Snoep is the Dutch (and Flemish) word for sweets or candy. It is a collective noun: "we hebben snoep gekocht" means "we bought some sweets". A single sweet is a snoepje. The word is pronounced roughly like English "snoop".

The snoep word family

DutchMeaning
snoepsweets, candy (collective)
snoepjea single sweet
snoepgoedconfectionery (slightly more formal)
snoepento eat sweets or treats; to snack on something nice
snoeper / snoepkoussomeone with a sweet tooth
snoepwinkelsweet shop
snoepreisjea pleasure trip, often one paid by someone else (figurative)

In Flanders snoep and snoepjes are used in the same way; Belgian speakers also say snoepgoed. Chocolate is usually counted separately (chocola, chocolade), and biscuits are koekjes, but the edges are loose: a chocolate-covered sweet is still snoep.

What counts as Dutch snoep

  • Drop: Dutch licorice, sweet or salty, the most typical Dutch sweet. See drop, zoete drop and zoute drop.
  • Pepermunt: peppermints, such as KING and Wilhelmina. See pepermunt.
  • Zuurtjes: boiled sweets and sour drops. See zuurtjes.
  • Spekkies: the Dutch word for marshmallows. See spekkies.
  • Hopjes: coffee-caramel hard sweets from The Hague. See hopjes.
  • Schuimpjes: foam sweets. See schuimpjes.
  • Sinterklaas sweets: kruidnoten, pepernoten, marsepein, borstplaat and chocoladeletters. See Sinterklaas.

Some things foreigners count as Dutch candy are, to the Dutch, something else: hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) is a bread topping (broodbeleg), and muisjes are eaten on rusks to celebrate a birth.

Snoep and Dutch habits

Snoep is everyday rather than exotic in the Netherlands. A bag of drop is a normal thing to share in an office, a peppermint after a meal or in church was once routine, and Dutch children traditionally hand out treats (trakteren) at school on their birthday. Much of the sweet calendar is concentrated around Sinterklaas on 5 December.

For the companies behind the wrappers, see Dutch candy brands; for more vocabulary, see the glossary.