The 50 Best Candies From Around the World

Image via Complex Original

Country of Origin: South Korea
Buy It Here: marukaiestore.com

Lil Jon, eat your heart out. Your candy bar has arrived, and it's South Korean. Though the name is amazing, the candy bar itself is a maltier variation on the beloved Nestlé Crunch. But if you're looking for giggles this Halloween, please check out the Crunky Ball Nude. Skeet skeet.

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: asianfoodgrocer.com

This gummy candy is shaped like a gumdrop, but with a harder exterior and a seriously sour kick. More importantly, the bags come adorned with strange creatures, like Olympic logos as filtered through an LED screen in Tokyo. “Shigeki” means “stimulation” in Japanese. The idea here is that, much like the creatures on the front of this package, you too can get your freak on.

Country of Origin: Italy
Buy It Here: germandeli.com

If a “wholemeal biscuit snack bar” sounds appetizing, not only do we not want to hang out with you, this is the new bar for you! The name is derived from a German root, alluding the dietary content of the candy bar. Outside of America, you'll find the approach to sweets goes beyond all natural chemicals.

Country of Origin: Republic of Korea
Buy It Here: tradekorea.com

While Korea-based Cheong Woo produces a wide variety of beloved confections, it's hard to pass up these pumpkin goodies, given the season. Considering America’s autumnal pumpkin obsession—can we find a bar in this city without a pumpkin beer on tap?—we figure this candy would be more than welcome on our shores.

Country of Origin: Sweden
Buy It Here: swedishcandy.org

Though this confection resembles like the common American nonpareil, most familiar as a "Snowcap," the flavor is actually a bit more complex than we're used to, offering hints of butter and rum. This comes from the punsch cream that makes up the flavorful center of the praliner.

Country of Origin: Hungary
Buy It Here: Difficult to find, perishable

Turo Rudi is the most popular chocolate bar in Hungary. It is made with curd, which you may remember as being eaten by Little Miss Muffet along with whey while sitting on a tuffet. A less innocent point: “Rudi” translates to “Rod” or “Bar” which has certain pornographic connotations in Hungarian. There's a rudi/Muffet/tuffet joke here, but we'll leave it to you to find the right holes to plug.

Country of Origin: Ukraine
Buy It Here: sweetgourmet.com

It's surprising that a candy like this hasn’t made it big in the U.S.—hard candies with fizzy insides sound like a natural hit with adventurous American children. It's like Pop Rocks on steroids. Then, when you look at the ingredients for Mr. Fizzy and find that five have the word “acid” in them, it becomes less surprising.

Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Buy It Here: hollandsbest.com

If you feel like the marketing of standard licorice is a bit too intense—the Twizzlers mouth is a bit suggestive and, frankly, weird—maybe Van Slooten Flowers and Butterflies sugared licorice is for you. Choose from Daisy, Sunflower, Tulip, and Butterfly shaped licorice. Then go chase down a rainbow on a unicorn. Your life will be like a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.

Country of Origin: Germany
Buy It Here: parthenonfoods.com

While Haribo gummy bears are common on American candy shelves, the lemon-ginger version remains elusive unless you set your sites on the Internet, the gateway to sweets abroad. Anyone that's experienced the revitalizing sharpness of these round delights goes on to sing their praises forever. Their appearance in the U.S. would do more for gummies than the Gummi Bears cartoon of the '80s. 

Country of Origin: Norway
Buy It Here: nidar.com

This Norwegian treat is chocolate covered gel-and-banana cream. Nidar, the manufacturers, still use the same machine to give this treat it's banana shape that they used in 1957. A Krembanen looks the same to day as it did fifty-five years ago. As our grandparents repeatedly tell us without our asking, not much else does. 

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: meiji.co.jp

The Japanese candy company Yataiman is responsible a number of strange candy creations, including this treat modeled after vegetable dumplings. The candies are accompanied by a layer of sugary banana-flavored dough that you wrap around the chocolate or jelly bean treat. Yataiman also makes candy burgers, candy pizzas, and other candies of the weird-ass persuasion. Thank you, Japan.

Country of Origin: Sweden
Buy It Here: scandinavianstuff.com

Numerous sources—including Forbes—have made the point that this candy bar's name is unappealing to English speaking audiences. While we recognize the onomatopoeic implications, we urge you to embrace the Plopp; it tastes kind of like a Carmello, which isn't anything like shit. Which is what you must think of when you say the word Plopp out loud.

Country of Origin: France
Buy It Here: saveurdujour.com

This French caramel bar is known for its long shape and the corny jokes printed on the inside of the wrapper. The jokes are legendarily bad, to the point that a bad joke is sometimes referred to as a “Carambar Joke” by the French. That said, are you going to trust the comedic judgment of a people who view Jerry Lewis as a cultural treasure? We didn't think so. But trust their taste in sweet stuff. After all, they invented crème brûlée.

