Advent Calendar 2026

Advent calendar 2026. 24 doors, 48 chocolate-covered licorice balls, a Christmas tree from Copenhagen.

Advent calendar 2026 by Lakrids by Bülow is a licorice advent calendar with 24 doors and two chocolate-covered licorice balls behind each, mixed with classics and seasonal varieties. No chocolate calendar, no calendar for children, no licorice sticks.

Advent calendar 2026 is the licorice calendar from the Copenhagen manufacturer Lakrids by Bülow, which distributes a total of 345 grams of chocolate-covered licorice balls behind 24 doors. A regular advent calendar has a piece of milk chocolate ready each day, twenty-four times the same. This one puts two balls behind each door, and no two days taste the same. The principle is that of a calendar, the content is that of a tasting. Anyone who likes licorice will get a range in December that the shelf does not offer, because some recipes only appear in this box.

Sweet licorice under four chocolates

The calendar tastes of soft, sweet licorice under white, light, dark, or milk chocolate, combined with fruit, caramel, or salt depending on the day. At the core is the house's sweet licorice, without the sharpness that many associate with Danish licorice. The coating makes the difference from door to door.

The fruity varieties work with freeze-dried fruit: strawberry, raspberry, passion fruit, peach, cherry, lime peel, banana, and pineapple. The fruit is freeze-dried and retains its acidity, which stands well against the sweetness of the white chocolate. In between are darker days with caramel from salted butter, cocoa nibs, sea salt, and vanilla.

A few balls carry salmiak, the salty tone of Nordic licorice, but in a small dose and cushioned by chocolate. The dark chocolate coating brings 70 percent cocoa, the dulce chocolate is caramelized milk chocolate with a note of brioche. The white chocolate carries the fruit varieties, because it itself brings hardly any taste and lets the acidity through.

The balls also differ in bite. Some carry a thin, crunchy coating, others are dusted with fruit powder or cocoa and appear velvety. The licorice in the core remains soft in all and can be chewed without sticking to the teeth.

Anyone who expects a chocolate calendar with a little licorice will find this calendar too licorice-heavy. The root is the centerpiece here, the chocolate the frame. Anyone who generally avoids salmiak will find nothing for themselves behind some doors. For families with small children, it is less suitable, because the licorice is too present.

Two balls in the evening, one door per day

This calendar is intended for two people: behind each door lie two balls, so that both can taste and compare on the same evening. Anyone who opens it alone has either two balls a day or two calendars in one.

It is best to open the door after dinner, with an espresso or a strong black tea. Both clear away the sweetness and let the licorice linger. The dark varieties suit a glass of port wine or an amaro, the fruity ones with lime and passion fruit suit a gin and tonic.

For a dessert in Advent, chop four balls coarsely and sprinkle them over vanilla ice cream or a bowl of skyr with honey. The licorice draws into the cold, the chocolate remains crunchy. If you have guests, place one ball on the saucer and let them guess which fruit is inside. The cherry is usually recognized, the banana almost never.

Anyone who gives the calendar as a gift and is not there themselves should include a note with a rule: one door every evening, never two. That sounds strict, but it extends December to its full length. With 48 balls, the temptation is otherwise great to be at door twelve by the second weekend.

Our tip: Do not place the calendar next to the heater. Above 20 degrees the chocolate becomes soft, the balls stick together, and the coating turns gray. A cool hallway or the bedroom is better than the kitchen, where the oven runs in the evening. Dessert wines are not suitable for these balls, their sweetness doubles the licorice.

A Julehjerte on the tree and a root as a spice

On the lid of the Advent calendar 2026 stands a Christmas tree on a black background, decorated with golden balls, candy canes, bells, and red-and-golden woven hearts. These hearts are the most Danish detail of the motif. Julehjerter are woven from two strips of shiny paper and hung on the tree filled with sweets. The oldest preserved specimen comes from Hans Christian Andersen and lies in the museum in Odense.

Advent belongs in Denmark to the firmest rituals of the year. Since 1962, Danish television broadcasts its own series every December with 24 episodes, the Julekalender, and many families open a package calendar with small packages to go with it. A calendar with two balls per day stands in exactly this tradition, only for eating.

Lakrids by Bülow began in 2007 in a small kitchen on Bornholm. Johan Bülow cooked licorice from liquorice root extract, sugar, and molasses, without wheat flour, which otherwise serves as a binder. That is why the licorice is gluten-free, and that is why it remains soft instead of chewy. The chocolate coating came later and turned a sweet for licorice connoisseurs into a confection that also people who would never eat licorice grab.

Liquorice root is a root whose glycyrrhizin tastes up to fifty times sweeter than sugar. Lakrids treats it like a spice that you put on a stage with fruit, salt, or caramel. The calendar is the once-a-year compiled overview of this idea, 24 answers to the question of what suits licorice.

The vintage that only exists until Christmas

What distinguishes the Advent calendar 2026 from the cans on the shelf is the mix and the deadline. Some varieties behind it are in no can, the motif changes every year, and after December 24th this vintage no longer exists. Anyone who had the calendar the previous year gets a new picture this year and partly different balls.

As a gift, it works from the first of December, not just on Christmas Eve. Anyone who hands it over at the end of November is at the table every evening for a month. The flat box can be shipped without anything slipping inside, and the packaging consists of cardboard that goes into the recycling. Anyone who wants to add a single variety should reach for the CLASSIC Caramel can with sea salt. The entire range from Copenhagen is under Lakrids by Bülow.

Twenty-four evenings where the question of dessert is already answered, and for two.