strangely herbal (read: soapy) flavor is a little hard for the American palette to take. That said, once you've gotten a taste for them, all you want is more.
