Most of us grew up arguing about serious questions like “chocolate or gummies?” or “sour or sweet?” Very few of us, however, had to decide whether we wanted lamb-flavored caramels, perfume-scented sticks of sugar, or a gummy bug you have to squeeze until it lights up. Welcome to the wonderfully weird universe of strange candies from around the world.
In 2019, Listverse rounded up some of the oddest sweets ever produced, and it still reads like a dare between friends who snack too much and think too hard. Building on that list (and checking other candy and travel sources from the U.S. and beyond), this guide walks you through ten of the strangest candies, what they taste like, where they come from, and why people actually love them.
By the end, you’ll either be filling your cart with salted licorice and chili “spaghetti”… or vowing never to complain about plain old candy corn again.
Why weird candy exists (and why people love it)
Candy isn’t just sugar on a stick. It’s a tiny, edible snapshot of culture. Confectioners take familiar flavors from local dishesbarbecued lamb in Hokkaido, chili-tamarind sauce in Mexico, musky perfume in Australiaand transform them into sweets. Travel writers and food journalists have documented how these odd treats often start as local novelties and then become cult favorites or viral “challenge” foods for tourists.
In many countries, what outsiders call “weird” is simply “nostalgic.” Kids grow up chewing on salty licorice in Finland or musky pink sticks in Australia the way Americans grow up with peanut butter cups. The result is a candy aisle that doubles as a crash course in taste preferences, tradition, and sometimes, weaponized flavor.
With that in mind, let’s tour ten of the most unforgettable candies made anywhere on Earth.
The 10 strangest candies from around the world
1. Lamb caramels (Japan)
Imagine barbecued lamb in caramel form. That’s essentially what Hokkaido’s infamous “Genghis Khan” lamb caramels deliver. Inspired by a local mutton barbecue dish, a food company reportedly repurposed an underperforming sauce by turning it into a chewy caramel with a meaty, curry-like flavor and a hint of sweetness.
Reviews from adventurous snackers describe the experience as “lamb stew meets Halloween candy.” Your brain expects buttery sugar; instead, it gets grilled meat with sugar on top. It’s less of a dessert and more of a prank you give your foodie friend… or that one relative who boasts they’ll “eat anything once.”
2. Salsagheti (Mexico)
If pasta and candy had a chaotic baby, it would look a lot like Salsagheti. This Mexican treat consists of long, watermelon-flavored gummy “noodles” dusted in chili-tamarind powder and served with a packet of tangy, spicy sauce that acts as “salsa.”
To eat it, you drizzle the tamarind sauce over the candy so it resembles spaghetti in red sauce, then twirl and slurp. The flavor hits sweet, sour, salty, and spicy all at once, which explains why it’s a staple at parties and street stalls. To someone raised on mild fruit chews, it’s a sensory overload; to many Mexicans, it tastes like childhood.
3. Kitten Tongue chocolate (Central Europe)
Before you panic, no kittens are harmed in the making of this candy. “Kitten tongue” chocolatesoriginally produced in Vienna and still sold in Czechia and surrounding countriesare slim, curved chocolate pieces shaped roughly like small tongues.
The packaging often features fluffy kittens, which somehow makes the idea both cuter and creepier. Flavor-wise, they’re just simple, milky chocolate, so the weirdness is almost entirely psychological. This candy proves that you don’t need insects or chili powder to make something unsettling; sometimes, it’s all in the name and the design.
4. Botan Rice Candy (Japan)
Botan Rice Candy is legendary among international snack boxes: soft citrus-flavored cubes wrapped in a layer of edible rice paper. The gimmick is that you can pop the whole thing into your mouth“wrapper” and alland the translucent rice film simply dissolves.
While the flavor is gentle and sweet, the texture is a bit sticky, and the disappearing “wrapper” feels almost like a magic trick. The candy has been sold in U.S. Asian markets for decades, usually in a small orange box with a collectible sticker inside. It’s weird in a whimsical way: not gross, just delightfully confusing.
