Sweetish Candy Review 2026: Lancaster's Swedish Candy Pioneer, Tested

The Founding Story: A Vacant Storefront and Two Friends Who Studied in Lund

In the fall of 2018, Tyler Graybeal noticed a vacant storefront at 301 North Queen Street in downtown Lancaster. His two closest friends had both attended university in Lund, Sweden, and they kept telling him the same thing: Lancaster needed a Swedish-style candy store. The idea wasn’t born from a business plan or a market analysis. It came from two guys who missed Swedish candy and one guy with a vacant lease staring him down.

Graybeal flew to Sweden to see the concept firsthand. What struck him wasn’t the candy itself — it was how deeply embedded pick-and-mix culture was in everyday Swedish life. “It seemed to be everywhere, but not advertised or in your face, just a natural part of Swedish culture,” he told Lancaster Online in a 2019 profile. He signed a two-year lease and launched Sweetish Candy in 2019.

That two-year lease turned into something much bigger. By 2020, COVID forced Sweetish to launch an online store — a pivot that would prove critical. By 2023, they had launched Sweetish Wholesale, supplying other Scandinavian retailers across the US. And in 2024, the Swedish candy TikTok explosion hit, and everything changed.

The TikTok Surge: 30 Orders a Day to 10,000

In early 2024, a TikTok video featuring Swedish pick-and-mix candy went viral. The trend, which started at BonBon NYC’s Brooklyn locations, sent ripple effects through every Swedish candy retailer in the country. Sweetish went from roughly 30–50 online orders per day to receiving 10,000 orders within a matter of days.

NPR Marketplace covered the story on October 1, 2024, as part of their “My Economy” series. The episode documented how a small Lancaster candy store suddenly found itself at the center of a national trend it hadn’t started. NBC’s Today Show followed on March 18, 2024, naming Sweetish as a destination for vegan Swedish candies made with natural dyes. Food & Wine recommended them on February 26, 2024, noting the shop as a place to score authentic “Saturday candy” — the Swedish tradition of lördagsgodis.

The press coverage was real and verifiable. Unlike some competitors we’ve reviewed where media logos on the homepage don’t lead anywhere, Sweetish’s press mentions check out. NPR, NBC, Food & Wine — we found the actual articles and episodes for each one.

But the surge came at a cost. Online fulfillment times stretched well beyond the stated 2–4 business day processing window. Customer reviews from early-to-mid 2024 tell a consistent story: long waits, slow customer service responses, and a team that was clearly overwhelmed. To their credit, Sweetish was transparent about the situation — but if you ordered during that window, your experience likely suffered.

Two Lancaster Locations: What to Expect In-Store

Sweetish now operates two physical locations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Both are open and operating on regular schedules as of our March 2026 review.

Sweetish Queen St. (Downtown) at 301 North Queen Street is the original location, sitting in Lancaster’s walkable downtown corridor. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday 10 AM to 6 PM, Friday and Saturday 10 AM to 8 PM, and Sunday 11 AM to 5 PM. Closed Mondays. This is the flagship — the one with the full pick-and-mix wall and the most foot traffic.

Sweetish North (Granite Run) at 250 Granite Run Drive opened in 2024 to handle growing demand. Hours run Monday through Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. This location is in the Granite Run area on Lancaster’s north side, easier to reach by car than the downtown store.

The in-store experience is where Sweetish genuinely excels. The downtown location features a pick-and-mix wall with over 200 bins of Swedish candy — gummies, sour belts, foam candies, salty licorice, and chocolate. The layout draws directly from Swedish candy shops: you grab a bag, fill it yourself, and pay by weight. For anyone who’s been to a Swedish grocery store and headed straight for the godis section, this feels right.

Yelp reviewers consistently call out the staff as friendly and knowledgeable, the store as clean and well-organized, and the selection as genuinely different from anything else in the area. Lancaster has plenty of candy stores — Miesse Candies has been making handmade chocolates since 1847, and Lancaster Sweet Shoppe does fresh stroopwafels — but none of them do Swedish pick-and-mix. Sweetish owns that niche completely.

Next door at 305 North Queen Street, Sweetish operates a sister store called DROM, a 900-square-foot Nordic home goods shop selling candles, house shoes, outdoor gear, and holiday décor. The candy collection eventually outgrew the original space, so the home goods got their own storefront. It’s a nice touch that adds to the overall Scandinavian experience if you’re visiting in person.

Product Selection: 200+ Varieties Across Multiple Brands

Sweetish stocks over 70 different varieties in their pick-and-mix wall, with a total catalog exceeding 200 products when you include packaged items. The brand mix covers Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish candy — though Swedish brands dominate, as you’d expect.

