Food52 Went to BonBon. Listed here are Our Ideas.

As part of our ongoing Snack Store video and editorial collection, Content material Intern Annie Arriaga investigates the newest and biggest viral snack outlets in New York Metropolis to see if the hype is actual, if the snacks are yummy, and if the spot is underrated, overrated, or completely rated.

In New York Metropolis, Swedish sweet retailer BonBon has taken the town—and its many, many chronically on-line residents—by storm. Sweet and all issues sugary are all the trend onTikTok, from #watertok to #candysalad, bitter Nerds Gummy Clusters to a $5-a-piece Swedish imported morsel, consuming candy treats (and filming your self doing it) are undoubtedly in model.

The Swedish sweet retailer opened its first location within the Decrease East Facet again in 2018, based by Swedish immigrants who needed to convey all of the candy, bitter, and salty confections of their residence nation to New York Metropolis. It was all good and regular till the spring of 2024 when strains started to kind outdoors the pink sweet retailer within the late hours of the evening (the shop is open till midnight) and so did the hype. Individuals started filming and posting movies of their BonBon experiences and changing into Swedish sweet consultants. Other than their brick-and-mortar places, in addition they ship their sweet all around the U.S.—excellent news for all those that wish to put up a BonBon sweet haul however aren’t close to the Huge Apple.

The #BonBon tag has over 240,000 posts and the #swedishcandy tag has over 15,000 posts on TikTok. Some #tastetest model movies, the place creators movie themselves tasting and reviewing BonBon’s scrumptious treats, garner as much as 7.8 million views. These numbers translate into real-time enterprise for BonBon, whose retailer typically runs out of finest promoting objects on weekends. I’ve a candy tooth and I like all issues sugar— however I used to be hesitant to make the journey to BonBon in worry of ready in line for longer than half-hour throughout a warmth wave. Apart from their places within the Decrease East Facet, Williamsburg, and the Higher East Facet, the confectionery model opened up their Pink Hook warehouse house to the general public in March.

Inquisitive about their latest location, I journeyed to Pink Hook to fulfill my candy tooth and examine the sugar-rushed hype.

The BonBon warehouse screams sweet oasis as you stroll up the economic road: swooping, cursive letters line the highest of the warehouse, and their massive shuttered door is painted a child pink, plastered with one in all their catchy slogans: “Rising Up Is A Entice.” As I approached, toddler women in pigtails and light-up sneakers holding their mother and father’ fingers squealed in pleasure alongside teams of mid20s yuppie males in khakis and polos as they eagerly ran as much as the carts of sweet. Evidently the BonBon phenomenon transcends generations.

Viral or not, the place is magical (even throughout a warmth wave). The inside is adorned within the cheery brand, posters of Swedish fish swimming, and the large carts of candies that are available in all shapes, sizes, and colours. Based mostly on my TikTok analysis, I knew that I used to be in search of bitter skulls, black licorice, and marshmallows— I acquired to scooping.
Black licorice is a supply of competition between many American sweet lovers and Swedish sweet aficionados. It’s a basic Scandinavian deal with made utilizing sugar, starch, wheat flour, dried licorice root extract, and salmiak powder (which is what makes it salty), in response to Vice. Sure, you learn that proper, it’s salty sweet. As I scooped black licorice into my private pink dishevelled, I contemplated the potential for shopping for a water bottle close by in case I discovered it revolting.

When you’ve seen the TikToks, you’ve additionally seen the worth tags: some folks pay upwards of $30 for a visit to BonBon. They cost you by weight, and fortunately, since I acquired round 10 items of sweet, my whole was slightly below $10. I took a seat at their out of doors benches and acquired to sampling.

I acquired my fingers on the pink and blue fizzy sugar cranium (which I’ve seen featured in lots of, many movies), which struck a very good stability of chewy, bitter, and candy. This wasn’t my private fav nevertheless it’s good to chomp on a sweet that’s completely chewy and does not style like plastic and red40.

It will get tough once we begin speaking concerning the marshmallows. Their basic vanilla marshmallow was pleasant, fluffy and full of delicate taste, as a marshmallow must be. Their banana marshmallow, which is each formed and coloured just like the yellow fruit, tasted like the everyday banana extract Laffy Taffy slap-in-your-face taste however the texture was, nicely, utterly completely different than I anticipated: Chewier, stretchier, and softer (in a foul manner).

Regardless of my skepticism, each the BonBon store itself and the sweet have been pleasant and engaging. The viral movies undoubtedly reside as much as the hype, however there’s nonetheless completely no manner I might ever wait in line longer than quarter-hour nor pay greater than $15 for a bag of the Swedish goodies. And so: I declare that BonBon is a completely rated snack store.

When you’re studying this and you’ve got a suggestion for a Snack Store within the metropolis that I have to go to and (truthfully) fee, go away a remark right here or on our Snack Store TikTok video. I like strategies!