How BUBS Became One of the World’s Most Famous Swedish Candy Brands
If you have spent any time watching candy videos on TikTok or Instagram, you have probably seen BUBS.
The colorful skulls and oval-shaped foam candies that have been familiar to Swedish candy lovers for years suddenly started appearing in candy hauls, taste tests and pick & mix videos around the world.
Today, BUBS is one of the most recognizable names in the Swedish candy trend.
But its story started long before TikTok.
From Huskvarna to the candy aisle
BUBS was founded in Sweden in 1992 by the Lindström family.
According to BUBS, the family even mortgaged their home to buy their first candy machine. Bernt, Ulrik, Birgitta and Stefan Lindström started making their own candy, eventually building BUBS into a familiar name in Swedish pick & mix.
For Swedish customers, candies such as BUBS skulls were not an internet trend. They were simply part of the huge selection of gummies, foam candy, sour candy and licorice found in Swedish candy stores and supermarkets.
That Swedish pick & mix culture would later become an important part of the brand’s international success.
BUBS already had something different
Social media helped introduce BUBS to millions of new people, but there had to be something worth discovering in the first place.
One of the biggest differences is the texture.
Many BUBS candies have a distinctive combination of soft foam and chewiness that feels quite different from a traditional gummy. Add unusual flavor combinations, sour coatings and instantly recognizable shapes such as skulls and ovals, and the candy is particularly well suited to taste-test videos.
BUBS also moved early toward plant-based candy. Today, the company’s entire range is vegan.
All of these things made BUBS stand out when people outside Sweden began discovering Swedish candy.
Then TikTok discovered Swedish candy
The real international explosion came with the Swedish candy trend on social media.
Videos of people visiting Swedish candy stores, building huge pick & mix bags and trying Swedish sweets for the first time began reaching enormous audiences.
BUBS was everywhere.
The colorful candies looked good on camera, the shapes were easy to recognize, and the unusual texture gave people something to talk about when they tried them.
Suddenly, candies that Swedes had been buying for years became products people on the other side of the world were actively searching for.
The #SwedishCandy trend eventually generated more than 120 million social media clips and views according to figures cited by BUBS and its owner, Orkla.
The demand became bigger than the supply
Going viral created an unusual problem:
There wasn’t enough BUBS.
International demand increased so quickly that keeping popular products in stock became difficult. Retailers and Swedish candy stores were competing for limited supply while customers searched online for their favorite BUBS varieties.
For a while, finding certain BUBS candies could be surprisingly difficult even though they were being produced in Sweden.
It was a good illustration of just how quickly social media can change the market for a product.
A candy can spend decades growing steadily at home and then suddenly be introduced to millions of potential customers around the world.
From Swedish favorite to international brand
There was another important change happening at roughly the same time.
Orkla acquired BUBS in 2023.
That gave the brand considerably more resources to expand production and distribution as international demand accelerated.
In 2025, Orkla announced another major investment in the BUBS factory in Jönköping. A third production line was planned that would eventually double production capacity.
The company had already increased capacity by approximately 25% during 2024.
It shows the scale of what happened: the Swedish candy trend didn’t just generate views on TikTok. It created enough real demand to require significantly more candy production.
America became especially important
The United States became one of the most visible markets for the Swedish candy boom.
American creators posted videos from Swedish candy stores, ordered pick & mix online and introduced followers to products that were completely normal to Swedish consumers.
Terms such as “Swedish candy” and “Swedish pick and mix” became part of the trend itself.
BUBS eventually moved beyond imported specialty candy and officially expanded its presence in the American market.
That is an important step in the story.
BUBS went from being something Americans discovered through imported Swedish candy to becoming a brand building a permanent presence in one of the world’s largest candy markets.
Why BUBS was perfect for the Swedish candy trend
BUBS benefited from great timing, but its success wasn’t only about timing.
The candy already had many of the characteristics that work particularly well online:
• recognizable shapes
• bright colors
• unusual flavor combinations
• a distinctive soft and chewy texture
• sour varieties that are fun to taste on camera
• vegan recipes
• a strong connection to authentic Swedish pick & mix culture
Most importantly, people didn’t just watch videos about BUBS.
They wanted to try it themselves.
That is what turned social media attention into actual demand.
A small part of a much bigger Swedish candy story
Perhaps the most interesting thing about BUBS’ success is that the company didn’t invent a completely new type of candy culture for the international market.
Much of what people were discovering already existed in Sweden.
Walking into a Swedish supermarket and filling a paper bag with different candies has been completely normal here for generations.
Sweet gummies next to sour foam candy, chocolate, licorice and salty salmiak might feel unusual to someone experiencing Swedish pick & mix for the first time.
For us, that’s just a candy aisle.
BUBS happened to become one of the most recognizable faces of that culture when the rest of the world started paying attention.
From Sweden to the world
More than three decades after the Lindström family bought their first candy machine, BUBS has become something very different from the company that started in Sweden in 1992.
But the products that made it famous internationally still have a very Swedish foundation: pick & mix candy, unusual flavors and the idea that choosing the candy is almost as much fun as eating it.
TikTok may have accelerated the journey.
The candy itself is what made people come back for another bag.
And for anyone outside Sweden discovering Swedish candy for the first time, there’s a good chance a BUBS skull or oval will be somewhere in that first pick & mix order.