Swedish fish aren’t the only candy from Scandinavia. The region’s sugary exports also include sour skulls, citrus taffy, gummy eggs, chocolate wafer bars, and creamy, red-and-white strawberry twists.
Those are just the sweet ones. There’s an entirely different — and distinctly polarizing — type as well: sweet-and-salty licorice logs. Bracing, anise-flavored, and tinted blackish-brown by molasses, they’re as common in the Nordic nation as M&Ms are in the U.S. Salty licorice might not please all palates; tasting a piece may make an unsuspecting American child cry.
“It’s an acquired taste,” says Amelia Eudailey, owner of the “Swede-ish” hot dog pop-up Hej Hej (opens in new tab). “But just like anything, when you get older, you’re like, ‘Oh, I crave this.’”After spending much of 2025 taking her concept on the road, Eudailey has returned to San Francisco to open a temporary candy store on Cortland Avenue in Bernal Heights. It’ll be there through at least the third weekend in May…