BUBS is prominently featured, which makes sense given the brand’s role in the 2024 TikTok explosion. You’ll also find Malaco, Marabou chocolate, and a rotating selection of seasonal items. Sweetish markets several product attributes that matter to health-conscious buyers: many items are gelatin-free, gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and made with natural colorants — a point NBC’s Today Show specifically highlighted.

For a direct catalog comparison across the market:

Store	Online Products	In-Store Pick & Mix	Physical Locations
Sweetish Candy	200+	200+ bins	2 (Lancaster, PA)
Sockerbit	~149	100+ bins	1 (Los Angeles, CA)
Goodis	313	None (online only)	0
Mums	~20	None	0 (online only)
BonBon NYC	Limited	100+ bins	6 (NYC metro)

The key differentiator: Sweetish is one of the only stores in the US that offers both a deep in-store pick-and-mix experience and a full online catalog. BonBon NYC has more physical locations but limited online presence. Goodis has more online SKUs but no physical stores. Sweetish covers both channels, which makes it uniquely positioned for customers who discover them online and later visit, or vice versa.

Pricing and Shipping: Competitive but Not the Cheapest

Sweetish offers free shipping on orders over $75 — which places them in the middle of the market. For comparison:

Store	Free Shipping Threshold	Processing Time
Sweetish Candy	$75	2–4 business days
Mums	$69	1–2 business days
Goodis	$99	1–3 business days
Sockerbit	Varies	2–3 business days

The $75 threshold is reasonable — $6 higher than Mums but $24 lower than Goodis. Where Sweetish loses points is processing time. That 2–4 business day handling window means your order might not ship for nearly a week, and that’s before carrier transit time. USPS, UPS, and FedEx are all available, but the pre-shipment delay is the bottleneck.

One important detail for summer orders: Sweetish offers a cold shipping add-on for orders containing chocolate when temperatures exceed 75°F. If you skip the cold shipping option and your chocolate arrives melted, they won’t issue a refund. It’s clearly stated in their shipping policy, but it’s the kind of thing that catches people off guard. If you’re ordering Marabou bars in July, add the cold shipping.

Online Experience vs. In-Store: A Gap That Matters

The in-store experience at Sweetish is, by virtually all accounts, excellent. Yelp reviewers give the downtown location 60+ reviews with consistently positive feedback about the atmosphere, staff, and selection. The Chamber of Commerce lists them at 4.5 out of 5 stars across 275 reviews, with 88% recommending the business.

The online experience is more complicated.

Trustpilot puts Sweetish at 3.7 out of 5 — a number that reflects genuine frustration from online customers, particularly during the 2024 surge. The complaints follow a pattern: orders taking longer than expected, customer service responses that came slowly during peak periods, and occasional reports of candy arriving past its expiration date.

That said, the pre-2024 and post-surge reviews paint a different picture. Customers outside the viral window generally report accurate shipping times, good product quality, and the occasional free sample thrown in. The 3.7 Trustpilot score is dragged down by a specific period of operational overload, not by systemic problems.

The honest assessment: if you’re within driving distance of Lancaster, visit in person. The pick-and-mix wall, the staff, the atmosphere — it’s the kind of experience that online ordering can’t replicate. If you’re ordering online, set realistic expectations on timing and order during non-peak periods when possible.

Social Media and Community: Building Beyond the Viral Moment

Sweetish’s social media presence reflects a store that grew up with TikTok but isn’t defined by it. Their TikTok account (@sweetishcandy) has 21,000 followers with 133,500 likes — solid numbers for a two-location candy store, but not the viral-factory scale of some competitors. Instagram (@sweetishcandystore) sits at 12,000 followers with over 2,400 posts, showing consistent engagement over years rather than a single spike.

The most notable social media moment came when Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office) posted an Instagram video sampling Sweetish candy with YouTuber Joe Vulpis, commenting “I hear great things about them.” Lancaster Online covered the endorsement. It’s the kind of organic celebrity nod that money can’t buy — and it speaks to Sweetish’s growing cultural cachet beyond the candy world.

In January 2025, Sweetish exhibited at the Specialty Food Association’s Winter Fancy Food Show in Booth #1563 — a trade event that signals they’re thinking about B2B and wholesale growth, not just direct-to-consumer retail. This aligns with their 2023 launch of Sweetish Wholesale.

The Competitive Picture: Where Sweetish Fits

The US Swedish candy market has gotten crowded since 2023. Where does Sweetish actually fit?

