Snoep · An encyclopedia of Dutch and Belgian confectioneryRecently revised entries from the Snoep encyclopedia.https://snoep.org/2026-05-10T00:00:00ZSnoephttps://snoep.org/CC BY-SA 4.0A buying guide abroad: where to find Dutch and Belgian sweetshttps://snoep.org/reference/buying-guide.html2026-05-10T00:00:00Z2026-03-19T00:00:00ZA practical reference to the diaspora shops of the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, the principal online importers, and the customs question for shipping.The chemistry of licoricehttps://snoep.org/reference/licorice-chemistry.html2026-05-09T00:00:00Z2026-03-15T00:00:00ZGlycyrrhizin and its sweetness multiple, ammonium chloride and its trigeminal mechanism, the EFSA daily limit, and the cardiovascular concern at high consumption.How drop is made: a manufacturing referencehttps://snoep.org/reference/how-drop-is-made.html2026-05-09T00:00:00Z2026-03-12T00:00:00ZFrom glycyrrhiza root to finished lozenge — the eight-stage industrial production process by which Dutch licorice is manufactured at scale.A glossary of Dutch candy termshttps://snoep.org/reference/glossary.html2026-05-08T00:00:00Z2026-03-08T00:00:00ZSixty Dutch and Flemish confectionery terms, alphabetically arranged, each with an IPA pronunciation, a brief definition, and a cross-reference.Drop: a complete guide to Dutch licoricehttps://snoep.org/drop/2026-05-08T00:00:00Z2026-01-12T00:00:00ZDrop is the defining sweet of the Netherlands and the most misunderstood candy in Europe. A reference entry on its forms, salt grades, history, and meaning.Kaneelstokken: cinnamon hard candyhttps://snoep.org/canon/kaneelstokken.html2026-05-08T00:00:00Z2026-03-08T00:00:00ZPink-and-white striped cinnamon sticks of boiled sugar, eaten over a long afternoon and overlapping the late Sinterklaas season.Droste: 1863, the Dutch chocolate househttps://snoep.org/makers/droste.html2026-05-07T00:00:00Z2026-03-05T00:00:00ZThe Haarlem chocolate firm whose 1904 cocoa-tin packaging gave the world the Droste effect — a recursive design term that has outlived most products that originally bore it.Spekkies: Dutch marshmallowshttps://snoep.org/canon/spekkies.html2026-05-07T00:00:00Z2026-03-04T00:00:00ZSofter, less sweet, less aggressively springy than the American original. The Dutch marshmallow is a quieter confection, sold by the bag and almost never toasted.Red Band: a century of wine gumshttps://snoep.org/makers/red-band.html2026-05-06T00:00:00Z2026-03-01T00:00:00ZThe Hellingman family's 1922 wine-gum house in Roosendaal, the inventor of the Winegum-Drum, and the firm whose name is synonymous with the Dutch gum-candy category.Schuimpjes: foam sweets in figural formhttps://snoep.org/canon/schuimpjes.html2026-05-06T00:00:00Z2026-03-01T00:00:00ZEgg-white-and-sugar foams whipped, piped, and dried into the small dragonfly and animal shapes that have populated Dutch sweet shops for a century.Klene: 1925, salt sweet and modernhttps://snoep.org/makers/klene.html2026-05-05T00:00:00Z2026-02-26T00:00:00ZThe Dutch licorice firm most strongly identified with the assertive end of the spectrum. Founded 1925 in Oosterhout, now part of Katjes International.Zuurtjes: sour drops and the Fortuin traditionhttps://snoep.org/canon/zuurtjes.html2026-05-05T00:00:00Z2026-02-25T00:00:00ZCitroen, framboos, anijs — the classical Dutch hard-candy flavours, made in Dordrecht since 1820 by Fortuin, the oldest continuously operating confectioner in the Netherlands.Toverbal: the colour-changing jawbreakerhttps://snoep.org/canon/toverbal.html2026-05-04T00:00:00Z2026-02-21T00:00:00ZA spherical hard candy eaten over forty minutes, with concentric layers of differently coloured fruit flavours that reveal themselves as the candy dissolves.Venco: 1870, the institution of Dutch licoricehttps://snoep.org/makers/venco.html2026-05-04T00:00:00Z2026-02-22T00:00:00ZFounded in Amsterdam in 1870 by Daniel van der Meer, moved to Hoogeveen for manufacturing in 1908, now a brand of Cloetta. The de facto reference for the entire Dutch drop trade.Speculoos: the spice biscuit that travelledhttps://snoep.org/belgian/speculoos.html2026-05-03T00:00:00Z2026-02-15T00:00:00ZA caramelised spice biscuit, a saint's-day baking, an everyday coffee accompaniment, and — through Lotus Biscoff — the Belgian confection that has gone furthest into the global vocabulary.Stroopwafels: from Gouda outwardhttps://snoep.org/canon/stroopwafels.html2026-05-02T00:00:00Z2026-02-17T00:00:00ZTwo thin wafers bound by a layer of caramel syrup, balanced on a hot cup to soften before eating. The most successful Dutch confectionery export of any kind.Belgian pralines: a 1912 inventionhttps://snoep.org/belgian/pralines.html2026-05-01T00:00:00Z2026-02-12T00:00:00ZJean Neuhaus II's chocolate shell with a soft filling — the form that defined an entire global category and made Belgium the country whose name the world associates with chocolate.Muisjes: aniseed comfits at a birthhttps://snoep.org/canon/muisjes.html2026-04-30T00:00:00Z2026-02-13T00:00:00ZThe pink-and-white or blue-and-white sugar-coated aniseed eaten on rusks at the birth of a child. De Ruijter, 1860, and a colour convention so durable that the Dutch royal family observes it.Babelutte: caramel of the Flemish coasthttps://snoep.org/belgian/babelutte.html2026-04-30T00:00:00Z2026-02-08T00:00:00ZBrown sugar and butter cooked together, twisted into wrapped sticks, sold from boardwalk shops along the West Flanders coast.Sinterklaas: the candy calendar of Decemberhttps://snoep.org/sinterklaas/2026-04-30T00:00:00Z2026-01-18T00:00:00ZNo country in Europe builds an entire confectionery season around a single feast day the way the Low Countries do. A reference entry on the Sinterklaas candy calendar.