Top 7 best and worst Halloween candy

It’s National Candy Corn Day – a day to celebrate the Halloween treat that’s cool to hate.

Candy corn is polarizing. People love it or hate it. Haters say it’s like eating pure sugar, wax or plastic. Enthusiasts say the haters are Halloween candy snobs who don’t appreciate the homage to corn on the cob.

Either way, National Candy Corn Day is the perfect time for a Top 7 list of the Best and Worst Halloween candy. Here are the results of our polling:

Top 7 Best Halloween Candy

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
   This molded chocolate candy with the peanut butter filling topped the list in our poll. Whether the traditional cup, the bar or Reese’s Pieces, our survey respondents can’t get enough of this chocolate and peanut butter stuff.
2. Snickers
   Snickers is the best-selling candy bar in the world and our respondents agree. Candy makers knew what they were doing when they created bite-sized bars for Halloween. After all, how many calories can one bite-sized Snickers have? Forty-two to be exact.
3. Peanut M&M’s
   Our survey respondents like their M&M’s with the satisfying nutty crunch of roasted peanuts. As they say, sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. For those who don’t, there’s always plain M&M’s.

   

   

   

   
   
4. SweeTarts
   This sweet Halloween favorite gives you the same great taste as the Pixy Stix and Lik-M-Aid’s of old without all the mess.
5. Twix
   Coming in at #5 on the Best list is this caramel cookie bar offering crunch, smooth caramel and creamy chocolate.
6. Skittles
   These small chewy candies with a hard sugar shell invite you to taste the rainbow with strawberry, orange, lemon, grape and green apple flavors. We like the candy, but we can do without kids breaking out in Skittles pox.
7. Starburst
   Another fruity treat, this square-shaped soft taffy candy squeaked into the Top 7 Best list. The marketing team at The Wrigley Company did this candy a favor when it changed the name from the original Opal Fruits to Starburst.

Top 7 Worst Halloween Candy

1. Candy Corn
   “Nasty,” “too sugary” and “like eating wax” are a few of the comments we received about this Halloween treat. Sorry, candy corn lovers.
2. Black Licorice
   An unappetizing look and gummy texture give black licorice a high ranking on our Worst Halloween candy list.

   

   

   
   
3. Gummy Bears
   This and all other gelatin-based candies get a thumbs down from our survey respondents. Gummies get a failing grade for texture and taste.
4. Raisins
   A healthy snack? Yes. A Halloween treat? No, according to our respondents. Plus, the raisins always clump together in the little box.
5. Tootsie Rolls
   Tootsie Rolls have been around for more than a century, but that apparently hasn’t improved their popularity. A chocolate treat with fruity notes, this candy gets panned for getting stuck in your teeth.
6. Twizzlers
   Like black licorice, but red and blue and green and purple and orange, Twizzlers made the worst list for taste and texture.
7. Ring Pops
   Hard candy, in general, and particularly hard candy on a ring rounds out our list of the Top7 worst Halloween treats. Unlike a lollipop with a regular stick, the base and ring portion of the Ring Pop look like a pacifier in your mouth.

While Candy Corn ranks among the worst Halloween candies, there are some cool things you can do with it. Here’s an idea shared by Livin’ Upstate premier partner Ingles Markets.

Put candy corn in the tips of the fingers of plastic gloves, then fill the gloves with popcorn and tie at end.

(Photo courtesy of University of Nebraska – Lincoln Alice Henneman.)