Living outside Sweden has a funny way of making very ordinary foods suddenly feel remarkably important. A packet of knäckebröd, the right coffee, a tube of Kalles Kaviar or a bag of salty licorice can go from being something you barely thought about at home to something you would happily make room for in your suitcase.
And it is not only Swedes living abroad who are looking. More people are discovering Swedish food through travel, family, friends, social media and curiosity about Scandinavian culture, only to realise that the Swedish supermarket favourites they tried on holiday are not always easy to find once they get home.
The good news is that a surprisingly large part of the Swedish pantry can be ordered online and shipped internationally. Crispbread, coffee, candy, chocolate, preserves, baking ingredients, soups, sauces, spreads and plenty of other familiar Swedish products travel particularly well. Other foods require a little more consideration because of temperature, weight or destination-specific import rules.
At Swedish Cravings, we source Swedish products in Sweden for customers living in many different countries around the world. But this guide is about more than simply pointing you towards a shop. We want to help you understand what is practical to order, what travels well and where to begin if the Swedish supermarket suddenly feels very far away.
Where Can You Buy Swedish Food Online from Abroad?
If you live outside Sweden, one of the easiest ways to find a broader selection of Swedish groceries is through an online shop that specialises in Swedish or Scandinavian products and ships internationally.
The important word here is selection. Finding one jar of lingonberry jam locally may not be particularly difficult. Finding Kalles Kaviar, Swedish coffee, proper knäckebröd, baking ingredients, Marabou, salty licorice and the exact packet of soup you remember from home in the same place is another matter entirely.
This is where specialised online Swedish food stores become useful. Instead of relying on whatever happens to be available in the international aisle of a local supermarket, you can look for the actual Swedish brands and varieties you know.
At Swedish Cravings, our assortment is sourced in Sweden and built largely around exactly these kinds of requests. Some customers know precisely what they want. Others arrive with nothing more specific than, “I miss Swedish food.”
Both are perfectly reasonable starting points.
If you are ordering from the United States, we have a separate guide to buying Swedish food online in the USA, covering what is available locally, what is worth ordering directly from Sweden, shipping, import considerations and where to start.
What Should You Look for in an Online Swedish Food Store?
A good Swedish food shop should offer more than a collection of vaguely Scandinavian-looking products.
For Swedes abroad, the brand can matter just as much as the type of food. Crispbread is not automatically the knäckebröd you grew up eating, and one dark-roast coffee is not necessarily going to replace the particular Zoégas, Löfbergs or Arvid Nordquist you miss.
Look for an assortment containing genuine Swedish brands, clear product names and sizes, sensible information about shipping and a broad enough selection that you can combine several products in one order.
It is also worth checking whether the shop actually ships to your country before falling deeply in love with a basket full of Swedish groceries. International food shipping varies by destination, and certain products can be more restricted than others.
And if you cannot find something? Ask.
Some of the most useful additions to a Swedish food shop begin with someone abroad saying, “I haven't been able to find this anywhere.”
Can Swedish Groceries Be Shipped Internationally?
Many Swedish groceries can travel internationally very well.
Dry and shelf-stable products are generally the easiest: crispbread, coffee, candy, chocolate, baking ingredients, powdered soups, drink mixes, sauces, preserves and many packaged pantry products.
That does not mean every Swedish food can automatically be sent to every country. Food-import rules differ, and certain ingredients, meat products, dairy products and temperature-sensitive foods may have additional restrictions.
This is one reason we avoid treating “worldwide shipping” as though every product and every destination are identical. They are not.
For most people building a Swedish pantry abroad, however, there is still an enormous amount to choose from.
What Swedish Foods Are Easiest to Order Online?
If you are placing your first Swedish food order from abroad, begin with products that are sturdy, relatively easy to ship and distinctly Swedish.
Knäckebröd is almost designed for the job. Swedish coffee travels beautifully. Candy, chocolate, licorice, jams, preserves and baking ingredients are all obvious choices too.
Then there are the slightly more unusual things: tubes of Swedish spreads, rosehip soup, blueberry soup, dip mixes, sauces and the wonderfully specific collection of ingredients Swedish recipes casually assume everyone has sitting in their kitchen cupboard.
The result can quickly start looking less like an online order and more like a Swedish supermarket shelf that somehow found its way across the world.
Swedish Pantry Staples That Travel Well
A Swedish pantry is full of foods that do not initially seem particularly exciting until you have lived without them.
