A global shortage of Swedish-made candy, all thanks to a viral TikTok video? Stranger things have happened.
But that’s exactly what happened earlier this year when TikTok influencer Marygrace Graves showed her followers the candy she picked up during a weekly visit to BonBon, a Swedish candy store in New York.
“It’s a strawberry squid. This is the first time I’ve had these, they’re delicious,” Graves told her followers in the January video, as if she was telling them a secret.
Well, the secret has been revealed — and other TikTok users started making their own Swedish candy videos, resulting in millions of posts, a viral internet phenomenon, and an ongoing global shortage of the country’s coveted candy.
Graves’ viral grab from the original video included some candies that were foamy and others that made her feel like her teeth were breaking, she said. Some were bizarrely shaped, including a rubber rat that she held by its tail; and many had unique flavors, like a sour raspberry-lemon gummy that she liked and a grapefruit candy that she said made her sick.
All were imported from Sweden, a country known for producing high quality sweets.
According to Michelina Jassal, owner of Swedish candy store Karameller in Vancouver, Swedish candies are characterized by having unusual shapes and flavors and avoiding additives typically found in North American candies.
“No GMOs, no corn syrup, typically (fewer) ingredients than traditional candies you find in the supermarket,” Jassal said of the Scandinavian candies. “You don’t have quite the sick feeling that you sometimes get with traditional sweets.”
The shortage sent Canadian importers scrambling to find supplies.
Jessica Borchiver, who runs Swedish online candy store Sukker Baby from her home in Toronto, said an increasingly impatient (and increasingly American) clientele has pushed her to stock up on a particularly high-demand brand: Bubs Godis.
What had previously been a stable business for Borchiver skyrocketed overnight. But the run on Bubs “turned everything upside down,” she said. “Everyone who was anyone wanted to get their hands on it.”
Swedish confectionery makers prioritize Nordic customers
Bubs Godis is one of Sweden’s largest confectionery manufacturers. As demand surged due to the sudden virality, the company was forced to stop accepting new international customers, a policy in place since late December. The company’s inventory was already running low during the summer months, when Sweden began its annual six-week factory vacation.
Any company would be happy to see a sudden surge in international interest. But the creators of Bubs decided to take care of their own people first.
“We have long-standing relationships with our customers in Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries,” said Niclas Arnelin, director of international expansion at Orkla, the Swedish food and snack group that owns Bubs. “And we need to prioritize them right now.”
They could also be their best customers – Swedes have a notorious sweet tooth, eating up to 16 kilograms of sweets every year, according to a spokesman for Business Swedish, a government and corporate organization that promotes Swedish exports.
The country has a long tradition called Sweets on Saturdayor “Saturday Sweets,” where families are known to gorge themselves on candy. The custom grew out of a 1950s study by medical researchers who found that if candy consumption was limited to one day a week, the country’s dental health would improve.
Stockholm resident Linda Rose remembers when the custom became popular. She performed a similar ritual with her own children on Fridays.
But if a global shortage is currently hitting those with a sweet tooth, Swedes have been spared the pain.
“There is no shortage here,” she said. “None at all.”
