If you love both Halloween and French culture, why not give your next Halloween party a French touch by serving up some authentic French candies?
France has a long history with sweets, and some traditional candies and sugary treats are still fairly easy to find, including pralines and caramels. French grocery stores and supermarkets usually carry a pretty wide selection of mass-produced candies of all kinds, including classics like Tagada and Carambar. (If these names mean nothing to you, read on to learn just what, exactly, they are.)
Do French People Eat a Lot of Candy?
Although France isn’t even among the top ten sugar-consuming countries in the world, candies are still quite popular. Kids here use their pocket money or allowance to buy candies from the boulangerie or grocery store. Parents stick them into goody bags at their children’s parties. Sometimes, a kind shop or restaurant owner will give your kid a bonbon, just because. For a country where snacking is often sneered at, it’s pretty surprising how much candy a kid can accumulate.
Of course, that cultural disapproval of snacking is really more for adults, so kids are off the hook, as long as they don’t go too crazy. A lot of French adults I know claim they don’t care much about candy anyway, usually adding that it’s too sweet. But others keep it real and probably take a few pieces now and then. One thing a lot of French adults will admit to when it comes to candy is that many store-bought brands give them a great sense of nostalgia. Think of them as brightly colored, less healthy madeleines de Proust.
There’s no definitive ranking of the most popular candies in France, but some have been around for centuries, and a few even have a special place in the nation’s collective consciousness (at least for recent generations).
Here are some of the most popular kinds of candy you’ll come across in France today, as well as where to find them if you live in the U.S. and want to put a French spin on your Halloween offerings this year.
The Most Popular Types of French Candy
1. Les Fraises Tagada
If I had to pick a single, iconic French grocery store candy, it would be les Fraises Tagada. Often just called Tagada for short, these strawberry-flavored candies have a slightly resistant, brightly colored reddish-pink shell that encases a soft marshmallow interior. Their sweet strawberry taste is light and delicate—sort of like the candy equivalent of a macaron.
Tagadas were created in 1969 by Haribo, a German candy company that dominates the French market. Interestingly, while French kids certainly like them, Tagadas might be the one candy on this list that French adults also openly praise. In fact, in an interview with Le Nouvel Obs, Haribo’s French marketing director told the paper that in addition to kids, Tagadas are also very popular with consumers aged 25-49, who continue to eat them long after adolescence.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to get Tagadas or any rough equivalent in a U.S. grocery store. In fact, according to numerous sources, they’re pretty hard to find anywhere outside France. But you can order them online.
2. Caramels and Carambar
Caramel candies have existed in France for centuries, and you can even still find old school artisanal candy shops that sell some amazing homemade varieties. (My personal favorites are from Méert, a sweet shop originally from Lille known for their gaufres.) Today, you’re more likely in grocery stores to find bar-shaped caramels from the brand Carambar. There are some flavor variants to the original, which was created in France in 1954, but a Carambar of any flavor comes with something extra: a joke or two on the inside of its wrapper. These are cheesy puns for kids, but adults can definitely get a good laugh at them, too, and they can also be a fun challenge for French learners.
Carambar wrapper jokes are as much a part of the legend as the candy is. According to the treat’s official site, more than 5,000 Carambar jokes have been published, and if you’re feeling particularly witty, the site even invites fans to submit ones of their own.
Like Tagada, Carambar is a candy that’s still popular today, but also evokes childhood for lots of French people. It’s even name-checked in Renaud’s 1985 song “Mistral Gagnant”!
In the U.S., you can buy Carambars online, but if you can’t get your hands on any in time for Halloween, here’s a Carambar wrapper joke that my 10-year-old son recently found and thought was very clever: Quel est le fruit détesté par les poissons ? La pêche. (What fruit do fish hate? Peaches—which, in French, uses the same word as the one for fishing.)
3. Pralines
Roasted almonds or hazelnuts covered in caramelized sugar, pralines are an elegant and indulgent French treat that have been around since the 17th century. The most popular kind of pralines today are the ones made in Lyon. Often called pralines roses, they’re hard to miss on sweet shop shelves, since food coloring is added to them to give them a bright pink color. Anyone who’s visited Lyon will know that these pralines are so beloved they’re even added to brioches.
You can find pralines in candy shops and shops selling traditional or regional candies throughout France. In the U.S., you can find them in candy and chocolate shops, or order them online.
