BonBon - A Swedish Candy Co.

"With a variety of outlets in NYC, BonBon peddles candy specialties imported from Sweden. Many are gummies of one hue or another, in various novel shapes, including the vaunted Swedish fish, but other flavors, including sour and salty, are less familiar. Other specialties include licorice pipes and miniature flavored marshmallows, everything sold by the pound. The Williamsburg location is fittingly across from the movie theaters, but the BonBon Red Hook headquarters has a hot dog pop-up on the weekends." - Robert Sietsema

"It’s easy to understand why this excellent Swedish candy store, with multiple locations, has a cult following. Not only do they sell hard-to-source treats with unique textures and vibrant flavors, but everything about BonBon is aesthetically pleasing, down to the pale pink paper bags and gold scoops. The candy (marshmallows, licorice, nougat, chocolate, and more) costs $4.50 per quarter pound. We haven’t tried anything here we wouldn’t gladly shove fistfuls of into our mouths, bags and pockets, but some highlights include the cloud-soft marshmallow mushrooms, the brain-zappingly sour raspberry pucker bottles, and the sour Rambo strawberry licorice tubes, filled with vanilla cream." - molly fitzpatrick, will hartman, willa moore

"This Swedish candy store, with locations on the LES, Williamsburg, Red Hook and the Upper East Side, has a cult following, and it’s easy to understand why. Apart from the fact that they sell adorable, hard-to-source treats with unique textures and vibrant flavors, everything about BonBon is aesthetically pleasing, down to the pale pink paper bags and gold scoops—like the handiwork of a girly-pop Willy Wonka. The candy here—marshmallows, licorice, nougat, chocolate, and more—costs $4.50 per quarter pound. Expect to quickly lose your grasp on any concept of money, or what constitutes a reasonable quantity of sweets for one human being to consume. We haven’t tried anything at BonBon that we wouldn’t gladly shove fistfuls of into our mouths, bags, pockets, and other conceivable candy-transporting vessels. But highlights include the butterbeer-adjacent caramel twists, cloud-soft marshmallow mushrooms, brain-zappingly sour raspberry pucker bottles, green-apple fizzy frogs, and—our favorite— sour Rambo strawberry licorice tubes, filled with vanilla cream. photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff BonBon is open until midnight—a good potential epilogue to a drinks or dinner date. You may find them sold out of particularly internet-famous treats, like foamy Bubs ovals and sour cola skulls, but the friendly staff are quick to offer suggestions and free samples. Keep in mind that cute as it is, this small storefront can sometimes feel claustrophobic, especially when customers dissociate into a candy reverie, standing in place, transfixed by a tub of cat-shaped gummies." - Molly Fitzpatrick

"Around 10 p.m. on a recent Friday night, the line at BonBon in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was out the door. This Swedish candy shop, where people fill bags of imported sweet-and-sour gummies and salty black licorice and pay for them by weight, has three locations in New York City, all of them open until midnight. BonBon draws on Sweden’s candy culture, offering mouth-puckering, grapefruit gummy shrimp and foamy-feeling, raspberry gummy ovals." - Bettina Makalintal

"This Swedish candy store on the LES typically has chocolate and vanilla soft serve available. They’re open every day from 10am to midnight, so keep this in mind when you’re on the Lower East Side late at night and you’d like a dollop of cold sugar." - Hannah Albertine