Best Halloween Candy 2022
No disrespect to Valentine’s Day and Easter, but Halloween is THE candy event of the year. The mini packages we now call “fun sized” really took off in the 1960s, but innovation abounds with every new crop. There are always special shapes, colors and flavors to hand out to little goblins, or to hoard like one! Let’s look at the rundown so you can plan your grab bags and party favors accordingly.
This year, the sweet treats industry has outdone itself, seemingly without batting an eyelash. There is so much fun new stuff, you’ll be up to your eyeballs in candy before you know it. See if you can discern the overriding theme as we take a gander at the trends. If you keep your eyes peeled and look closely, you just might spot it! (Wink, wink.)
All the major candy companies have their usual mixed bags of their original items. Be forewarned that chocolate prices in particular have soared quite a bit, so steel yourself for some sticker shock. Whether your favorite is Butterfinger, Laffy Taffy, Blow Pops or York Peppermint Patties, you’ll find grab bags ready to go. There are even treat-sized bags of Froot Loops and Rice Krispies Treats. But, the really snazzy items are the limited editions, and that’s what I’ll focus on here.
Mars Candy's M&M's Cookies and Screeem flavor has layers of dark chocolate and white chocolate filling lurking beneath its trademarked candy shell, and the Creepy Cocoa Crisp tops the crunchy middle with dark chocolate.
Its Ghoul’s Mixes have seasonal orange, purple and green shells over original milk chocolate, peanut and peanut butter flavors. In fact, Mars’ whole Halloween line centers on Ghoulish Green this year: Twix has a bright green cookie, and Snickers with green nougat rounds out the lineup.
Mars is also collaborating with Rubicon Technologies to produce recyclable trick-or-treat bags and candy wrappers in an effort to reduce holiday plastic waste. They’re sold out for the year to order online, but you can still visit Halloween.Mars.com to find out where they are available in your area. In addition, Rubicon is still providing free wrapper collection boxes for schools and community organizations.
Kit Kat disappointed me last Valentine’s Day, but they’ve made up for it with a bevy of spooky minis. Its Witches’ Brew green marshmallow creme is my favorite, but it's also packaged up white creme Breaking Bones and an orange-coated Pumpkin Pie flavor wrapped in fall foliage colors. The latter is very ginger-y, more like a gingersnap than pumpkin pie, but it’s still in the seasonal ballpark.
Reese’s packaging and pieces candy is always seasonally dressed in orange and brown, but it's gone the extra mile developing Franken-Cups with a green creme layer, and shapes in chocolate pumpkins, ghosts and bats. There are also ghosts and cups in white creme coating. Although I always indulge in a few of those shapes for their superior peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio, Reese’s Pieces are tailor-made for holiday baking. If you find yourself with a bag left, the recipe section of Reese's website has you covered with instructions for candy-covered apples, bars and brownies and eyeball cookies.
Speaking of eyeballs, if you love eating them, head over to Target to check out its eyeball-forward Hyde and EEK! candy and kit lineup. In addition to gummy eyeballs and bloodshot gumballs in apothecary jars, they have disturbingly accurate gummy brains and beakers of hard candy bones. Tubs of Halloween Midnight Fright Sprinkles and vials of (surprise!) tiny candy eyes will make your favorite Halloween cookie recipe instantly creepy-cute. No time for baking? Target's no-bake, kid-friendly kits are extra-fun this year, with Mummy Brownies, Tie Dye Monster Cookies and Monster Cookie Bites with (you guessed it!) single giant eyeballs.
Not to be outdone in the disgusting gummy department, Frankford has jumbo bags of Body Parts candy, with fingers, feet, ears, brains … and eyeballs, of course. It's also made strikingly realistic Skull Hot Chocolate Drink Bombs filled with mini marshmallows.