5. Chocolate bar with cheese and onion crisps (Ireland)
Most chocolate bars stick to safe mix-ins like nuts or caramel. Irish snack brand Tayto, famous for its cheese and onion potato chips, decided that wasn’t nearly chaotic enough. For a limited time, they sold a milk chocolate bar studded with bits of their best-selling cheese and onion crisps.
Fans described the bar as a strange collision of creamy sweetness and tangy, savory crunch. Some reviewers found it intriguing for a bite or two, then overwhelming; others claimed it tasted like someone dropped a candy bar into a bowl of chips at a party. Either way, it now lives on in snack lore as a glorious, short-lived experiment.
6. Musk sticks (Australia & New Zealand)
Musk sticks look innocent enough: pastel pink, ridged sticks of sugar sold in bags at supermarkets and corner shops across Australia and New Zealand. The shock comes when you bite in and get a flavor that many describe as “chewing perfume” or “eating your grandmother’s potpourri.”
They’re made with a floral, musky flavoring that’s intensely divisive. Some people adore the slow-dissolving texture and nostalgic scent; others say they taste like scented drawer liners. Yet Australians buy millions of them every year, proving that what seems bizarre to outsiders can be comfort food at home.
7. Creamy Corn Candy (Malaysia)
Victory Creamy Corn Candy takes something usually served steaming in a bowlcreamed cornand decides it should be a pocket-sized sweet instead. The hard candies are flavored with a rich, buttery corn taste meant to mimic a savory side dish rather than dessert.
Fans say they’re surprisingly pleasant if you enjoy sweet corn ice cream or corn pudding. Skeptics argue they taste like someone boiled corn in sugar syrup and then forgot to add anything else. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish Thanksgiving could fit in my purse,” this might be the candy for you.
8. Percy Pig (United Kingdom)
At first glance, Percy Pig gummies from British retailer Marks & Spencer look like any other cute fruit-flavored candy. The twist? The original version used pork gelatin, making these pink pig faces literally pig-based candy.
Despite (or because of) that odd fact, Percy Pig developed a massive fan base. There are now spin-off flavors, sour “Phizzy Pig Tails,” and even Percy-themed merchandise. The brand has introduced vegetarian versions too, but the strange legacy remains: a candy icon that was once a pork product wearing its own face.
9. Salt licorice (Northern Europe)
Salted black licoriceoften called salmiakkiis the ultimate friendship test candy. Popular in Finland, the Netherlands, and across Scandinavia, it’s made with ammonium chloride, which gives it a sharp, salty, almost medicinal punch.
Locals start eating it as kids and typically graduate from mild versions to extreme “skull and crossbones” levels of intensity. Outsiders, meanwhile, often describe the flavor as “licking a salty battery” or “eating black cough drops for fun.” Still, the candy is so beloved that it has inspired ice creams, sodas, and even liqueurs.
10. Lightning Bug Gummies (United States)
Lightning Bug Gummies are the closest thing candy has to a built-in special effect. Each bag comes with small gummy “bugs” and a plastic tweezer gadget with a tiny LED inside. When you pinch the bug with the tweezers, it completes a circuit and lights up.
The gummies themselves are fruit-flavored and fairly tame; the weirdness lies in the interactive, glow-in-the-dark factor. It’s less “strange flavor” and more “How is this safe and also delicious?” The answer: the light stays in the tool, not the candy, so you can snack without accidentally swallowing electronics.
More bizarre candies worth mentioning
Listverse highlighted ten of the strangest, but they’re not alone. Travel and food writers regularly point out other head-turning sweets: wasabi-flavored Kit Kats in Japan, bacon mints in the United States, chili-powdered gummy spaghetti in Mexico, and tamarind-and-salted-plum candies in parts of Asia and Latin America.
There are also insect lollipopshard candy with real crickets or scorpions embedded insidesold as gag gifts and tourist souvenirs. These don’t necessarily taste wild (they’re often just sugary with a nutty crunch), but the visual shock is enough to earn them a place in any “weird candy” starter pack.
