Best and Worst Halloween Candies, According to CR Staffers
Our most and least favorites, backed by nostalgia and strong opinions
By Perry Santanachote
Hershey announced there will likely be a candy shortage this Halloween due to global supply chain disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine War, which has strapped supplies of cocoa, edible oil, and other ingredients that go into making your favorite holiday candies. And the candies that will be available will be more expensive. That means when you’re shopping for your trick-or-treat goodies this year, make it count!
To find out which Halloween candies are worthy of being handed out and which ones should just go away, we polled nearly 160 of our staffers, most of whom reside in the northeast region. We asked them to pick three of their personal favorites and three that are the absolute worst. While some staffers made selections with their kids in mind, many let nostalgia guide them.
“Nostalgia within consumer behavior and marketing is really, really strong,” says Jorge Barraza, PhD, program director and assistant professor in the online master of science in the applied psychology program at the University of Southern California. “People are willing to pay more for products that elicit nostalgia. It amplifies people’s pure, hedonic experience when they’re consuming something that has nostalgia tied to it because it’s not just about the flavor; it’s also the emotions and memories that it’s connected to.”
Here are all the Halloween candies we included in the survey. Keep scrolling to see which ones CR staff called the best and worst—and why.
Best Halloween Candies
The common factor in all the top candies? Chocolate. But never chocolate on its own. It’s the perfect pairing of chocolate with something else that sets them apart.
“Halloween is a chocolate holiday. I like chocolate with texture—chewy goodness, crunchy nuts or cookie, peanut butter, caramel, and nougat. That’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, and Twix. Anything else is a trick, not a treat.”—Keith Flamer, home and appliance writer
1. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (33%)
Whether your Halloween haul includes mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (love those jagged edges!), full-sized cups (one bite or two bites?), or the pumpkin that packs an extra dose of sugary peanut butter, there’s no way to go wrong eating a Reese’s. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts, in which case, trade away, baby! These puppies have the highest value in the bunch.
“Everybody loves Reese’s, right? ‘Two great tastes that taste great together.’ I didn’t always do my homework in the ’70s, but I was valedictorian when it came to memorizing advertising tag lines.”—Mike Quincy, auto writer
“The peanut butter in a Reese’s cup is unparalleled. Salty, sweet, gritty. It’s perfect.”—Jen Saravay, senior human resources business partner
“Everyone knows Reese’s pumpkins have the best chocolate-to-peanut butter ratio.”—Alex Knizek, automotive engineer
“Excellent form factor, easy to devour cleanly.”—James McQueen, senior communications specialist
“I voted for Reese’s even though I’m allergic to nuts and can’t eat them. That’s because as a kid, my cousins, my sister, and I always had a huge candy trading session after trick-or-treating. Reese’s and Snickers were in high demand by everyone else, so I could command a high price for them in our trades. This meant I always ended up with way more Kit Kats and other favorites than I started with.”—Catherine Roberts, health writer
2. Snickers (16%)
According to the brand’s slogan, “Snickers satisfies,” and CR staffers could not agree more. This hearty candy bar is filled with nougat, caramel, nuts, and chocolate, practically making it a meal—albeit a very unhealthy one.
“Peanuts and caramel and chocolate, oh my! Sometimes too much of a good thing is even better. Snickers have it all: crunch, chew, and smoothness.”—Sarah Goralski, senior editorial researcher
“Snickers is simply the best candy bar. It has taste, texture, and substance. You get the gooey goodness of the caramel, but you break it up with peanuts, which also give you protein. Then you get the light, airy nougat to fancy the whole thing up because Snickers bars are not basic.”—Genea Bell, chief people officer
“Snickers feel almost like food because of the nuts, so I don’t feel as guilty.”—Leslie Monthan, copy chief
3. Almond Joy and Twix (14%)
The chewy crunch, whether from a caramel-topped cookie or an almond-studded coconut, brings both Almond Joy and Twix onto the podium for third place. Both are enrobed in silky chocolate and somehow taste even better in fun and snack sizes. Almond Joy also landed on our list of the worst Halloween candies. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you really don’t.