A packet of Ekströms nyponsoppa. A familiar mustard. The correct jam. A sachet of dip mix. Pärlsocker for baking. Swedish sirap for a recipe that simply does not taste quite right with the substitute suggested online.
These products are often particularly useful to Swedes abroad because they are difficult to replace exactly. You may find an equivalent locally, but sometimes an equivalent is precisely what you do not want.
You want the thing you remember.
This is also where exploring Swedish food becomes fun for non-Swedes. Beyond meatballs and cinnamon buns there is an entire everyday pantry that rarely receives much attention outside Scandinavia.
Kalles Kaviar and Swedish Spreads
Few Swedish products create quite as much confusion outside Scandinavia as Kalles Kaviar.
It is the famous blue-and-yellow tube found in countless Swedish refrigerators, usually squeezed onto bread, crispbread or boiled egg. For Swedes abroad, it is also one of those products that can instantly turn an ordinary breakfast into something that feels strangely like home.
If you are completely new to Kalles, start carefully rather than squeezing half the tube directly into your mouth and deciding Sweden has lost its mind.
On crispbread with sliced boiled egg, however, it suddenly makes much more sense.
We have written a complete guide covering the different varieties, how Swedes eat it and how to find it abroad in Where Can You Buy Kalles Kaviar Outside Sweden?
You can also Shop Kalles Kaviar or try several favourites together in The Kalles Kaviar Taste Box.
Knäckebröd, Tunnbröd and Swedish Bread
Swedish bread deserves far more attention than it usually receives internationally.
Knäckebröd may be the easiest to recognise. It is dry, crisp, wonderfully practical and eaten with an enormous range of toppings, from cheese and ham to eggs, Kalles, liver pâté and cucumber.
Because it keeps so well, crispbread is also particularly suited to international orders.
Swedish soft breads can be more challenging simply because bread is bulky and freshness matters, but products such as tunnbröd and certain packaged Swedish breads remain highly sought after by Swedes abroad.
If you want to understand why crispbread has remained such an important part of Swedish food culture, read What Is Knäckebröd? Swedish Crispbread Explained.
Shop Swedish Crispbread & Bread
Swedish Coffee
Swedes drink an impressive amount of coffee, but for an expat the issue is often not simply finding coffee. Coffee is available almost everywhere.
Finding your coffee is the problem.
Zoégas, Löfbergs and Arvid Nordquist all have loyal drinkers, and switching from a familiar roast to whatever happens to be available locally can feel like a surprisingly large change to a morning routine.
Ground Swedish coffee is also particularly convenient to order internationally because it is compact, sturdy and keeps well in unopened packaging.
For someone discovering Swedish food rather than missing it, coffee is an excellent entry point. Brew a pot, add something sweet and you are already halfway towards understanding why fika is considerably more important than simply “having a coffee.”
Swedish Candy, Chocolate and Salty Licorice
Swedish candy may be having an international moment, but Swedes certainly did not just discover it.
Ahlgrens Bilar, Marabou, Malaco, Fazer favourites, sour gummies, foam sweets and salty licorice have been part of Swedish childhoods, road trips, cinema evenings and Saturday candy bags for generations.
And then there is salty licorice.
For the uninitiated, Djungelvrål can be something of an ambush. For the converted, it is exactly the kind of thing worth ordering across an ocean.
Swedish candy is particularly easy to send internationally and makes a good introduction to Swedish food because you can try several very different flavours without committing your entire kitchen to the experiment.
Lingonberries, Cloudberries and Swedish Preserves
There are certain flavours that instantly make food feel Scandinavian, and lingonberry is one of them.
Lingonberry jam is familiar around the world thanks partly to its traditional pairing with Swedish meatballs, but in Sweden its usefulness extends far beyond one dish. It appears beside everything from meat and potatoes to pancakes and traditional home cooking.
Cloudberries are another story entirely. Hjortron have a distinctive flavour, a strong connection to northern Scandinavia and an almost mythical reputation among people who have never encountered them fresh.
For anyone living abroad, preserves are one of the easiest ways to bring these flavours home because jars travel far more practically than fresh Nordic berries.
Explore Swedish Jams & Preserves
Swedish Baking Ingredients
This is one of those categories you do not think about until you attempt to follow a Swedish recipe outside Sweden.
Vaniljsocker. Pärlsocker. Ljus sirap. Swedish-style yeast. Particular flours and baking products.
Suddenly the straightforward recipe your grandmother made becomes a detective investigation involving conversion charts and internet forums debating whether a local substitute is “close enough.”