Versus BonBon NYC: BonBon has six physical locations across the New York metro area and was arguably the store that kicked off the entire Swedish candy trend in the US. Their in-store experience is comparable to Sweetish’s, but they’re concentrated in one metro area. Sweetish wins on online reach and shipping nationwide. BonBon wins on physical accessibility for the 20+ million people in the NYC metro.

Versus Sockerbit: Sockerbit (DR 36, 564 referring domains) is the most established brand in the space, with a flagship Los Angeles location and strong online presence. Their selection is comparable to Sweetish’s, and they’ve been doing this longer. Sweetish’s advantage is the East Coast location — if you’re on the Eastern Seaboard, a Lancaster visit is far more accessible than flying to LA.

Versus Mums Swedish Candy: Mums is online-only, BUBS-focused, and runs a tight operation with fast shipping from their US warehouse. If you specifically want BUBS candy shipped quickly at $69 free shipping, Mums is hard to beat. But their catalog is tiny compared to Sweetish’s 200+ products, and they don’t offer the pick-and-mix experience at all.

Versus Goodis: Goodis wins on sheer catalog size (313 products) and dietary filtering, but they’re an online-only operation that launched in late 2024 with no physical stores and zero Trustpilot reviews despite claiming 60,000+ customers. Sweetish has the track record, the press credentials, and the in-person experience that Goodis simply can’t match yet.

What We’d Change

No store is perfect, and Sweetish has a few areas where improvement would make a meaningful difference:

Shipping speed. The 2–4 business day processing time before shipping begins is the single biggest drag on the online experience. Mums processes in 1–2 days. For a store with wholesale infrastructure and a dedicated team, getting that processing window down to 1–2 business days should be achievable and would significantly improve online customer satisfaction.

Trustpilot recovery. The 3.7 rating reflects a specific surge period, not the current operation. Sweetish should actively encourage post-purchase Trustpilot reviews to rebuild that score now that operations have stabilized. A proactive review strategy could push them above 4.0 within a few months.

Website product information. The online store could do a better job of documenting individual candy flavors, ingredients, and Swedish context. Most items have basic descriptions, but adding the story behind each candy — what makes a BUBS Skull different from a Malaco gummy, or why Swedes eat specific candies on Saturdays — would help online shoppers who can’t taste before buying.

The Bottom Line

Sweetish Candy is the real deal. Tyler Graybeal opened this store in 2019, years before Swedish candy became a TikTok trend, and the operation has grown organically from a single downtown Lancaster storefront to two locations, a wholesale division, and national shipping. The press coverage is legitimate and verifiable. The in-store experience is among the best in the country. The product selection covers the full spectrum of Swedish candy, not just whatever’s trending on social media this week.

The weak spot is online fulfillment — processing times are slower than competitors, and the 2024 surge left some scars on their review profiles. But these are growing pains, not fundamental problems. A store that went from 30 daily orders to 10,000 in a matter of days and survived to tell the story has operational resilience that matters.

If you’re anywhere near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, visiting in person is the move. If you’re ordering online, Sweetish delivers an authentic selection at fair prices — just factor in the processing time and consider the cold shipping option for summer orders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Sweetish Candy located?

Sweetish operates two stores in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The original downtown location is at 301 North Queen Street. The second location, Sweetish North, is at 250 Granite Run Drive. Both are currently open with regular hours.

Does Sweetish Candy ship nationwide?

Yes. Sweetish ships to all 50 states and internationally via USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Free shipping kicks in at $75. Processing time is 2–4 business days before carrier transit begins.

Is Sweetish Candy the same as Sockerbit or BonBon?

No. Sweetish, Sockerbit, and BonBon NYC are completely separate companies. All three specialize in Swedish pick-and-mix candy, but they’re independently owned and operated in different cities — Sweetish in Lancaster PA, Sockerbit in Los Angeles, and BonBon in New York City.

Does Sweetish Candy have vegan options?

Yes. Sweetish stocks multiple vegan-friendly Swedish candies made without gelatin and with natural colorants. NBC’s Today Show specifically highlighted their vegan selection in March 2024. Look for the dietary labels on individual products.

Was Sweetish Candy really on NPR?

Yes. Sweetish was featured on NPR Marketplace on October 1, 2024, in the “My Economy” series. The episode covered how the store went from a small operation to handling thousands of orders after a TikTok-driven Swedish candy trend. They were also covered by NBC’s Today Show and Food & Wine Magazine in early 2024.

What is Sweetish’s return policy?

Due to the perishable nature of candy, returns are limited. Sweetish does not refund for chocolate damage from heat if the cold shipping option was not selected. Contact their customer service for issues with damaged or incorrect orders.