Swedish 101: Godis

Godis, pronounced “Gooo - deees” is the Swedish word for candy – kind of a fitting word don’t you think?

The selection in Sweden has to be the best we have seen anywhere in our travels. Even Willie Wonka would be envious! Candy is most commonly sold in bulk. You take a bag and a scoop and fill it with whatever variety and combinations of candy you prefer – one standard price per kilo. Emma’s favourite mix includes mostly jellies – dolphins, keys, lips, fuzzy peaches, and butterflies. Starr likes the traditional berries and the licorice zebras while Mike prefers fuzzy peaches, wine gums and Bassett’s licorice allsorts.
While you can buy chocolate bars like we have at home in Canada, the large flat Willie Wonka type bar is the most common here and comes in a wide variety of flavours. It also usually takes up a good 4 – 5 metres of 4 shelf high aisle space! To get an idea of how sweet the Swedish sweet tooth is, consider the prizes at the games booths at Amusement Parks. The occasional booth will have stuffed animals as prizes, but the most sought after prizes are the giant 1 metre tall chocolate bars – namely Toblerone and Maribou. Now that’s a sweet tooth!