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes the Swedish ingredient is simply easier.
For people who regularly bake Swedish cinnamon buns, cakes, cookies and breads abroad, keeping a small collection of familiar Swedish baking ingredients at home can save an enormous amount of improvisation.
Explore Swedish Baking Ingredients
What About Refrigerated Swedish Food?
Temperature-sensitive food is where international ordering becomes more complicated.
Shelf-stable products are relatively straightforward. Foods that require uninterrupted refrigeration are not.
Distance, transit time, packaging and destination all matter, and some countries also place greater restrictions on particular animal, dairy or meat products.
This does not mean you should assume that everything commonly kept in a Swedish refrigerator is impossible to order. It simply means that refrigerated and highly perishable foods should be considered individually rather than treated in the same way as a packet of coffee or crispbread.
When in doubt, check the product information or ask before ordering.
Can You Order Several Swedish Brands in One Shipment?
Absolutely, and for many people that is the whole point.
If you are already ordering Swedish food internationally, it often makes much more sense to combine several things you miss rather than trying to source each product from a different specialist.
A typical order might include coffee, crispbread, Kalles, Marabou, Ahlgrens Bilar, lingonberry jam, baking ingredients and a few things that mysteriously found their way into the basket because you had forgotten how much you missed them.
This is also why Swedish Cravings carries products across many different parts of the Swedish grocery shelf instead of concentrating only on candy or souvenirs.
One parcel containing breakfast, fika and lördagsgodis seems far more useful to us.
How Much Does It Cost to Ship Swedish Food Abroad?
There is no single sensible answer because international shipping depends heavily on where the parcel is going and how much it weighs.
A few packets of candy are very different from several kilograms of coffee, crispbread and jars.
This is worth considering while shopping. Lightweight Swedish products can be relatively efficient to combine, while heavy glass jars and drinks quickly add weight.
On the other hand, spreading one international shipping charge across a larger selection can sometimes make more sense than ordering several small parcels from different shops.
The important thing is to judge the complete order rather than comparing a Swedish supermarket shelf price with an imported product price in isolation.
How Long Does International Swedish Food Delivery Take?
Delivery time varies by country, shipping method, carrier and customs processing.
Some international parcels move remarkably quickly. Others take longer simply because they are crossing several borders and logistics networks before reaching their destination.
This is another reason shelf-stable Swedish products make such good international purchases. A packet of knäckebröd does not become terribly impatient somewhere over the Atlantic.
If you are ordering food for a birthday, Christmas, Midsummer or another specific occasion, give yourself some margin rather than placing the order at the last possible moment.
Swedish food may inspire nostalgia. International logistics rarely does.
Customs, Import Rules and Country Restrictions
Every destination has its own rules regarding imported food.
Some countries are relatively straightforward for packaged foods, while others have tighter restrictions on specific ingredients or food categories. Rules may also change over time.
For this reason, it is difficult for any Swedish food shop to give one universal answer that applies to every customer in every country.
If you are unsure about a particular food product, especially something containing meat, dairy or other restricted ingredients, checking the rules for your destination before ordering is sensible.
For ordinary packaged Swedish pantry foods, however, international customers have a very wide range to explore.
Why Is Swedish Food More Expensive Outside Sweden?
This question comes up often, and understandably so.
Someone who remembers buying a product in ICA or Coop may look at the international price and wonder what happened between Stockholm and their shopping basket.
The simple answer is that Swedish food sold abroad is no longer just a supermarket product. It has to be sourced, handled, stored, packed and made available through an international retail operation. International shipping, packaging, payment costs and the economics of supplying relatively small quantities of specialised products all contribute.
That does not make imported food inexpensive, but it does explain why comparing the price directly with a Swedish supermarket shelf is rarely a like-for-like comparison.
And for a Swede who has spent six months unsuccessfully looking for the right coffee, there is occasionally another calculation involved:
How badly do I want it?
Sometimes the answer is apparently “very badly indeed.”
Where Do Swedish Expats Buy Food From Home?
Every expat develops their own system.
Some fill a suitcase every time they visit Sweden. Some recruit relatives into increasingly elaborate smuggling operations involving coffee and candy. Some discover a local Scandinavian shop. Others order online.
Usually it becomes a combination.
The products people miss are remarkably personal. One person longs for Kalles. Another wants nothing more than a particular crispbread. Someone else has accepted life without Swedish food perfectly well until they suddenly remember nyponsoppa at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday evening.
