Kirsten Tries Some Swedish Treats

Coming straight from Stockholm… a few months late.

If you guessed Kirsten was the old friend I’d hinted at in my last post, you’re correct! 

My dad does a lot of traveling for work, both nationally and internationally. It was always a bummer when he’d be gone for a long time, but he always brought us home cool treats from wherever he went, which is why I now have an unhealthy attachment to various British candy bars. 

Now that they’re empty nesters, my mom sometimes gets to tag along with him on trips, and last year, they got to visit Stockholm, Sweden. My mom sent some Swedish treats for me to try, and I thought it might be fun to share them with you!

Three candy bars were included in my mini Swedish care package, each of which are pretty exclusive to Sweden and I’d never tried before. I think you can order them on Amazon if you’re interested in trying them out for yourself, which I would recommend as they were all pretty tasty. 

Despite its unattractive name, Plopp was my favorite of the three. It’s a caramel filled chocolate bar which was first produced in 1949. Although the caramel filled version is the most common, they’ve introduced other fillings and flavors like currant and tutti-fruitti.

Marabou bars have been produced in Sweden since 1916, and are actually a Norwegian company that began selling product in Sweden during World War I, as selling their bars to mainland Europe was kind of off the table. However, thanks to the war, a cocoa shortage prevented them from producing chocolate in Sweden until 1919. Marabou bars originally had a stork on each square, but this was changed in the 1960’s to a stylized M. 

The founder’s second son opened Sweden’s first chocolate factory, and created many other famous Swedish candy brands like Japp, Daim, Twist, Fortuna and Non Stop. 

This bar is a pretty standard – but tasty – milk chocolate, and you can buy it in most IKEAs. It also has a Royal warrant of appointment from the King of Sweden, but also contains palm oil, which has caused a lot of controversy for the company.

The final bar was Kex, a chocolate and wafer bar that’s been produced in Sweden since 1938. I really like wafer based chocolate products, so this was going to be an obvious favorite for me. Kex has been marketed to skiiers, and some bars have even accompanied climbers on Mount Everest.

My mom also picked up a booklet at the Nordic Museum discussing Swedish holiday traditions. It has information in Swedish and English, and includes an entry about St. Lucia festivities! The Nordic Museum is Sweden’s largest cultural museum and their collections reflect life in Sweden from the 16th century to today.

 

But the surprise I was most excited to see was a Dala horse for Kirsten!

I’ve always wanted a doll sized version of these intricately painted horses, and remain a little surprised that AG never tried to produce one themselves. Dala horses are also known as Dalecarlian Horses, as they originated in the province of Dalarna. The first Dala horses were made in the 1600’s, and they began to be mass produced in the 1930’s after they were shown at various World’s Fairs and Expos, which helped introduce them to the rest of the world. Although they are often used as decorations, they were traditionally played with as toys. 

My mom also found a Dala horse sponge…

And horse shaped cookie cutters, one of which will make some nice doll sized cookies! Maybe I should try making some Dala horse pepparkakor next Christmas.

I’ve wanted to visit Sweden since I was very small (bet you can’t guess why!) so it was a lot of fun to open this fun little care package. Maybe someday I’ll get to do an on location tour around Stockholm myself. Until then, I’m going to keep enjoying these candy bars and find an excuse to make some horse shaped cookies.

Do you have a favorite international treat?