BUBS.

BUBS started in 1908 as a small confectionery in Jönköping, a town in the south of Sweden. The brand spent most of the 20th century quietly perfecting weird, small-batch candy that locals adored and the rest of the world had never heard of. The recipes — foam-and-chew skulls, sour ovals, layered fruit-and-licorice combinations — emerged slowly over decades and were tuned for the Swedish pick-and-mix counter, where each candy has to earn its place.

The brand's calling card is the skull shape, which isn't novelty — it's a flavour-delivery system. The cross-section layers a chewy fruit half on top of a foamy licorice base, so each bite carries two distinct notes. BUBS doesn't really do mass-market candy; the company is famously selective about flavours, and Swedes know them as the brand willing to make something genuinely strange if the texture is right.

For most of its history, BUBS was a respected domestic player with cult-status word-of-mouth elsewhere. Then TikTok happened. The viral 'Swedish candy' trend that exploded across Western social media in 2023-2024 had BUBS skulls at its centre — and the brand has been catching up to international demand ever since.

In late 2023 and through 2024, BUBS skulls became a TikTok phenomenon — Swedish-candy-haul videos pulling tens of millions of views and pushing American retailers to scramble for supply. BUBS partnered with Mount Franklin Foods for US production and distribution, and by 2025 had landed in roughly 35,000 US retail doors, including Kroger, Target, Walgreens, and Costco bulk packs.

In 2026, BUBS is doubling down: a new 10 oz sweet-and-sour mix launched at Walmart, Amazon expansion is underway, and the company has confirmed more new flavours coming this year. The viral moment is settling into something more durable — BUBS is becoming a mainstream international gummy brand without losing the small-batch character that made it interesting in the first place.