Country of Origin: Poland
Buy It Here: grocery-buy.com

Alicja Cream Fudge is made by a small company in Poland run by a family descended from a long line of journeyman pastry chefs. We can’t think of a more exciting family reunion, food-wise, anyway (they probably have the same problems as any big family, you know? It's a small world, and we're all human, which is one of the points of eating foreign candy).

Internet candy critics (yes, this is a thing) compare the taste and consistency of the cream fudge to dulce de leche. We just call it delicious.

Country of Origin: Columbia
Buy It Here: amigofoods.com

Every Jet Bar comes with a dinosaur sticker—already, greatness is in the air. On the spectrum of large things little boys are obsessed with, dinosaurs and jet planes are at opposite ends—one a flesh-and-blood creature, the other a cold miracle of human ingenuity. Yet, here they are, united by mass-market Colombian chocolate. It's beautiful. And good to eat.

Country of Origin: Sweden
Buy It Here: amazon.com

The Daim Bar is the result of an unorthodox business deal. The Swedish candy company Marabou was researching the American Heath bar, which you may remember as that candy bar you never buy. When they asked to license the Heath Bar, Heath refused, and instead gave Marabou the list of ingredients. Next thing you know, the Daim Bar took off, and has gone on to become synonymous with Swedish candy abroad. As of this writing, the higher ups at Heath have not been invited to teach at business schools.

So, why prefer this to the Heath Bar? Because you can pronounce it like "Daaamn!"

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: amazon.com

Unican sells a variety of milk candies throughout Japan, but their creamy fruit treats are the most beloved. Their dominance is all the more incredible when you consider that they've achieved these heights of popularity despite the athletic cow they use as a mascot. 

Country Of Origin: Israel
Buy It Here: ohnuts.com

The Elite line of candy bars are the best selling chocolates in Israel. While they do offer some standard fare that would look normal to the Yankee candy cruncher, they succeed with their stranger sweets, especially this popping chocolate bar. Imagine a Dove chocolate bar full of Pop Rocks. That's the Elite fireworks experience.

Country of Origin: Spain
Buy It Here: lavioletaonline.es

These candies—sugarcoated natural violets—are a rare delicacy, only widely available in Madrid. If you've got enough cash for a plane ticket to Spain and are jonesing to drop some serious coin on sweet flowers, then stores like La Violeta would like to interest you in some custom glass vases in which to store your confections. You've never tasted anything quite like it.

Country of Origin: Scotland
Buy It Here: jollygrub.com

This blandly named Scottish candy is a butterscotch-fudge concoction. You can find this beloved treat prepared in kitchens all over the Highlands. Tablet has a long history dating back to the 1700s, where the first recorded mention of the candy appeared in The Household Book of Lady Grisell Baillie, which sounds like a steamy read, you know, Fifty Shades-style. Drizzle some melted Lees on your beloved and—nevermind. Just eat them.

Country of Origin: Austrailia
Buy It Here: simplyoz.com

The Violet Crumble is an Australian dessert known for how easily it breaks (read: sharing is caring!) One of their first slogans: “It's the way it shatters that matters.” Creating a candy this fragile is a delicate process; the bar is made with “carefully formulated honeycomb...produced and conveyed into a specially constructed air-conditioned area where it is cut into bars.” Cool—can we just eat it now?

Country of Origin: Italy
Buy It Here: agferrari.com

The Leone family got into the candy game back in 1857, when patriarch Luigi moved his store in Alba over to Piemonte, and started creating light-colored mint drops. When the Monero family bought the business in 1934, they continued making the treats. Leone is located in Turin, which you probably know as the home of Jesus’ death blanket. Just the kind of place where we want to buy our candies. Jk—it's all good. Because it tastes so good!

Country of Origin: Poland
Buy It Here: polartcenter.com

The Prince Polo bar was released in the early days of the People's Republic of Poland and has remained remarkably popular ever since. The bar was also one of only a handful of bars available in Iceland for a number years. The Village Voice recently uncovered the crushing news that there never was a Prince Polo. This shocking revelation had no effect on sales. Figures: we are talking about layers of crisp wafer and smooth chocolate.

Country of Origin: Saudi Arabia
Buy It Here: britishfooddepot.com

Galaxy is one of the best selling chocolate bars in the world, a testament to its excellence. Though the bar may seem exotic, the brand actually also exists in the US—you know it as Dove. Though the bars are similarly designed and marketed, Galaxy bars use different chocolate their Dove counterparts. It's smooth, creamy, and great.