That emotional connection is one of the reasons Swedish Cravings exists.
A great deal of what we hear from customers is not really, “I want to buy food.”
It is:
“I haven't had this since I left Sweden.”
Those are two very different sentences.
What If IKEA Doesn't Sell the Swedish Food You're Looking For?
For many people abroad, IKEA is their first encounter with Swedish food.
And that makes sense. It has introduced Swedish flavours to millions of people who might otherwise never have encountered lingonberries, Swedish meatballs or Scandinavian sweets.
But an IKEA food section is not the same thing as walking into a Swedish supermarket.
Swedish grocery stores contain hundreds of familiar brands, regional favourites, everyday staples and strangely specific products that never become international household names.
So if a Swedish favourite disappears from your local IKEA, or was never sold there in the first place, that does not necessarily mean it has disappeared from Sweden.
It may simply be waiting somewhere on a Swedish supermarket shelf.
And increasingly, that shelf can come to you.
What Swedish Food Should You Try First?
If you have never tried Swedish food before, there is no need to begin with the most challenging thing Sweden has ever put in a tube.
Start with variety.
Try a proper Swedish crispbread. Add lingonberry jam. Brew Swedish coffee. Try Marabou or Ahlgrens Bilar. Have something salty. Have something sweet. Then perhaps become brave and introduce yourself to Kalles Kaviar.
A first Swedish food order should feel a little like opening someone's kitchen cupboard in Sweden rather than buying a collection of tourist souvenirs.
That is precisely the idea behind our Taste of Sweden Box: familiar foods from several different parts of Swedish everyday life in one introduction.
You will probably love some immediately.
Others may require a second meeting.
This is also very Swedish.
Putting Together a Swedish Food Care Package
A Swedish care package can mean two completely different things depending on who receives it.
For someone curious about Sweden, it is an adventure: candy, coffee, crispbread, chocolate, something unusual and perhaps one item that requires instructions.
For a Swede living abroad, the best care package is usually much less glamorous.
Ask what they actually miss.
It could be Marabou. It could be coffee. It could be Kalles. It could be a packet of biscuits that nobody outside their family would consider remotely exciting.
Homesickness has very little respect for gourmet rankings.
The best Swedish food parcel is therefore not necessarily the fanciest one. It is the one that contains something the recipient recognises before they have even completely opened the box.
Frequently Asked Questions About Buying Swedish Food Online
Can I buy authentic Swedish food online outside Sweden?
Yes. Many Swedish packaged foods can be purchased through specialist online retailers serving international customers. Availability depends on the product and destination.
What Swedish food is easiest to ship internationally?
Coffee, crispbread, candy, chocolate, preserves, baking ingredients and many shelf-stable pantry products are particularly practical choices.
Can I order Swedish food directly from Sweden?
Yes. Swedish Cravings sources products in Sweden and serves customers in many countries around the world.
Can I order different Swedish brands together?
Yes. Combining products such as Kalles, Swedish coffee, crispbread, candy and pantry items is one of the advantages of using a broader Swedish grocery shop.
Can every Swedish food be shipped internationally?
No. Destination rules, ingredients, temperature requirements and other restrictions can affect individual products.
Where can I buy Kalles Kaviar abroad?
Read our complete Where Can You Buy Kalles Kaviar Outside Sweden? guide for varieties, serving ideas and buying information.
What Swedish food should I buy as a gift?
Coffee, chocolate, candy, crispbread and carefully selected Swedish food boxes are good starting points because they give the recipient several different flavours to discover.
Where can I find Swedish food if IKEA does not carry it?
Specialist Swedish and Scandinavian online food stores generally offer a much broader assortment of traditional supermarket brands and products.
A Little Taste of Sweden, Wherever You Are
Food is a strange little time machine.
The smell of familiar coffee can put you back at a kitchen table you have not seen for years. A particular candy can turn you twelve again. Crispbread can remind you of breakfast at your grandparents' house. A blue-and-yellow tube can somehow make an apartment thousands of kilometres from Sweden feel a little less far away.
And if you did not grow up with any of it, Swedish food offers something equally enjoyable: the opportunity to discover what Swedes actually keep in their cupboards, eat for breakfast, bring out for fika and buy for Saturday evening.
That is the part of Swedish food we love most.
Not only the dishes Sweden is famous for, but the ordinary things people genuinely eat.
So whether you are rebuilding a Swedish pantry abroad, sending something familiar to someone you miss or simply wondering what on earth Swedes see in salty licorice, you are very welcome to explore.
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