In the United States, everyone thinks I'm weird for enjoying licorice. Here in Sweden, however, licorice has similar status as chocolate and my moderate affinity for it has been allowed to grow into a full-blown obsession. Yesterday, I hit an all time low when I visited a shop called Lakritsroten (licorice root in Swedish), which had every form of licorice known to man: licorice powder, chocolate covered licorice, licorice honey, salt licorice, licorice caramel, and more varieties of plain licorice than I knew existed. There were also samples, which were not closely watched, and I may have grazed a little too much (but who knew mint-covered licorice balls would be so good?!). To make up for it, I spent almost $20 on a grand total of 3 things: a raspberry-filled licorice stick, a large log of licorice caramel covered in chocolate and dotted with dried raspberries, and a small jar of licorice honey. Okay, so it was an extremely frivolous purchase, but I regret nothing and will certainly be returning in the near future.
I have been quite surprised by the general dessert/sugar obsession here in Sweden. Walking down the street, you'd think everyone here must eat extremely healthy and exercise daily because most people are quite athletic looking. For the most part, that seems to be true, but at the same time, everyone seems to make an exception for dessert.
The candy and pastry selections in the grocery stores are truly impressive, and they are clearly not neglected. There are also bins of candy and snack foods (mainly assorted chocolate and licorice, but also things like wasabi nuts and violet gummies) at every grocery store, even the tiniest ones, and no matter when you go, there will always be at least one person filling up a bag. I can understand why licorice is not so popular in the U.S., but it is completely mystifying to me that these bins have not caught on like they have here in Sweden. This afternoon, after biking and exploring all day, I was feeling hangry, but also desperate for food that would not make me want to cry upon seeing the price. I went to the grocery store in hopes that inspiration would strike and indeed it did. Not only do the bins have candy, they also have assorted dried fruits, banana chips, trail mix, and fascinating things like sour cream and dill cashews. This way, I can delude myself into thinking I have a decently healthy snack when half of my bag is fruit and nuts and the other half is chocolate and licorice.
Fika is another major outlet for the dessert obsession. If you're going to have a mid-afternoon coffee break, it only seems natural that you should have a nice pastry to go along with the coffee. And the Swedish pastries are truly under-rated. Many of them feature cinnamon and cardamom, almost everything has coarse, white sugar sprinkled on top (I even saw it on a grocery store croissant), plus there is always a healthy amount of butter and oftentimes custard. There are also the extremely common and very creatively named chokladbolls (chocolate balls), which really are just coconut-covered, espresso-spiked balls of chocolate that are like a cross between a truffle and a very dense brownie. Even the gas station pastries are quite edible, so if you don't want to spend $5 on a dainty little thing from one of the many wonderful coffee shops and bakeries, there are always good options.
Believe it or not, this was actually meant to be a short post before bed. Let's just say, I am a little excited about how well Sweden caters to my dessert preferences. Also, I may or may not have eaten a freakish amount of candy today, so the sugar might be making me a bit hyper. Good thing I bike a lot?
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