You’re in for a treat

The Netherlands is known for several things; tulips, clogs, cheese and windmills. But did you know the Dutch also have a sweet tooth? We consume around 36 million KG of candy a year; that means we eat more sweets than meat!
Traditions, traditions and even more traditions…
Most of our candy stems from traditions and areas. The tompouce (or mille-feuille) for example, originated in Amsterdam and is a traditional pastry consisting of puff pastry and cream, complete with a pink topping. On King’s Day however, the topping is dyed orange in honor of the royal family, orange being the national color. Another color-related tradition is to bring a shortbread or rusk when a baby is born. When it’s a girl, this rusk is topped with white and pink sugary anise seeds, white and blue when it’s a boy.
Candy also has the spotlight in several festive days; Saint Nicholas is a holiday for children and is packed with traditions such as placing shoes filled with carrots near a chimney (weird, we know). During that time of the year, supermarkets are stocked with ‘speculaas’ (a variant of gingerbread), marzipan and ‘taaitaai’. Speculaas and taaitaai are quite similar in taste (sweet with spices). But where speculaas is crunchy, taaitaai (meaning tough) is chewy and requires strong teeth and a firm grip to take a bite.
What’s with all the liquorice? Not all candy is dipped in tradition though. One of the best-known Dutch sweets is liquorice, called ‘drop’ in Dutch. The taste of this popular candy can be divided into two categories: sweet or salty. We do recommend to try the sweet option to get used to the taste. If you’d ask any person what Dutch people like most, you are bound to hear liquorice.
We can’t wait to show you around all our favorite candy stores, introducing you to even more types of Dutch sweets! Have you tried any of these and what’s your favorite? We would love to know!