The Best Halloween Candy of All Time, Super Scientifically Ranked from Trash to Tasty
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Remember your childhood neighbor who always gave out terrible candy (or worse, boxes of raisins gone bad), so much so that by fourth grade, you didn’t even bother to stop at their house anymore and basically avoided eye contact with them from August through November? No one wants to be that person. To ensure you’re giving out the good stuff (or eating it on your own while binging your favorite Halloween movies), I’ve carefully ranked all the best Halloween candy of 2024 from worst to best—with input from my colleagues to back up my claims, of course. You can thank me later, friend.
65 Halloween Dessert Ideas, from Totally Spooky to Extra Sweet
The Top 5 Halloween Candies
As of 2023, the most popular Halloween candy in the U.S. was Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, according to CandyStore.com. In second place were M&M’s, followed by Hot Tamales, Skittles and Sour Patch Kids. This list differs in four of five spots (to each their own, right?). Scroll down for my top picks.
45. Strawberry Hard Candies
Congratulations. You trick-or-treated at the actual devil’s house and made it out alive.
44. Gum (Specifically Dubble Bubble)
If you’re seeking saccharine-sweet flavor for seconds followed by tough-to-chew disappointment...well, look no further.
43. Dots
It’s like they’re not even trying to get your attention. I’m almost sorry I dissed that box of raisins.
42. Junior Mints
Personally, I think they taste like toothpaste, but not everyone feels the same. Assistant Editor Delia Curtis wants justice for Junior Mints: “They’re like mint chocolate ice cream in a box. Refreshing and not overly sweet, the dark chocolate coating mellows out the mint and, in my opinion, makes it a sophisticated candy option.”
41. Hot Tamales
Not to be rude, but I’m shocked these ranked so high in CandyStore.com’s list. They’re just…spicy.
40. Lemonheads
While sour candies have my heart (see no. 4 on this list), these are a little too big and a little too plain. Moving on.
39. 3 Musketeers
Is it just me or is this the chintziest of all candy bars? Plain old nougat…it’s just meh. Turns out, I’m not alone: “Musketeers are just a knock-off version of Snickers, and I'll die on that hill,” Beauty and Cultures Editor Chelsea Candelario says. “Since it’s missing the peanuts and caramel (like Snickers), it just lacks any sort of taste. Yuck.”
38. Payday
This would be ever so slightly better if it were enrobed in chocolate. It just feels a little...anticlimactic.
37. Baby Ruth
Great baseball player? Yes. Great candy? Not so much. This one loses points for its sloppy appearance and the fact that I have to Google what it’s made of every single time (for the record, it's peanuts, caramel, milk chocolate-flavored nougat and chocolate).
36. Crunch Bar
Remind me, why did they need to ruin perfectly mediocre chocolate with surprise bits of mystery gravel?
35. Whoppers
If I’m in a dark movie theater, sure, I’ll down an entire king-size box of these. But on Halloween, my standards are suddenly much, much higher.
34. Mr. Goodbar
He’s good, but not, like, amazing. Unless you enjoy plain old chocolate and peanuts, in which case, you do you.
33. Blow Pops
Does anyone actually like the plasticky chewing gum that lurks in the center of these things? I didn’t think so.
32. Bottle Caps
It’s all fun and games until you think you’re biting into a root beer bottle cap and it turns out to be an orange one that tastes like medicine. Give me treats, not tricks!
31. Sweetarts
Had I wanted to eat chalk for dessert, I would’ve done so when my kindergarten teacher wasn’t looking.
30. Snickers
Listen, these peanut-nougat bars are just fine, if settling for fine on the most sugary holiday of the year is your thing. But turn them into Snickers dip and now you’re talking.
29. Caramel Apple Pops
I’d kinda sorta like these fall-ified lollipops—if they didn’t threaten to rip my teeth clean from my mouth in one go. Eat at your own risk, folks.
28. Jolly Ranchers
It’s not that Jolly Ranchers are inherently bad (minus the grape ones, those are the worst); it’s just that as a society, we could do so much better. (C’mon, who wants their Halloween candy to be hard candy?)
27. Hershey’s Chocolate
I’m not a chocolate snob, but I do think these are the Michael Bluths of the Halloween candy haul: Fine…but pretty boring compared to the rest of the family. (The one exception—and this is crucial—is if the neighbor is giving out full-size chocolate bars. Gimme!)
26. Smarties
We’ll admit that these sugar tablets are really only good when eaten in threes...or the entire roll shoved in your mouth at once.
