Sweet synthesis! This joint Special Collection put together by the European Journal of Organic Chemistry and ChemCatChem showcases the state-of-the art in the design, synthesis and application of synthetic carbohydrate tools. Carbohydrates are key orchestrators of many biological processes in and between all kingdoms of life. The enormous structural diversity of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates originates from the dense chirality and diverse substitution patterns in the monosaccharide constituents which continues to amaze, challenge and inspire chemists to understand, use, mimic and inhibit their activity. Synthetic organic chemistry has been a driving force in unravelling the molecular details of the interactions of carbohydrates by supplying well-defined molecules and mimetics to fuel structural, biochemical and biomedical studies. As such synthetic carbohydrate chemistry has been and continues to be a vibrant field, in which tremendous progress has been made to enable the assembly of ever more and more complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates. Heroic syntheses have been reported building on cunning one-pot assembly strategies and automated synthesis machinery. These syntheses build on the availability of effective glycosylating agents, which can be generated through ever more effective synthetic chemistry. At the same time, the high density of chirality and functional groups continues to challenge synthetic chemistry and translation of methodology from one system to another is often not a trivial task. This has inspired chemists to unravel the underlying stereoelectronic phenomena that govern the reactivity of carbohydrate building blocks. This “Carbohydrate Chemistry” Special Collection organized in collaboration with the European Journal of Organic Chemistry and ChemCatChem showcases well the diversity of the field both in terms of target compounds and chemistry to access them. It presents novel insights and improvements of ‘classic’ reactions used in building-block preparation but also introduces new transformations to manipulate carbohydrate building blocks and mimetics as well as presents new glycosyl donors. The effective generation of building blocks is one of the cornerstones for the efficient and selective assembly of complex target oligosaccharides and improved protecting and functional group chemistries are therefore indispensable. The same holds true for the mechanistic work that is reported to better understand the reactivity of glycosyl donors to enable stereoselective glycosylation methodology. Much effort is being devoted to streamline oligosaccharide and glycoconjugate assembly and this collection shows how automated solid phase syntheses as well as electrochemically driven transformations can be harnessed in the assembly of oligosaccharides and glycopeptides. Novel chemical space is explored by regioselective transformations on oligosaccharides and through innovative transformations on carbohydrate scaffolds, using enzymatic transformations or light driven reactions. The role and use of synthetic glycans is illustrated in the development of carbohydrate-based antibiotics and immuno-stimulating agents as well as ligands and inhibitors or activators of carbohydrate binding cell-surface receptors. Overall, this Special Collection displays how innovative synthetic chemistry is being adopted by the field for new transformations, to enhance synthetic efficiency, expand chemical space and to enable the conception of new mimetics. At the same time, it shows how the density of chirality and functionality continues to be a great challenge to understand and manipulate these fascinating molecules, presenting ample opportunity for new synthetic approaches and applications in a myriad of (biological) processes. The future is sweet. The opinions expressed in this publication are the view of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the European Journal of Organic Chemistry, the Publisher, Chemistry Europe, or the affiliated editors. Sabine Flitsch is Professor at the School of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. She was educated in Germany, receiving her Diploma in Chemistry from the WWU Muenster and then obtained her DPhil under the supervision of Sir Jack Baldwin at Oxford University (UK). After three years as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT (USA) with Professor H.G. Khorana, she moved back to the UK, where she has held academic positions at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and moved to Manchester in 2005, where she currently holds a Chair in Chemical Biology. Suvarn Kulkarni received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of Pune in 2001 and pursued his post-doctoral research at Academia Sinica, Taipei, and University of California, Davis. He returned to India in late 2008 and held a faculty position at IACS Kolkata prior to joining the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2009. He subsequently rose to the rank of full professor in 2016 and presently working as Institute Chair Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Programs at IITB. His current research interests include devising newer ways for efficient chemical synthesis of complex glycoconjugates implicated in various infectious diseases. Suvarn was a short term Visiting Professor (MOST) at Taiwan in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry London and Fellow of Maharashtra Academy of Science. He is a recipient of the CRSI Bronze medal for the year 2017 and Dr. H. C. Srivastava Young Scientist award 2016. He is a member of the editorial board of Carbohydrate Research as well as ChemistrySelect and guest editor of EJOC and Frontiers in Chemistry. Recently he received the IRCC research Dissemination Award from IITB. Jeroen Codée obtained his PhD from Leiden University under the guidance of Jacques van Boom and Stan van Boeckel. After a post-doctoral stay at the ETH with Peter Seeberger, he returned to Leiden to head the carbohydrate chemistry group of the Bio-organic synthesis (BIOSYN) department, where he now is a full professor in organic chemistry. His research interests in glycochemistry and glycobiology range from fundamental organic synthesis to vaccine/drug development and the development of glycobiology tools. Fundamental studies to unravel the mechanism of glycosylation reactions underpin the development of innovative synthesis routes to assemble complex bacterial glycans. These are used to study their interaction with the (host) immune system, as antigens or ligands for innate immune system cell receptors. New chemistries are developed to generate sugar mimetics to serve as biosynthesis inhibitors, activity-based probes or stabilized antigens.