New Eats: Karameller

Sometimes we crave the viscous stretch and sugar-gritty texture of gummy candy so bad, our molars ache.

Apparently, we’d have made great Swedish children, for whom, according to Karameller proprietor and Swedish ex-pat Louise Schönberg, a weekly sugar feast known as "lördagsgodis" ("Saturday sweets") are an allowance-blowing tradition—and one she’s brought to Vancouver, at that. Her completely white shop is walled with perspex cubes filled with every imaginable sweet, all soft and freshly imported, and GMO and corn-syrup free. There’s darling little strawberry jelly drops, banana-mallows dipped in chocolate, peach lips, chewy lime frogs, fudge cubes, sour-patch skulls (yes!), licorice tubes filled with sweet fluff and looong gummy snakes you can totally do the "Lady and the Tramp" thing with, partner willing. The selection makes Willy Wonka look like a deadbeat hack, and the quality darn near made us ruin our dinner.

Just how tempting is this place? On opening day, Schönberg said one surprising customer was her dentist. —Adrienne Matei

Karameller, 30-1020 Mainland St., Vancouver, 604-639-8325, www.karameller.com