Country of Origin: Italy
Buy It Here: amazon.com

Imagine a Hershey's Kiss, but with hazelnut and a multi-lingual love note as the wrapper. Be careful, the fact that each Baci provides a love note in a number of languages means you risk a candy showing you up with your girl. It's like, Oh, you only speak one language but the sweets you're giving me speak three? Weak. Still, your game must be lacking if you get put on notice by some chocolate.

Country of Origin: Korea
Buy It Here: korginseng.com

Sand Mountain Herbs reports that men who take ginseng are "able to achieve an erection with much greater ease than without it." Also, "firmness of erections" and "overall thickness of the erection" improve. So, if you truly care for your woman, get your Internet on and place an order for some ginseng candy. The folks at Hansamin await your (bulk) order.

Country of Origin: Spain
Buy It Here: amazon.com

This popular Spanish dessert’s recipe was first recorded in the Manual de Mujeres in the 16th century. This translates to The Woman’s Handbook. Personally, we’d like to get our hands on one of those in order to learn some feminine secrets. This dessert consists of egg whites, honey, and nuts. Pretty simple. We'll get back to you if we discover anything you need to know how to do, like, get laid. In the mean time, trust candy to ward off sexual tension.

Country of Origin: Mexico
Buy It Here: amazon.com

In attempting to describe the difference between these and other creamy lollipops, one seasoned traveler said, “you can taste the goat.” This is, incidentally, a favored pickup line of City Guide staffers. “Goat-like” or not, this cat really likes these suckers. Connect the dots yourself.

Country of Origin: Mexico
Buy It Here: candywarehouse.com

This candy is named after the awful dish you make the first time your parents leave you home alone. Importantly, this Mexican treat taste far better than your experiment. Still, the chewy watermelon gummy noodles dusted with tamarind sauce aren't for everyone. Tamarind isn't a flavor Americans encounter often. Step your game up and expand your palate with this weird little number.

Country of Origin: South Africa
Buy It Here: africanhut.com

This assortment of sweets is wildly popular in South Africa. In 1899, Carlie Thompson, a Beacon sales representative, supposedly dropped a tray of various samples he was showing to a client in Leicester, mixing up the different sweets. He scrambled to re-arrange them, but the client was intrigued by the blend. A less clever employee of Beacon came up with the slogan “All sorts love Allsorts” in the 1970s. Each bag has different flavors of licorice, different sizes, different shapes, different colors—it's like a bag of Legos you can eat.

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: amazon.com

This sweet milky candy is known as much for its taste as for its plucky female mascot, all pigtails and tongue hanging out, Jordan-style. Peko-Chan is wildly popular in Japan; she can be seen everywhere, from iPhone cases to huge statuary in front of Peko shops. Head over to their website to take a closer look at Peko. Like us, you'll have no idea what the fuss is about. But the candy is good, rich but not too sweet, like caramel with more milk.

Country of Origin: Mexico
Buy It Here: latinmerchant.com

This candy is a frosting packet, basically, which is awesome. It comes in hazelnut-vanilla and strawberry-vanilla. In the '80s and '90s the slogan was: “No lo cambio por nada,” which translates to “I don’t change for nothing.” When you're frosting, no one can tell you shit—everyone loves you, and will eat you by the pound when they're sad. Want to see a bunch of Duvalin-loving kids singing about how they don’t change for nothing? Enjoy.

Country of Origin: China
Buy It Here: philamfood.com

Though these sweets look exotic and are guava-flavored—not your typical candy flavor—these hard treats will feel more familiar than they look. These tasty bits aren't too far off from a Lifesaver or Jolly Rancher. After trying a bag, you'll be ready to bump cherry from the Lifesaver bundle.

Country of Origin: Phillipines
Buy It Here: alibaba.com

Durian is an acquired taste, and a tough sell for Americans. Some folks will tell you the smell is similar to natural gas. Now, if you were 7, you'd be clamoring for that, if only to amaze friends and scare your sister. But as an adult unaccustomed to durian, some effort is required. But once you acclimate, you'll find it tastes sweet and creamy, like a custard.

Country of Origin: Peru
Buy It Here: Illegal in the United States

Be careful, both this candy and cocaine come from the coca leaf, so you could have trouble with airport security and the on-the-job drug test. Don’t count on getting too buzzed from Coca Candy, however, as the effects are similar to caffeine, with the added bonus of helping you cope with high altitudes. Fun and useful. Look for it abroad.

Country of Origin: Indonesia
Buy It Here: chimesgourmet.com

According to the folks at Chimes, stone grinding makes their ginger chews better than the competition. They should aso point out that the ginger they uses comes from the foot of a volcano–that might have something to do with their potency.

Country of Origin: Thailand
Buy It Here: amazon.com

Even companies that sell this candy admit it's an acquired taste. Those who have grown to love tamarind candies sing the praises of the sweet and sour flavors, working in unison, amplifying each other. Tamarind haters complain of the sour, somewhat spicy taste and the frequency with which tamarind vines and seeds wind up in the candies. Prove you're not a coward by becoming a fan.