I really love Hershey’s unique take: Cookies ‘n’ Creme Fangs, with vampire teeth impressed into the mini bars. They’re quite a bit tastier than the traditional plastic Dracula teeth! It also has full-sized Halloween Props chocolate bars with cartoon eyes and mustaches in case you’d like a costume you can eat later. Other Hershey offerings include blood-red strawberry creme-filled Vampire Kisses with little red bats on the purple foil wrapper, and milk chocolate Monster Kisses complete with scary teeth, creepy peepers and paper plumes that proclaim, “YIKES!” and “EEK!”
Haribo’s Sweet or Scary Mix combines mini bags of its famous original Goldbears with packages of Sour Vampire Bats and Ghostly Gummies in the usual flavors shaped like skulls, pumpkins, tiny bats, and mummies. This allergen-friendly brand is great to have on hand if you expect some little She-Hulks and vampires with tree nut or peanut allergies.
One of the craziest-looking (and thus one of my favorite!) offerings is Stuffed Puffs Monster Marsh Big Bites. Green marshmallows filled with chocolate and coated with Halloween sprinkles? They sound devilishly, deliciously terrible. I might not share.
Tootsie Roll's colorful Dots have died and gone to heaven! Ghost Dots are all the same spectral pale green color, but they come in assorted flavors. You’ll be haunted by the aroma of orange, cherry or lemon emanating from something the color (and texture!) of "Ghostbusters" ectoplasm. If you only expect a few trick-or-treaters, its movie-theater style boxes are perfect and different.
Other big-bag, doorbell-ready packages are Jelly Belly’s truly superior candy corn, Chupa Chups' Day of the Dead pop-up lollipop holders, Tony’s Chocoloney mini bars and Tiny Tony’s coins, Junior Mints orange- and black-filled Halloween boxes and Skittles Shriekers, which come in a peck of lip-puckering flavors: Spine-tingling Tangerine, Rattled Raspberry, Shocking Lime, Citrus Scream and Ghoulish Green Apple. No special-edition flavors from Peeps this year, but its ghost, sugar skull, Frankenstein and pumpkin shapes are perfect for crafts and treat decorations as well as handing out. If you have some left, you can make the standout Churro Whoopie Pies from the recipe on its website.
For grown-up treating, Dove has White Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Promises with graham bits mixed in, and Ghirardelli’s dark chocolate Caramel Apple Squares are a sophisticated choice. Ghirardelli also has an autumn assortment bag with its trademark colorful foil wrappers. Lindt’s sugar skull-themed casket box with ghost and pumpkin wrapped truffles, available through its website, is so beautiful it may be worth the special order. And although no one can accuse candy corn of being grown-up, a party dish of Brach’s Autumn Mix is mandatory in most states. Some say Ichabod Crane courted the ire of the Headless Horseman by refusing to display the customary bowl of pumpkin Mellowcremes. Urban legend? Perhaps, but why tempt fate? As I always advise regarding seasonal candy corn, best get two bags.
As for the rest of your party table, there are dozens of options: Pumpkin Spice Oreos, Favorite Day Scarecrow Crunch Trail Mix, Utz Witch’s Brew Party Mix and Paqui Haunted Ghost Pepper Tortilla Chips. Orange- and black-drizzled Cookie Pop Oreo Popcorn looks incredible in a big glass bowl, and it has real Oreo bits. Hyde and EEK’s ice cube trays come ready-stuffed with gummy eyeballs to have your guests doing a double-take at their punch glasses. For a tablescape centerpiece, Reese’s, Hershey’s, Hyde and EEK! and Sour Patch Kids all have chocolate cookie haunted house kits that come with everything you need to have a blast decorating your nightmare home, or to screech in frustration as the walls close in.
Even if you’re not entertaining, Peeps’ Halloween char-spookery board tutorial has real Instagram potential. In addition to all the Halloween Peeps, it suggests fruit, baby carrots, pretzels, popcorn, candy pumpkins, and — that’s right — candy eyeballs.
Whether this year’s Halloween candy is the best ever remains to be seen, but things are looking good! I think the eyes will have it.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