“I love coconut and chocolate. My mom likes coconut, too, and introduced me to Almond Joy, so it always makes me think of her.”—Tess Yanisch, senior research associate
“Twix is part cookie, part caramel, and a perfect combo.”—Rich Browne, senior marketing administrator
“Growing up, not many liked Almond Joy, so I was able to swap easily for them. They are just the right combo of coconut, chocolate, and nut.”—Rosemary McGuire, marketing associate
4. 100 Grand and Kit Kat (13%)
Another tie for fourth place: between 100 Grand, with its caramel and crisped rice, and Kit Kat, which brings the delicate wafer into the chocolatey mix. Many colleagues waxed nostalgic about 100 Grand and loved the variety of Kit Kat flavors these days. While one wrote a dissertation about both, which we thought worthy of publishing in full.
“In my perfect grown-up Halloween world, Kit Kats and 100 Grand bars would come in a hybrid dark-milk chocolate variety with some sort of sea salt component, and every home on my trick-or-treating route would be required to give full-sized bars. Still, the humble Kit Kat and 100 Grand bars, full or fun size, milk or dark chocolate (or one of the endless Kit Kat flavors offered in Japan!), have long been my favorite Halloween candies and the ones I’d always look for in a grab bag and still scan for at the grocery checkout line. Kit Kats have long been my #1 favorite candy. I know they were probably just created in a Hershey corporate office by a bunch of execs, but original Kit Kats are so wonderfully simple and balanced that I kind of feel like they may have been developed by a seasoned French pâtissier. The sweet layer of milk chocolate coating is pretty light, considering this is a candy produced in an American factory. The wafers are the perfect amount of crunchy, with not much additional sweetness. Overall, I don’t feel like Kit Kats are as cloyingly sweet as they could be. That’s not to say that they’re not extremely sweet and also artificial tasting, but I think things could have (and definitely have) gone worse. Kit Kats are also hearty if you can call a chocolate hearty. Did your Kit Kat bar melt? No worries, throw it in the freezer for a few hours and you still have a delicious, albeit misshapen, chocolate wafer treat. The perforated wafer pieces make it easy to share (if you’re so inclined) or ration out to save for later. The construction also makes it so much easier to eat politely; you can break it up into small bites and you’re less likely to get your hands and face covered in chocolate. I think 100 Grand bars got unfairly looped in with ‘old people candies’ during my childhood, but this reputation made them very easy to scoop up during Halloween trick-or-treating. However, if it truly is ‘old people candy,’ it is the Jeff Goldblum of old—classic but approachable, fun, and flavorful—unlike some of its contemporaries. I don’t know if we’ve seen much innovation with the 100 Grand bar since its creation, but I’m honestly okay with it. Crisped rice, chocolate, and caramel; how could you go wrong? It’s essentially an elevated Crunch bar, but so much better. There is too much uniformity in the crisped rice of the Crunch bar; I like the sort of haphazard bunches (mounds?) of crisped rice in the 100 Grand bar that give it a rustic, granola-esque texture. It’s essentially a health food, right?”—Alexis Priester, social media program manager
5. Butterfinger (12%)
Coming in fifth place but still very much adored is Bart Simpson’s favorite candy bar. Butterfinger makes a mess and half of it gets stuck in your teeth for hours, but that’s part of its charm.
“There’s something about the combination of flavors in Butterfinger bars (especially those little fun-size treats) that always had me ransacking my kids’ Halloween bags.”—Diane Umansky, deputy editor of print products
“I was torn between making Butterfinger or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups my #1, but I’ll eat a Reese’s any time of year whereas Butterfinger is exclusively a Halloween-time treat for me. I both love and hate how it gets stuck to your teeth for way too long.”—Alisa O’Connor, photo editor
“I love a Butterfinger in large part because it’s not pure sweetness—it’s salty and savory, too—and it has a delightful crunchy texture that sets it apart from other candies.”—Angela Lashbrook, writer
“It’s hard to beat the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but for me, Butterfinger outranks Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups because of the crunchy toffee-like quality of the filling.”—Dana Keester, senior test project leader
Worst Halloween Candies
For most CR staffers, it’s chocolate or bust when it comes to Halloween. But there’s definitely a love-hate relationship going on with their #1 worst candy choice: the infamous Candy Corn.