Country of Origin: Indonesia
Buy It Here: efooddepot.com

This popular Indonesian candy bar will take your children from the Cro-Magnon era to the present, according to this commercial. That's the power of milk chocolate and cashews.

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: marukaiestore.com

Meiji is the best selling chocolate brand in Japan, and their line of products is vast. Their Chocolate Café in Tokyo offers 56 varieties of chocolate in flavors including black pepper, cheese, and lemon salt. When first stepping into their world, you'll want to try the Best Three package before tasting the more difficult flavors.

Country of Origin: Turkey
Buy It Here: libertyorchards.com

Turkish Delight is a sweet sugar-based gel that binds nuts, fruits, and other morsels within—imagine Fruit Cake but without the emotional baggage. In fact, its associations with Fruit Cake have kept it from making in-roads with American consumers. But when made with care by a manufacturer like Liberty Orchards, the confection is complex and delicious. Also contributing to the excellence of Turkish Delight: It's the candy responsbile for turning Edmund gluttonous in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Country of Origin: Japan
Buy It Here: marukaiestore.com

Finally, a candy that wants you to eat the wrapper. Your gross cousin will be thrilled. This lemon-orange flavored confection comes wrapped in a layer of rice paper—totally edible. The cool sticker packaged with each box? Not edible, unfortunately.

Country of Origin: Finland
Buy It Here: dutchsweets.com

Tyrkisk Peber (Turkish Pepper) uses ammonium chloride (the main ingredient in fireworks) and pepper to pack a punch, a spicy and salty licorice flavor unlike anything else. Be careful when indulging. If you find yourself alone on a cold Finnish night, try "salmiakkikoskenkorva," the liquor made from Turkish Pepper. These people have gone to great lengths to stay warm.

Country of Origin: Netherlands
Buy It Here: amazon.com

Like Turkish Pepper, this candy is flavored with ammonium chloride and also used to make booze. Known for the pain and pleasure it causes, Salmiak is beloved by S&M enthusiasts and sweet tooths alike. Common reactions to tasting Salmiak include "tongue-numbing" and "almost stinging." Some even find the taste physically overwhelming. American candy is for pansies.

Country of Origin: Thailand
Buy It Here: amazon.com

This Thai treat tastes like sweetened coffee—brilliant, right? Sometimes the best candies are the ones that take something delicious, and turn it into a small, hard rock of flavor.

Country of Origin: Finland
Buy It Here: shopicelandic.com

A chocolate bar wrapped in licorice? Where have you been all this time, you weird mother? Add epic commercials about space travel, and you've done everything right. Finland continues to prove their excellence at candy making and promotion.

Country of Origin: Cambodia
Buy It Here: importfood.com

Though variations of this traditional candy can be bought in shrink wrap, that time-tested seal of authenticity, true palm sugar candy is sold on road sides all over Cambodia. Since there are no preservatives in authentic palm sugar candy, you have to eat it on said road side. The Palm Sugar Tree is considered sacred, and by eating some of its insides as a sweet, you're ingesting something holy. Pure, uncut candy.

Country of Origin: Canada
Buy It Here: canadiansweets.com

One of the best candy puns ever, this bar offers a peanut butter caramel experience. We're pretty sure we had one of those back in college. Even when not stoned, this is special, like a Butterfinger but with more complexity.

Country of Origin: New Zealand
Buy It Here: productsfromnz.com

Stateside, lumps are generally associated with cancer and hard knocks, but the Kiwis associate lumps with these sweet pineapple and chocolate morsels. Here’s a commercial that makes light of New Zealand’s only being known for Pineapple Lumps, though we would remind them of Xena: Warrior Princess.

Country of Origin: New Zealand
Buy It Here: shopenzed.com

These chocolate-covered marshmallow confections are so popular in New Zealand that they are used as an expression for a job well done. So your obnoxious uncle or teacher might say, “Give that kid a chocolate fish” instead of “Give the kid a gold star” or whatever stupid thing is currently said. Get into a bag of chocolate fish, and you might find a substitute for the post-ballgame ride to Dairy Queen.

Country of Origin: Germany
Buy It Here: amazon.com

Kinder Surprises are a grail for Americans, and it's all the FDA's fault. Well, it's also because the chocolate is so creamy, and the toys each egg contains such fun—but mostly it's because of the FDA. See, Kinder Surprises are illegal in the States. That's right—illegal. Here's the FDA on the subject: "The imbedded non-nutritive objects in these confectionery products may pose a public health risk as the consumer may unknowingly choke on the object."

What risk? That we'll be too happy? Go to hell, FDA.