When I was a kid, I got my allowance on Saturday mornings and would promptly zip to the corner store, spend 20 minutes trying to optimize the amount of candy I could get 鈥� always a fine balance between candy bars and sour gummies 鈥� and spend the rest of the day reading YA fiction and giving myself a stomachache.
It seems I wasn鈥檛 the only one. Louise Sch枚nberg grew up in Sweden, where Saturdays are called l枚rdagsgodis 鈥� literally, 鈥淪aturday sweets.鈥� (According to the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, the average Swede consumes 17.9 kg of candy each year, second only to the Danes.)
鈥淚t鈥檚 a tradition that people grow up with in Sweden. When kids get their allowance, they bike to the convenience store and spend their allowance on bulk candy,鈥� she says.
Sch枚nberg and her husband Luis Giraldo own Karameller in Yaletown. From the outside, it鈥檚 not immediately clear what the shop is, with its white walls, blond wood floors and theatrical black lights dangling from the ceiling. But as soon as you approach the beveled white shelves and plastic bins filled with bright colours, it becomes clear. It鈥檚 a candy store.
There are gummies in every imaginable shape (monkeys, skulls, racecars), chocolate-covered everything (nougat, cereal, gummy bears) and all manner of sour, squishy and chewy. Everything is imported from Sweden and is free from GMOs, trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup.
鈥淭he high-fructose corn syrup is one of the bigger things people notice,鈥� says Giraldo. 鈥淪o often you have this overwhelming sweetness in [North American] candy, but with the Swedish candy, the flavour comes out.鈥�
Wait, the flavour of candy? You bet. The red candies, for example, are mostly raspberry and strawberry flavoured, but the red Swedish fish are flavoured with lingonberry. And many of the gummies have a distinct chew to them, like a softer, less sticky taffy.
As if it couldn鈥檛 get better, there are the Swedish names for the candies. Mouse-shaped gummies are gel茅r氓ttor (jelly rats), marshmallows are vit kubik (white cube) and corrugated red licorice is smultron matta (wild strawberry carpet).
鈥淚 always recommend the sour candies because that鈥檚 what people tend to like,鈥� says Sch枚nberg. 鈥淚鈥檓 drawn to the chocolate. We have a marshmallow banana covered in chocolate which is to die for, we have the corn crisp [corn cereal covered in chocolate] and there鈥檚 a chocolate-covered gummy bear.鈥�
Giraldo鈥檚 more experimental. 鈥淲e have one called 鈥楪oing Bananas鈥� that鈥檚 a banana-shaped marshmallow that鈥檚 sour on the outside but it doesn鈥檛 taste like a banana. I mix one of those with a red Swedish fish and they taste amazing together.鈥�
Since opening the store in July, the couple is still trying to figure out which candies sell and which ones don鈥檛. One of the most divisive pieces is a smiling licorice octopus. The malt-coloured, sour powder-dusted gummy packs a punch. First it鈥檚 sour, then salty, then unabashedly licorice. I spit out my first bite, but five minutes later, nibble on the octopus some more. Maybe it鈥檚 not so bad.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had lots of people ask us to take it away,鈥� says Sch枚nberg. 鈥淏ut then people come in and buy a $10 bag of just the octopus because it鈥檚 their favourite.鈥�
If you visit, it鈥檚 likely to be Sch枚nberg or Giraldo behind the counter. They鈥檝e lived in the neighbourhood for the past 10 years, making Yaletown a natural place to set up shop. 鈥淚 love being able to go to the coffee shop and know the baristas by name,鈥� says Giraldo. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 becoming really fun to have that experience with people coming into our store.鈥�
Karameller is located at 1020 Mainland St. Contact: 604-639-8325. .
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