How to taste strange candies without regretting everything
If you’re tempted to run your own weird-candy tasting party, a little strategy helps:
- Start mild. Try kitten tongue chocolate or Botan Rice Candy before you jump into lamb caramels or ultra-salty licorice.
- Cut pieces small. You don’t need a whole musk stick to decide whether “chewing perfume” is your thing.
- Pair with something familiar. Sip plain tea or water between bites to reset your taste buds.
- Respect local favorites. What feels like a prank to you might be someone else’s comfort snack.
Approach these sweets like you would street food in a new countrywith curiosity, caution, and a sense of humor.
Experiences with the world’s strangest candies
Reading about weird candy is one thing. Watching people actually eat it is where the fun really starts. Food vloggers and travel creators have built entire video series around tasting “the strangest candies we could find,” and the reactions are incredibly consistent: bravado at the start, confusion in the middle, and either delight or betrayal at the end.
Picture a tasting night with friends. Someone brings a bag of lamb caramels from Hokkaido, another shows up with a giant variety pack of Mexican candiesSalsagheti, tamarind-chili lollipops, salted plum suckersthe works. Someone else orders insect lollipops online “for the content.” At first, everyone goes for the safe bets: kitten tongue chocolates, Botan Rice Candy, maybe Percy Pig gummies. Phones are out, cameras rolling, everyone laughing.
Then the lamb caramel box opens. The smell hits first: a faint whisper of curry and grilled meat, wrapped in something that looks exactly like a regular caramel. The bravest friend volunteers as tribute, unwraps one, and pops it in. For a few seconds, there’s silence while their brain plays flavor Tetris. Then comes the verdict: “It tastes like someone poured gravy into dessert.” Half the room recoils; the other half suddenly wants to try it.
Next up is salt licorice. The group has heard the legends: kids in Finland grow up on this stuff; tourists spit it out dramatically on camera. Someone passes around tiny black lozenges with skulls printed on the package. The first bite is sweet, then sharply salty, then oddly medicinal. Reactions range from “This is actually amazing” to “Why does it taste like I just licked a battery?” Meanwhile, the one Scandinavian friend in the group casually eats three in a row and asks if there’s a stronger version.
Musk sticks are often the sleeper chaos agent. They look pastel and friendly, so people assume they’ll taste like strawberry or bubblegum. The moment that floral, cologne-like flavor blooms across the tongue, facial expressions do all the talking. Some people are instantly transported to childhood memories of lolly bags and school fetes. Others insist it tastes like soap. The cultural gap becomes obvious in real time: what’s nostalgic for one person is “air freshener in candy form” for another.
And then there are the insect candies. When a box of scorpion lollipops or cricket pops hits the table, the room usually divides into three camps: “Absolutely not,” “Only if everyone else does it,” and “Point the camera at me.” The taste itself is usually underwhelmingjust hard candy with a subtle, nutty crunch from the bugbut the psychological hurdle is enormous. The victory selfie at the end, though, is priceless.
What these tasting sessions reveal is that strange candy isn’t just about shock value. It’s a conversation starter. People trade stories about snacks from their own childhood, argue over which flavors are truly “disgusting,” and end up learning a little bit about each other’s cultures. A bag of Salsagheti can open the door to a discussion about Mexican street food; salted licorice leads to talk about Nordic winters and cozy movie nights; musk sticks trigger stories about growing up in Australia.
In other words, bizarre sweets do exactly what candy has always done: they bring people together. They just add a few extra facial expressionsand maybe a glowing gummy bug or twoalong the way.
Conclusion: Are strange candies brilliant or just bizarre?
From lamb caramels in Japan to LED-powered gummies in the United States, strange candies push the boundaries of what we think “sweet” should be. Some of them taste genuinely good once you get past the surprise; others are more like edible dares that live forever in your group chat.
But that’s the real charm of these treats. They challenge your taste buds, reveal cultural quirks, and turn snacking into an experience instead of a habit. Whether you fall in love with salt licorice or never forgive musk sticks, you’ll walk away with a storyplus a new appreciation for your boring, reliable chocolate bar.
