How a viral TikTok video led to a year-long global shortage of Swedish sweets

A global shortage of Swedish-made candy, all thanks to a TikTok video that went viral? Strange things have happened.

But that’s exactly what happened earlier this year, when TikTok influencer Marygrace Graves showed her followers the sweets she got from a weekly visit to BonBon, a Swedish candy shop in New York.

“This is strawberry squid. This is the first time I’ve ever had this, and it’s delicious,” Graves told her followers in the video she posted in January, as if she was letting them in on a secret.

Well, the secret’s out – and other TikTok users have started making videos of their own Swedish dessert, leading to millions of shares, a viral internet phenomenon and an ongoing global shortage of the country’s prized sweets.

She said what Graves captured from the original video included some candy that was foamy, and others that made her teeth feel like they were about to break. Some were bizarre, including a slimy mouse that she carried by the tail; Many were uniquely flavored, like the raspberry-lime gummies, which she approved of, and the grapefruit candy, which she said made her feel nauseous.

They are all imported from Sweden, a country known for manufacturing high-quality sweets.

What makes Swedish candy stand out is that it tends to have unusual shapes and flavours, far removed from the additives typically found in North American candy, according to Michelina Jassal, who owns the Swedish candy shop Caramiller in Vancouver.

“There are no GMOs, no corn syrup, and usually (less) ingredients than the traditional candy you’d find in the grocery store,” said Gasal of the Scandinavian confectionery company. “You don’t have that nauseous feeling that you sometimes get with traditional candy.”

The shortage has prompted Canadian importers to search for supplies.

Jessica Borchever, who runs online Swedish candy store Sukker Baby from her home in Toronto, said impatient (and increasingly American) customers have urged her to restock one particularly high-demand brand: Bubs Godis.

What was once a steady business for Borchiver skyrocketed overnight. Running on Bobs “knocked everything over the edge,” she said. “Everyone who wanted to get their hands on him.”

Swedish candy makers are giving priority to customers in the Nordic countries

Bubs Godis is one of the largest candy manufacturers in Sweden. As demand skyrocketed due to its sudden outbreak, it was forced to stop taking on new international clients, a policy that continues as of late December. The company was already running out of stock by the summer months, when Sweden began its annual six-week factory holiday.

Any company would be happy to see a sudden increase in international interest. But the makers of Bubs decided to take care of their people first.

“We have had long-standing relationships with our customers in Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries,” said Niklas Arnelin, director of international expansion at Orkla, the Swedish food and snack company that owns Bubs. “We need to prioritize them now.”

They may also be some of their best customers: Swedes have a notorious sweet tooth, eating up to 16 kilograms of sweets every year, according to a spokesman for Businessswedish, a government- and corporate-owned organization that promotes Swedish exports.

The country has a long-standing tradition called… Saturday dessertOr “Saturday sweets”, as families are known to eat a lot of sweets. The habit was born from a study conducted by medical researchers in the 1950s, which found that the country’s dental health would improve if eating sweets was limited to one day a week.

Stockholm resident Linda Rose remembers the time when the habit became popular. She and her children held similar rituals on Fridays.

But if there’s currently a global shortage in the candy-loving community, the Swedes have been spared the pain.

“There is no shortage here,” she said. “Nothing at all.”