4. Les Petits Oursons Guimauve
Les Petits Oursons Guimauve are an iconic candy and chocolate hybrid. Created in 1962 by the French chocolate and candy company Cémoi, les Petits Oursons Guimauve (Little Marshmallow Bear Cubs)—more commonly just called Oursons Guimauve—are bear-shaped candies made of marshmallow covered in a thin chocolate coating. Eating an Ourson Guimauve is an interesting texture experience: Your teeth crack through the thin chocolate shell and end up sinking into soft marshmallow. And the flavor combination is sweet and indulgent, sort of the candy equivalent of cuddling with a teddy bear.
Today, many other brands make a version of oursons guimauve. The candy has even inspired famous French chefs (like Cyril Lignac) and prestigious chocolate companies (like Leonides and Jeff de Bruges) to create high-end versions. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find oursons guimauve in the U.S., but you can order them online through French candy and food websites. Or, you might even try to make your own!
5. Marshmallows
Believe it or not, marshmallows have roots that go all the way back to Ancient Egypt. Early candy fanatics used an extract of the mallow plant to create all kinds of sweet treats. Marshmallows only came to France in the late 18th century, but as if to make up for millennia of lost time, they were immensely popular from the start. Although marshmallow candies were soon being made with gelatin instead of mallow extract, their appeal has remained the same in France, even if they aren’t always as easy to find in grocery store candy store aisles as mainstays like les Petits Oursons Guimauve or Tagada (which, incidentally, are both made with marshmallows).
Haribo also makes marshmallows, called Chamallows, which are very popular in France. I’ve even heard French kids refer to marshmallows by this name, rather than the French word guimauve.
French marshmallows tend to be artificially colored more often than offerings in the U.S. You’ll typically find light pink or purple marshmallows here, and even Chamallows are a mixture of pink and white marshmallows. And despite their popularity, you won’t find people toasting them over a fire in the summer or adding them to S’mores.
Rather than looking in a grocery store, check your local pâtisserie for guimauves the next time you’re in France. These bakery versions are made fresh, and are so much better than what you can find in an industrial-sized plastic bag, light and airy with a delicate crunch of sugar on the outside.
6. Cola Bottle Gummies
Cola bottle gummy candies are about more than appearances—they not only look like bottles of soda, but they taste like cola, too. They’re a good choice for a candy mix, since the sweetness of other candies is toned down by the caramel cola tones. And if your guests want a little extra kick, you can also find cherry cola bottle gummies, as well sour cola and sour cherry cola varieties, too.
The most famous brands of cola bottle gummies are Franco-Belgian candy company Lutti and (you guessed it) Haribo. But there are so many off-brand (yet still delicious) cola gummies out there in France that any brand you find in your local grocery store in the U.S. will probably do the trick.
7. Haribo Candies
Founded in Germany in 1920, Haribo isn’t technically a French candy company, although there are several Haribo factories in France today. But it would be impossible to make a list of candies that are popular in France without including many of Haribo’s offerings. Tagada are so iconic that they even have a separate slot on our list, but other ones that are popular in France include Goldbears (the original gummy bears), Schtrompfs (Smurfs gummy candies), Dragibus (little colorful round candies that are a rough equivalent to jelly beans), and Croco (gummy crocodile-shaped candies whose white “bellies” are made of a thin layer of marshmallow).
You’ll come across these in kids’ goodie bags, sticky pockets, and in display cases at boulangeries as well as on most French grocery store shelves. You can probably find some of these candies, or other brands’ versions of them, at your local grocery store, as well—but they tend to taste better in France, since they are made with slightly different ingredients, producing a more appealing texture and less-artificial tasting flavors.
8. Calissons
Possibly the most complex candy on our list, calissons are a traditional specialty from the South of France, and are particularly associated with Aix-en-Provence. Dating back centuries, this intriguing treat is made up of an orange and melon fruit paste mixed with ground almonds, which is pressed into almond-shaped molds and topped with royal icing. The taste is refreshing and unique—so unique, in fact, that calisson makers have to follow strict guidelines and be located in Aix in order to use the “Calissons d’Aix” name.
You can find calissons in many large French grocery stores that sell regional specialties, as well as in artisanal sweet shops, especially in and around Aix-en-Provence. In the U.S., you might be able to find them in candy or specialty shops, or you can order them online.
What Other Candies are Popular in France?
The candies on our list are far from the only ones available in France. Others candies you’ll often come across in French grocery stores include Têtes Brûlées (basically the equivalent of Warheads), Krema (sort of like a fruit taffy), Lacets or Scoubidous (long strings of sweet or sour candy), and réglisse (licorice) in a myriad of shapes and taste combinations, among many others.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to add a few of the candies on our list to your Halloween party for a sugary, spooky French surprise. Bon appétit, fellow sugar lovers!
