We all know that this is going to be a highly subjective article, as everyone’s obviously got a different taste to things – so I’ll try to make it as generic as possible and simply guide you what to look out for, if you’re a foreigner visiting Germany. This is also specifically in mind with me now living in the UK – as the majority of things in this article are things that are better in Germany than they are here. At least in my humble opinion. And my humble opinion likes sweets.

Everything you can find in a bakery

We have so many bakeries in Germany – and I love every single one of it. We do love our bread, but we also very much love baked goods, so whenever you’ll enter a bakery, you will also find a good dozen different cakes that have been baked fresh that morning – some even do cookies and biscuits, especially nearing Christmas times. Now I know this doesn’t necessarily count as a sweet per se, but I still want to mention it, because hopping to the bakery for some cake in the afternoon is definitely something we do a lot as Germans.

I am also just going to outright say it: German cakes are so very much better than British ones. We incorporate way more fresh ingredients such as cream and fruits – and most importantly, we don’t really do icing. God, I hate icing.

If you can find it (which, chances are quite high), I recommend trying out a very traditional German [Bienenstich]¹, [Donauwelle]² or the good old [Erdbeerkuchen]³!

German chocolates

I’m going to just say it again: German (well, Swiss, to be fair) chocolate is miles ahead of the British ones. I don’t care if you get angry with my, but all commercial chocolate brands in the UK are, well, subpar. If you are looking for some good chocolate in Germany, you can literally pick any brand – even the store owned ones – and they’ll taste better than what you know from the UK. We’ve got so much more to choose from when it comes to Milka, Kinder, Lindt and Ritter Sport, for example (and cheaper, obviously) – but we’ve got tons of more independent and artisanal chocolates, too. My all-time personal favourite is Milka + Lu – I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Wine gummy and Bon Bons

I know that the UK is very much very proud of their sweets and their old shops where you can pick your little bag of goodies – and I do agree, they are amazing. We don’t have something as historical, but we do have some amazing brands that do fantastic bagged sweets. First, we have tons of more Haribo available, including some amazing liquorice – especially salty, not sweet. Go try them all! I recommend “Haribo Pico-Balla” as something we don’t really have a comparison for in the UK. The second big mention is Katjes – a company that, for years now, has spear-headed the vegetarian and vegan sweets in Germany. And they are absolute awesome. They do a lot of really interesting sweets with yoghurt – and my recommendation would be “Katjes Yoghurt-Gums”!

The absolute king, however (in my humble opinion), is the brand Nimm 2 (literally “pick two”, which I find adorable as a name for sweets). To give you an idea of how amazing their things are: when I am in Germany and I go to the store to pick things I want to bring back over to the UK, there will be at least five bags of “Nimm 2 Softies – Rote Früchte”.

[Picture by Wojtek Mich – thank you!]

1. Der Bienenstich – “Biene” – bee, “Stich” sting. Literally called a bee sting, this cake’s one of Germany’s finest. It’s sweet yeast dough with a vanilla cream and topped with incredibly delicious crunchy caramelised almonds. ↩︎
2. Die Donauwelle – “Donau” – German name for the river Danube, “Welle” – wave. The Danube wave is a very rich plan and chocolate cake topped with a dense buttery cream, cherries, and a thick layer of chocolate on top. ↩︎
3. Der Erdbeerkuchen – “Erdbeere” – strawberry, “Kuchen” – cake. Strawberry cake! Light and fruity! ↩︎