Granna Polkagris

Amalia Eriksson was widowed young in Granna and given permission in 1859 to bake and sell sweets to support herself and her daughter; what she made was polkagris, a stick of boiled sugar with peppermint, pulled until it turns white and then twisted with a red stripe. The recipe spread and the town became identified with it. Several makers still work on Brahegatan with the pulling done in the shop window on a marble slab, which is what draws people in - the sugar has to be worked hot and fast, and you can watch the stripe being laid on. Granna itself is a wooden town on the slope above Vattern with the ferry to Visingso from the harbour.

What you actually see

• Sugar pulled on a marble slab - in shop windows on the main street.
• The red stripe laid on by hand - the step that makes the pattern.
• A recipe from 1859 - Amalia Eriksson's, made to support a family.
• A wooden town above Vattern - with the Visingso ferry below.

When to go

May to September, when the shops are all open. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Demonstrations run to their own schedule and stop out of season. The main street is entirely tourist trade in summer. Shops crowd in July. It is a short visit on its own.

Nearby

Visingso is across the water; Jonkoping is south.