One of the things I miss from the Netherlands are some kinds of sweets. I don’t have a sweet tooth at all, but sometimes I do remember candy which I haven’t had for a long time. Especially when I went back to the Netherlands 2 months ago. My mom bought some old fashion candy and the tastes came right back to me, without physically tasting them. What do my kids think of Dutch Candy when they tried these??? Great question. I’m going to do a taste test as soon as I was home in the USA again.
Old Fashion Dutch Candy
In the video below you’ll hear me explain at some point about some kind of Dutch candy (“Zoethout”). Next to my elementary school was a small shop, a gift shop and drug store. For 25 cents I could buy Zoethout. It is weird and old fashioned to chew on licorice root and suck on it for a long time. When the taste was gone, I cut the bristle part of the stick.
Or the candy sticks we bought at the fair. The goal was to suck a very sharp point on it. Then I bit it off and started all over again. My dad loved the nougat and cinnamon candy stick, which was more porous and less sweet.
What kinds of candy is typical Dutch?
When I first started to visit the USA in the early 2000’s, I liked all the different varieties of M&M’s for example or Oreo cookies. My favorite candy from the US are the York peppermint patties. I asked my husband, then boyfriend, to bring them from the US every time he visited.
Old fashion Dutch candy is made simple and with just a few ingredients. Color additions and artificial flavors were not a thing. Spices, like cinnamon the Dutch brought back from Indonesia. The Dutch were trying to get the power over all the cinnamon suppliers (island of Ceylon and the coasts of India).
These spices were used in all kinds of cookies, cakes and candy, like “speculaas” or cinnamon candy stick at the fair.
“Salmiak” is another flavor used in several typical Dutch candy varieties, like “zwart-witjes”.
“Salmiak” was invented by a Helsinkian confectioner in 1938.
But probably the most famous candy and not liked by everyone is licorice, called “Drop” in Dutch, which comes in all kinds of flavors, shapes and chewiness. The Dutch consume 4 pounds yearly on average per person. This makes them the largest consumers of licorice in the world.
Licorice was considered to be medicinal in Chinese and Ayurveda medicine and helped with sore throats for example. Nowadays licorice candy has too much sugar or even salt for that matter (look at the faces of my kids in the video when they tried Double Salted licorice!!)
Where to buy Dutch Candy?
As I mentioned before, during our trip to the Netherlands 2 months ago, I showed two of my kids the town where I lived and met dad. I forgot all about a candy store I used to go to once in a while. Of course my kids dove into the store before I saw which store it was.
”Jamin” Candy store turned out to have changed quite a bit, but I immediately saw some kinds of candy I hadn’t seen for a while. I decided to fill up a pointy plastic bag with all kinds of candy. This challenge was in the back of my mind.
Another store in the Netherlands sells typical Old Dutch Traditional Candy. This one is called the Dutch Gift Store. Besides candy, they sell all kinds of other gifts and best of all they can ship to wherever you are in the world.
There are other Dutch candy I haven’t mentioned and haven’t let my kids try this time. They actually liked trying out new things and doing these kinds of challenges. I’m already planning the next Dutch Candy Challenge!
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.