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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Gränna
A white stick candy with red spiral stripes and peppermint flavor, pulled and twisted by hand. It originated in Gränna, on the shore of Lake Vättern, where the widow Amalia Eriksson obtained a license to make it in 1859, and the town remains the center of its production.
Traditional sweet from Gränna, Jönköping
Also known as: Polkagrisar (plural), Äkta Gränna Polkagrisar, Gränna polkagris
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Polkagris — Gränna, Sweden
The polkagris is Sweden’s best-known stick candy: white, with a red spiral along its length and peppermint flavor. Its home is Gränna, on the shore of Lake Vättern in Jönköping County, where the candy has been made by hand since the mid-19th century in a way very similar to the original. Confectioners from other parts of the country learned the craft there.
The invention is attributed to Amalia Eriksson (1824–1923). Widowed shortly after her daughter’s birth, she asked Gränna’s magistrate for permission to open a confectionery and sell sweets, including the polkagris, and the license was granted on January 10, 1859. That is also the first written record of the name. The business prospered, other confectioneries opened in town, and Amalia Eriksson has a statue in Gränna.
The name combines polka, a popular dance of the 19th century, and gris, meaning “pig,” a word that at the time was also used for sweets. Gränna’s makers formed an association in 1946, defined criteria for the candy—such as being handmade—and registered the mark Äkta Gränna Polkagrisar in 1948, a name used since the early 20th century. Since 2022, that name has a protected geographical indication in the European Union and may only be used for polkagris made in Gränna.
The dough is made of sugar, glucose syrup, water and a little vinegar, boiled in an open pan in small batches. While still hot it is stretched and worked by hand, peppermint oil is added and it is joined with a red-dyed strip; it is then rolled and twisted into sticks that harden as they cool. In Gränna, several shops make the candy in front of visitors and sell sticks, lollipops and small candies in many colors and flavors in addition to the classic.
Gränna , Jönköping
Created in Gränna by Amalia Eriksson, who obtained the license to make it in 1859; the name Äkta Gränna Polkagrisar only applies to candy made in the town.
Sugar, glucose syrup, water, vinegar and natural peppermint oil; red coloring for the stripes.
As candy, in pieces broken from the stick or as lollipops; it is also a traditional travel souvenir.
Year-round sweet, present at fairs and Christmas markets; in Gränna, bought at the factories themselves.
Your questions
Amalia Eriksson, in Gränna. She obtained permission from the town magistrate to make and sell the candy in 1859.
The name combines polka, a dance fashionable in the 19th century, and gris, a word then used for sweets.
No. Since 2022 the name has a protected geographical indication in the European Union and applies only to candy made in Gränna.
Flavors of Sweden
Raw salmon fillet cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill, sliced very thin and served with hovmästarsås, a sweet mustard-and-dill sauce. The name means “buried salmon” and recalls the old method of preserving the fish under the ground.
Sweet yeast bread flavored with cardamom, rolled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and topped with pearl sugar. It is the pastry most associated with fika, the coffee break, and even has its own day in the Swedish calendar, Kanelbullens dag, on October 4.
Small meatballs made with ground meat, fried in butter and served with cream sauce, potatoes, lingonberry jam and pickled cucumber. They are Sweden’s best-known home dish, with the first printed recipe appearing in a 1755 cookbook.
Dome-shaped cake with layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream, and lots of whipped cream, covered by a green marzipan sheet and decorated with a pink marzipan rose. The name recalls the three princess daughters of Prince Carl, pupils of Jenny Åkerström, the recipe’s author.
Wheat bread with cardamom, cut open at the top, filled with almond paste and whipped cream and topped with the cut-off lid dusted with sugar. It’s the sweet eaten on fettisdagen, the Fat Tuesday, and descends from the hetvägg, bread eaten soaked in warm milk.
Tall, hollow, lace-like cake made from eggs, sugar and potato starch, poured little by little onto a rotating spit in front of heat, layer by layer. Decorated with white or pink icing, it is a celebratory sweet from Skåne, and the name Skånsk spettkaka is protected by the European Union.
Cubes of beef tenderloin, potato and onion browned separately and served side by side, with a raw egg yolk in the center and mustard or mustard cream. Named after the Hotel Rydberg, which operated on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm, where the dish is said to have originated.
Baked saffron rice pudding tart with eggs, cream and almonds, yellow in color, served warm or cold with salmbär jam and whipped cream. Despite the name “pancake,” it’s baked in a pan. It is the sweet most associated with the island of Gotland.
Baked dessert made from curdled milk using rennet, enriched with eggs, cream, sugar and almonds, with a moist, granular texture. Served warm with jam and whipped cream, it is the festival specialty most associated with the Småland region, with Swedish records dating back to the 16th century.
Large potato dough dumplings filled with bacon or pork and onion, cooked in water and served with melted butter and red bilberry jam. The Öland version, gray and made with raw potato, and the Småland version, lighter and made with cooked potato, are the best known.
Boiled dumpling made from raw grated potato and wheat or barley flour, filled with pork, served with butter and red bilberry jam. It’s an everyday food in northern Sweden, and the name comes from the town of Piteå, considered the Swedish center of palt.
Baltic herring, lightly salted and fermented, canned in summer; strong-smelling with a salty, acidic taste. It’s eaten on the thin flatbread tunnbröd with potato, red onion and sour cream, in a communal meal at the end of summer. The tradition links the dish to the Norrland coast and the island of Ulvön in the High Coast (Höga Kusten).