25. Mounds
Coconut and dark chocolate felt sophisticated in childhood, and TBH, it still does today. “Say what you will about Mounds, but coconut and dark chocolate will always be music to my taste buds,” says Senior Commerce Editor Stephanie Maida. “Though I’ll be honest, I only really started loving these as a grownup.”
24. Rolos
Sure, these caramel-chocolate bites are pretty inoffensive in the grand scheme of things. But they’re certainly not *Milk Duds.*
23. Tootsie Fruit Chews
These guys are a little fruity, a little waxy and taste like something my grandpa would keep in his pocket for “emergencies.” All things considered, I do have a soft spot for the vanilla ones.
22. Original Tootsie Rolls
See above. Slightly waxy, vaguely chocolaty and found in a grandparent’s jacket pocket, they’re a Halloween classic. Nothin’ wrong with that.
21. Sprees
Nonbelievers will say this Halloween candy is chalky and boring, but I must disagree. Plus, have you ever had the chewy kind?
20. Sugar Babies
Add eating these to the list of things your dentist wants you to stop doing. They taste like pure sugar in the best way possible.
19. Starburst (Reds, Yellows and Oranges)
I’ll never know how these flavors got to share a package with those delicious pink guys, but I suppose it could be worse. (See number 45.)
18. Almond Joy
Real talk: I would prefer Almond Joys if they were made with, well...zero almonds. (If you agree, might I suggest their British cousins, Bounty bars?)
17. Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers
This is the only kind of worm I want to see in my Halloween candy, to be quite honest. The chewy-yet-soft texture is so dreamy.
16. Skittles
I've tasted the rainbow, and I’m so glad they replaced that cursed green apple nonsense withe the original lime flavor. (Bonus points if you get a sour bag.)
15. Airheads
Getting a mystery flavor Airhead is like winning the Halloween candy lottery. (Rumor has it that it's a combination of a few other Airheads flavors.)
14. Nerds
What the heck are Nerds? They’re tiny, crunchy bits of sugar that you can pour straight into your mouth. And that’s why I love ’em so.
13. M&M’s
Listen, we’ll trade you six green M&M’s for three red ones. We know all the colors taste the exact same...or do they?
12. Milk Duds
What’s the opposite of a dud? Perfection? Yeah, they should rename these. OK, maybe not, but you get the idea.
11. Twizzlers
Strawberry Twizzlers are in a league of their own—especially compared to regular licorice. And that, friends, is a very good thing.
10. Kit Kat
Break me off a piece of that. Or just give me a whole one, please and thank you. I don’t actually want to share my Halloween candy bar with anyone.
9. Reese’s Fast Break
Finding one of these in your Halloween candy bag is like finding an all-marshmallow box of Lucky Charms—a diamond in the rough, if you will.
8. Hershey’s Cookies And Cream
I don’t even care that it’s not “real” white chocolate, or even chocolate at all. Haters, stay back. “Regular Hershey’s is fine,” Candelario says, “but the Cookies and Cream flavor is so much better. It has the right amount of cookie crumbs in each bite.”
7. Starburst (Pinks)
I would go to great lengths to get my hands on pink Starbursts. Good thing they make bags full of just the good stuff now, so I don’t have to painstakingly pick them out myself anymore.
6. Butterfinger
If you didn’t get one of these hopelessly stuck in your molars, did Halloween really even happen? (Apologies to dentists all over the world.)
5. Candy Corn
Is it the most polarizing of all the Halloween candy? Perhaps. Do I love it more than the holiday itself? Forever and ever.
4. Sour Patch Kids
Would I dip my fingers in the sugary dust that settles at the bottom of the bag? Let’s just say the answer isn’t no.
3. Reese’s Take 5
I appreciate how hard they’re trying with five different components in one bar. And to be honest, I’ll eat anything that involves pretzels, peanut butter and caramel. “For an indecisive Gemini like myself, this treat is a true gift,” says VP of Editorial Content Candace Davison. “It’s got smooth peanut butter, gooey caramel, salty (and crunchy) pretzels, and it’s all covered in chocolate. It’s an overachiever, and I fully support it.”
2. Twix
Keep your new Halloween candy, because I want the classics. This crunchy cookie/gooey caramel situation is universally satisfying—the Tom Hanks of treats, if you will.
1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
There’s simply no denying that this is the best Halloween candy of all time. Salty, sweet and color-coordinated to the holiday. “Everything from Reese’s pumpkin-ready shape to its bright orange packaging screams Halloween,” says Maida. “It was made to reign supreme in the trick-or-treat arena.” Candelario agrees: “Reese’s will ALWAYS be top tier in my book. Also, for some reason the mini Reese’s taste better than the regular size. Maybe it’s just me?”
