No region takes pick 'n' mix as seriously as Scandinavia. In Sweden the word for it isn't even a specialist term - it's just godis, sweets, and it's sold loose by weight in a wall of bins in almost every supermarket in the country.
A pick 'n' mix wall bigger than most British sweet shops
Losgodis - loose candy - is the standard way sweets are sold across Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and the scale dwarfs a typical British pick 'n' mix counter. Sweden in particular is consistently cited as one of the highest per-capita sweet consumption countries in the world. Swedish manufacturers like Malaco and Cloetta, and Ahlgrens bilar - the foam \"cars\" sweet launched in 1953 and still a fixture of every loose candy wall - have built entire businesses around keeping that wall stocked.
Lordagsgodis: how a dental campaign built a candy ritual
The tradition of eating sweets specifically on Saturdays began, unusually, as public health messaging. In the 1950s, Swedish dental health campaigns encouraged parents to limit children's sugar intake to one day a week rather than letting it happen daily, on the theory that concentrated exposure did less damage to teeth than constant snacking. The advice worked, but it had a side effect nobody fully planned for: it turned a Saturday trip to buy loose candy into a weekly family ritual, one that's still very much alive today across Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Salmiak and the Nordic taste for salty liquorice
Salted liquorice, or salmiak, is where Scandinavian taste genuinely diverges from most of the rest of the world. Flavoured with ammonium chloride rather than ordinary salt, it's a taste Nordic children grow up with from an early age and one that visitors often find genuinely startling on first try - it's less sweet and less like Western liquorice than the name suggests, with a distinct salty, almost chemical edge that either clicks or doesn't.
You don't need a trip to Stockholm to build your own version of a losgodis wall at home - our pick 'n' mix range and sweet jars collection cover the loose-candy, build-your-own-bag experience the Nordic countries do so well.
Frequently asked questions
What does godis mean?
The Swedish word for sweets or candy - central to a culture built around self-serve loose candy walls in almost every supermarket.
Why do Swedes only eat sweets on Saturdays?
Lordagsgodis began as a 1950s dental health campaign limiting sweets to one day a week, which turned into a lasting weekly ritual.
Why is salty liquorice so popular there?
Salmiak is a flavour Nordic children grow up with - an acquired taste for almost everyone else, thanks to its distinct ammonium chloride edge.