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Foreign desserts aren’t always at the top of people’s agendas when travelling somewhere new, but they should be.
Japanese mochi to Georgian churchkhela, every destination brings something new to the table.
Whether you call them desserts, sweets, pudding, or afters, we’re on a mission to uncover which countries truly reign supreme when it comes to sweet treats.
Here, you’ll find some of the best desserts we’ve tried around the world (along with the worst), and where to experience them.
Armenia 🇦🇲
Gata
Light oval-shaped sweet bread, filled with butter and sugar. Each region tweaks the components, with some adding fruit.
Khadaif
A bakery delight consisting of milled nuts such as walnuts and almonds layered between phyllo pastry, and soaked in sugar syrup. Khadaif is then topped off with shredded phyllo pastry.
Paklava
Armenia’s answer to baklava. A buttery delight filled with aromatic walnuts soaked in syrup.
Sweet Sujukh
Adapted from Georgia’s churchkhela, Sujukh is made by wrapping nuts in fig, apricot, or even pomegranate juice to form a chewy candy coating.
Brazil 🇧🇷
Bolo de Fuba
A orange flavoured, corn cake delight.
Brigadeiros
A rich, chocolately truffle like ball with hints of caramel. Absolutely delicious.
Georgia 🇬🇪
Churchkhela
Georgia’s version of ‘Snickers’. A traditional candle-shaped snack, made from crystallized grape juice, that holds together a variety of nuts (most likely walnuts).
Pelamushi
A common grape-based sweet dish in Georgia. Served with walnut and sprinkled sugar.
India 🇮🇳
Falooda
What can only be described as a random gift that keeps on giving. Falooda is a popular Indian summer treat that combines ice cream with cornflakes, dried fruit and vermicelli noodles.
Kulfi
A frozen dessert that takes its time to melt. This is India’s version of ice cream.
Hello to the Queen
A dessert purely to appeal to backpackers across tourist hubs, Hello to the Queen is a bizzare mixture of crushed biscuits, banana slices, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Who knew a tourist craving would result in this popular beast?
Khubani Ka Meetha
Originating in Hyderabad, Khubani Ka Meetha is a sweet stew of apricots, sugar, nuts and spices. Simple yet popular during celebrations and festivities.
Rasgulla
An Indian equivalent of sweet cottage cheese balls, Rasgulla is a popular dessert across India, though namely celebrated in West Bengal and Odisha.
Bebinca
Dubbed the ‘Queen of Desserts’, Bebinca is a multi-layered traditional Goan delight, rich with the taste of coconut and caramel.
Halwa
Orange-infused Halwa with a jelly-like texture. This Indian sweet is made from semolina, ghee, sugar, and a variety of nuts.
Orange Burfi
A sweet delicacy from Nagpur, the home of oranges in India. Burfi is made from milk and sugar, infused with the famous zesty Nagpur orange.
Want to try India’s best desserts? Book a food tour here: Mumbai street food & dessert tour
Japan 🇯🇵
Black Sesame Ice Cream
An ice cream for those with a more mature palette, popular in the Wakayama region.
Hell’s Steamed Caramel Pudding
Beppu’s answer to a creme caramel, only steam baked in the local hot springs.
Hell’s Steamed Matcha Pudding
Another steam baked delight from Beppu’s hot springs. A spongey cake with a hint of matcha (and thermal spring aroma).
Green Tea Ice Cream Sandwich
Sweet red bean paste paired with a light, somewhat bitter, green tea ice cream combines well into this sandwich style ice cream.
Hirosaki Apple Cake
Locally sourced apples make apple cake a popular dessert across Hirosaki.
Hokkaido LeTAO Cheesecake
A rich baked cheesecake with a suprise featuring of cacao blended in.
Hokkaido LeTAO Cheese Biscuits
Butter biscuits filled with cream cheese and sweet chocolate. A hevanly combination.
Ichigo Daifuku
A juicy sweet strawberry wrapped in a neutral mochi dough, brings a sweet and tart balance.
Melon Bread
A very popular find across the country in convenience stores, melon bread is a sweet staple for any breafast plate.
Mitarashi Dango
A mochi-like chewy dough coated in sweet caramelised sugar syrup. This will keep you coming back.
Parfait
A refreshing jelly parfait, with a variety of flavours – from vanilla to matcha.
Setoda Lemon Ice Cream
A luxurious vanilla ice cream with a sweet lemon compote poured on top.
Taiyaki
A traditional fish-shaped dessert, taiyaki is a waffle dough filled with varying custards, such as chocolate, vanilla or even red bean.
Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
Seabuckthorn Layer Cake
A multi-layered dessert that balances fluffy cake layers with the vibrant, tangy, citrus-like flavour of sea buckthorn berries.
Kazakhstan Chocolate
We felt this deserved its own shout-out just based on how delicious the chocolate bar was. A simple chocolate bar – no bells, whistles or fillings.
Medovik
Medovik, or honey cake, originated in the Russian Empire. Many have added their own twist, remaining a rich, multi-layered dessert of honeyed sponge and cream.
Halva
A dense, fudgy stick that comes in a variety of nutty and rich flavours, such as chocolate, pistachio, or sesame.
Chak-Chak
Chak-Chak, so good they named it twice, is a popular Middle-Eastern dessert consisting of deep-fried dough drizzled with hot honey and often served with fruit.
Experience local food in the heart of the Silk Road. Book a local food tour in Tashkent Uzbekistan
Philippines 🇵🇭
Kabkab
Otherwise known as a ‘cassava cracker’, kabkab is a crunchy delight made from deep-fried grated cassava roots with a drizzle of coconut caramel sauce.
Halo-Halo
Looks like it will give you diabetes, and tastes like it too. One of the sweetest desserts out there, Halo-Halo consists of shaved ice, sweet beans, jellies, fruits, leche flan, ube ice cream, and more.
Mango Float
Not your typical dessert float. Served either frozen or thoroughly chilled, Filipino mango float is an unusual take on cheesecake, with literal cheese grated on top.
Putchocomangga
Do you like rice, mango and chocolate? Filipinos officially give you permission to combine them to create a delicacy known as ‘Putchocomangga’.
Nepal 🇳🇵
Chocolate Momo
Described by a local we met as a “disgrace to Nepalese cuisine,” but that doesn’t stop it from being a chocolatey, nutty delight.
Wattalapam
The most common dessert found on almost every menu in Sri Lanka. Its mushy innards consist of a coconut custard, where numerous spices and nutty flavours battle it out to be number one. Cinnamon comes out on top.
South Korea 🇰🇷
Chalbori-Heukmaneul-ppang
Moreish sweet breads made with black garlic and sugar. Sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does.
Sipwon-ppang
Not quite a sweet treat, but where cheese is involved who can say no. A cheese filled doughy 10 won coin.
Sulppang Makgeolli Bread
A steamed bread made from unfiltered rice wine. Local to Sokcho.
Taiwan 🇹🇼
Brown Sugar Tofu Pudding
Despite the naming, this strangely creamy dessert is not that sugary, and more an odd mix of flavour profiles from the added taro beans, sweet potato cubes and fruit.
Candied Fruit
Caramelised sugar coated on varying fruits.. This sugary skewer can easily be found across street food stalls. Though watch out for the candied tomato hiding in the mix.
Mango Shaved Ice
Shaved flavourless ice with fresh sliced mango atop.
Mont Blanc Matcha Ice Cream
Spaghetti style matcha flavoured ice cream. This will leave your tastebuds singing.
Pineapple Cake
Easy to find across Taiwan, pineapple cake is a dense cake with a layering of pineapple jam in the centre. The cousin of a fig roll.
Red Bean Matcha Cheesecake
A luxurious, velvety texture, the red bean paste brings a savoury profile to the slightly sweeter matcha cheesecake.
Red Bean Pancake
The humble red bean pancake isn’t a salty snack as first anticipated. Red beans are caramelised within the pancake.
Vanilla Soufflé Cake
A delectable sweet pudding. Vanilla custard is poured on top of a light fluffy sponge and then caramelised via blow torch.
Vietnam 🇻🇳
Bánh da lợn
Known as “pig skin” because of its texture, not its ingredients. Bánh da lợn is a jelly-layered disk that is often topped with sesame and coconut milk.
Chestnut Bun
Chinese in origin, but these scone-like buns are extremely popular in Vietnam. Often topped with black or white sesame seeds, which is very fitting to what they do with most of their desserts.
Egg Coffee
Maybe a push to say this coffee-based drink falls into the dessert category, but it is one of the sweetest confections in Vietnam, and very much tastes like a dessert.
Sweet Roti Bun
A hot bun filled with flavours such as chocolate, cream, and sweet egg. This one blends matcha with chocolate, a popular combination across Vietnam.
Vietnamese Chè
The most popular local dessert in Vietnam, this sweet soup dish may not look that appetising, but it packs a punch, with many strange and wonderful iterations.
Vietnam is big on desserts. Book a food tour to experience the sugar high: Hanoi street food & dessert tour