Ask a Dutch shopper for the main candy brands and the answer will usually start with licorice: Venco, Red Band, Klene, Katja and Autodrop. Peppermint (KING, Wilhelmina), chocolate (Droste, Verkade, Tony's Chocolonely) and baked goods such as stroopwafels make up the rest of the familiar shelf. The table below sets out the brands most often asked about, with their owners as reported in public sources at the time of writing. Ownership in this industry changes regularly, so check the packaging for the current company name.
Licorice (drop)
| Brand | Known for | Company |
|---|---|---|
| Venco | Drop since 1878; Schoolkrijt | Cloetta |
| Red Band | Wine gums, fruit gums, sweet drop; Roosendaal factory since 1928 | Cloetta |
| Klene | Drop since 1876; "Neerlandsch Eenige Echte" | Perfetti Van Melle |
| Katja | Katjes cats and other gum and licorice sweets | Katja Fassin (Fassin family companies) |
| Autodrop | Licorice and gums in car shapes | Concorp, Irnsum (Friesland) |
| Supermarket own-label | Everyday drop at lower prices | Various contract makers |
For the categories behind the brands, start with the drop guide, then zoete drop, zoute drop and katjesdrop.
Peppermint and hard candy
| Brand | Known for | Company / place |
|---|---|---|
| KING | Peppermint rolls, sold since 1902 by Tonnema of Sneek, named KING from 1922 | Cloetta |
| Wilhelmina | Peppermints embossed with the queen's portrait, introduced in 1892 | Fortuin, Dokkum |
| Haagsche Hopjes (Rademaker) | Coffee-and-caramel hard sweets from The Hague | Part of the Red Band group from 1999; now Cloetta |
| Mentos, Fruittella | Chewy mints and fruit chews from the Van Melle company of Breskens | Perfetti Van Melle |
| Wybert | Throat pastilles | Perfetti Van Melle |
See pepermunt, Haagsche hopjes and zuurtjes.
Chocolate, sprinkles and biscuits
| Brand | Known for | Company / place |
|---|---|---|
| Droste | Cocoa and pastilles; the Droste effect (Haarlem, 1863) | Wawel (Poland) |
| Verkade | Biscuits and chocolate from Zaandam, founded 1886 | Zaandam |
| Tony's Chocolonely | Chocolate bars, founded in Amsterdam in 2005 | Amsterdam |
| De Ruijter | Hagelslag, vlokken and muisjes | See the canon entries |
| Venz | Hagelslag and other bread toppings | See the canon entries |
| Daelmans | Stroopwafels; family bakery since 1904 | Netherlands |
See hagelslag, muisjes, stroopwafels and chocoladeletters.
A note on "Dutch" brands
Several of the most Dutch-feeling brands are owned abroad: Venco, Red Band and KING by the Swedish Cloetta, Klene and Mentos by the Italian-Dutch Perfetti Van Melle, and Droste by the Polish Wawel. The reverse also happens: Katja and the German Katjes share a name and family history, and Haribo's gums are as common in Dutch shops as anywhere. For buying these brands outside the Netherlands, see the buying guide.