Sometimes the lines grow so long outside a shop in Brooklyn, New York, the owners have to call in a bouncer.
People walk out carrying bags stuffed with loot that they guard as if they were carrying prized possessions.
Welcome to the Swedish gummies craze that has swept the United States, thanks to a hefty push from TikTok creators that has people salivating for a confection aficionados insist is a cut above the standard gummies fare.
“Since everyone’s obsessed with Swedish candy in New York, let’s go to Bon Bon!” creator Beca Michie said, standing outside the pink awning of Bon Bon Swedish Candy.
The platform is alive with videos of people displaying their colorful Swedish candy hauls.
“This highly anticipated Swedish candy shop is finally open in the West Village,” creator Becca Schneider said about Lil Sweet Treat.
Leo Schaltz, a co-founder of Brooklyn-based Bon Bon, said he and his two business partners opened the shop because they found the options in the U.S. gummies space lacking.
“We felt that the American standards of candy didn’t live up to what we grew up with,” Schaltz said.
Schaltz and his two co-founders are from Sweden, where they were allowed to indulge only one day a week when they were growing up — on Saturdays.
“The Saturdays were holy, so we tried to relive that,” he said. You can get goosebumps talking about it, like when I had the special ones I used to have when I was kid. It’s incredible.”
Schaltz and his team set out to recapture that magic and make every day a sweet Saturday. Bon Bon, which opened in 2017, now has four locations that stay open until midnight, as well as a booming website.
Its popularity can lead to queues that wrap around the building.
“Sometimes the lines get too long, and then we kind of have to add reinforcement — a candy bouncer,” Schaltz said. “He’s very friendly. He gives out samples. He’s not intimidating. So he’s on brand for Bon Bon.”
Schaltz said TikTok might bring people to the store, but the quality of its ingredients keeps them coming back for more.
“Most of our candy is vegan. They’re gluten free,” Schaltz said. “At the end of the day, it’s a quality product that comes from Sweden, which sort of adds an air of premiumness to it.”
The Swedish ingredients come together to make treats such as cotton candy skulls, foamy pear ovals known as “bubs,” sour cola pacifiers and black licorice — a Swedish delicacy. Schaltz said they’re still trying to win over skeptical Americans with that one.
“It tastes amazing. You just haven’t had the right licorice,” he said. “We are cautiously optimistic, but still confident that we will change some hearts.”
Whether or not black licorice becomes an American staple, people are clearly ready to test their taste buds.
“Over the past year, I had seen that Swedish candy was going viral,” said Elly Ross, owner and founder of Lil Sweet Treat. “And to me, that signaled that there was a gap in the market of people who wanted to try new sweets, new textures and really just expand their palettes beyond what we have in convenience stores today.”
She was working at an e-commerce start-up when she walked past a small unit for rent in the West Village.
“I saw the layout and I said, this is Lil Sweet Treat,” Ross said. “This is the candy shop.”
She documented her journey on TikTok, posting updates on the renovation, candy stock ordering and more, gaining more than 28,000 followers.
She opened the shop this year and sold out of her entire stock in just a few days.
Store supervisor Issy Victoriano said visitors from around the world come in to sample their candy.
“I have seen people that actually have flown just to come here and try it,” she said.
With business booming, Ross said she has not forgotten the candy-obsessed girl she once was.
“I immigrated to the States when I was young, and I grew up with Korean snacks,” she said. “I would share that at recess and that camaraderie of sharing cultures through food was something that I’ve always truly loved.”
Inspired by her Korean heritage and her travels, Ross sources candies not only from Sweden, but from all over the world. Her stock rotates weekly, but can include alligator bites from Sweden, smiling pumpkins from Germany and sour blue raspberries from Spain.
She keeps a diverse inventory for loyal customers and TikTok followers, whom she calls “candy connoisseurs.”
“A candy connoisseur is anyone who’s willing to try new items, willing to learn about different candies and just take that leap of faith into trying something new,” she said.
Aside from TikTok, candy experts said there could be another reason gummies are having a moment — increased cacao prices.
“I think chocolate is going to remain expensive for a while. So I think that’s good for the gummy candy industry,” said David Branch, a commodities analyst for Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute. “It’s going to take a year or two for this market to really moderate, and cacao prices to come back down to their historical levels, so I think gummies are here to stay.”
Commodities aside, Schaltz and Ross said nostalgia is a key factor in their success.
“Something that I hear from our candy connoisseurs all the time is, ‘You made me feel like a kid again,'” Ross said. “I think people are really looking for that extra bit of joy and a way to bring a little extra happiness to something as simple as grabbing a bag of candy.”
Schaltz said, “We’re all kids at heart. Me and my co-founders, we truly believe that growing up is a trap. But owning candy stores definitely helps.”