“If there’s not at least some chocolate, what’s the point?”—Terri Kazin, senior associate for content production
1. Candy Corn (32%)
“Candy Corn is both the best and the worst Halloween treat. Halloween would not feel like Halloween without Candy Corn, and there’s nothing better than a bit or lots of bits of Candy Corn when you start. But the next day, it feels like you have a bad Candy Corn hangover.”—Odalys Grieco, senior market analyst
“There are two types of people: those who like Candy Corn and those who don’t understand why people like Candy Corn. I am of the latter.”—Amira Dhalla, director of impact partnership
“Candy Corn and Good & Plenty (below) remind me of being car sick.”—Samantha Ostrander, assistant test project leader
“They taste like what I thought crayons or candles would taste like when I was a child. Unfortunately, crayons and candles tasted like crayons and candles, so I am thrilled to have candy corn as a superior alternative.”—Alexis Priester, social media program manager
“Candy Corn pulls out dental work!”—Jim Rogers, director of food safety research and testing
“Candy Corn is a classic and it looks nice as a decoration, but sorry, I’m not a big fan.”—Glen Rockford, privacy product testing program manager
“Candy corn is a bad excuse for candy.”—Daniela Nuñez, associate director of social media
“It may be controversial, but I really like Candy Corn once a year. Within the small window of time around Halloween, I love to dig into that sugary, caramel-y goodness, but after that window closes I’m done with it.”—Alexander Susse, senior consumer experience insights specialist
2. Good & Plenty (20%)
“Good & Plenty looks like medication, and the only reason it doesn’t taste like it is that no one would try to cover up the taste of medicine with an even worse flavor: black licorice.”—Dana Keester, senior test project leader
“Good & Plenty tastes like black licorice, which is the worst! Almost all licorice should be melted down to fill in potholes. I’d rather drink castor oil. I’d rather be audited by the IRS I’d rather go through a root canal without anesthesia.”—Mike Quincy, auto writer
“My best friend (since pre-school) and I have pretty much everything in common except one thing: our favorite candies. She absolutely loves Good & Plenty, Hot Tamales (see below), and Red Hots. At first, I thought this was appalling. I don’t like licorice, and I barely like cinnamon spice. Both flavors are too powerful and overwhelming, with not an ounce of subtlety. But then I realized this was an extremely valuable thing to disagree on. Rather than begrudgingly split a Kit Kat or argue about who got the last 100 Grand (see above), we enjoyed our polar opposite favorites on our own. We also had extremely valuable currency to trade on Halloween.”—Alexis Priester, social media program manager
“Black licorice is an acquired taste I have still not obtained.”—Alex Knizek, automotive engineer
“The outside coating of Good & Plenty is pretty good, and I can handle a hint of the licorice flavor. But I draw the line at eating black licorice. When I was a kid, I’d suck all the coating off each piece and spit out the licorice.”—Trisha Calvo, deputy health and food editor
3. Almond Joy and Airheads (16%)
“Mounds? Almond Joy? Leftovers that even parents don’t want. 😉 Okay, I know there are coconut lovers out there. I prefer it in my overnight oats, but definitely not my Halloween candy.”—Ted Bongiovanni, senior director of new ventures
“Airheads were a cute prize for book reading challenges in primary school but don’t deserve a place in any reasonably curated candy bowl.”—Paul Ritchey, senior test project leader
“Airheads are too tart and hurt your teeth.”—Nancy Smith, fundraising program manager
“Coconut has no business in candies! I feel the same way about spice/heat, so Hot Tamales also belong on this list.”—Joseph Delfino, senior marketing associate
“Airheads are by far the worst candy ever made; they are too much work to eat and enjoy.”—Grace Prudente, director of consumer data and intelligence
4. Hot Tamales (15%)
“They’re just a less offensive cousin of the Good & Plenty.”—Michele Kern, senior administrative assistant
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