50 Halloween Candies, Ranked in Order of Deliciousness

There are two kinds of Halloween monsters: The fake kind of monster that is just a person wearing a spooky costume, dancing to Elvira, sipping on cocktails called like “Mr. Hyde’s Potion” or “Witches Brew” or something, and the real kind of monster that hands out candy corn to trick-or-treaters. Candy corn tastes like the middle of a venn diagram where one side is ear wax and the other side is butt. Candy corn is the troll bogey-flavored Bean in a box of Bertie Bott’s. Candy corn is to candy what the space between toes is to the human body. Yet, despite its awfulness, candy corn remains one of the best-selling Halloween “treats” year after year. This madness has to stop! We must be part of the solution!

You can start by familiarizing yourself with this irrefutable list of 50 excellent Halloween candies, ranked in order of deliciousness.

1. Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

2. Full-Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

3. Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins

4. Starburst

5. Sour Patch Kids

6. Kit-Kat

7.Haribo Gummy Bears

8. Plain M&M’s

9. Skittles

10. Snickers

11. Jelly Belly Fun Packs

12. Nerds

13. Gobstoppers

14. Sprees

15. Nestle Crunch

16. Twizzlers

17. Milky Way

18. Butterfinger

19. Twix

20. Ring Pops

21. Chewy SweetTarts

22. SweetTarts

23. Red Vines

24. Baby Ruth

25. Rainblow Pops

26. Peanut M&M’s

27. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Minis

28. Jolly Ranchers

29. Sour Skittles

30. War Heads

31. Laffy Taffy

32. Now & Laters

33. Almond Joy

34. Lemonheads

35. Red Hots

36. Heath bars

37. Cow Tails

38. Cadbury Scream Egg

39. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Minis

40. Bazooka Joe Bubblegum

41. Life Savers

42. Smarties

43. Milk Duds

44. Junior Mints

45. York Peppermint Patty

46. Sugar Babies

47. Tootsie Fruit Rolls

48. Good and Plenty

49. Peanut Butter Kisses

50. Candy Corn

Thoughts? Feelings? Incorrect defenses of of terrible, terrible candy corn?

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

99 Comments

  1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins are a sin against both peanut butter and chocolate. They are so undeserving of the #3 spot, Heather Anne.

    • No, Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins should be #1, with full size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups taking #2 and #3, respectively. It’s all about the peanut butter to chocolate ratio.

      Also, start using Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins (or other limited time holiday-related shapes) in lieu of Hershey’s on your s’mores. You can thank me later.

          • Suggestion: Eat peanutbutter by using a piece chocolate like pita slices are used for hummus. You know dip a piece of chocolate into the peanutbutter jar or a bowl of peanutbutter if you desire to appear like a lady. Not craven peanutbutter lech.

        • Agreed. The pumpkins and Easter eggs have way too much peanut butter. I am also on the minis train for maximum chocolate.

    • Even thought they are low on the Reese’s scale, that still puts them above every other candy!

  2. I don’t understand the hate for candy corn. It’s basically just marshmallows and honey, I get so excited when I can shove that orange goodness into my face again every year it’s not even funny.

      • Definitely a Shane thing too (me Shane, not great white whale Shane).

        I saw Lewis Black live in college and during his “I hate candy corn and they just collect and re-use it every year” bit, I wanted to stand and shout, “YOU LIE, SIR!” Next time maybe.

      • Count me in as another candy corn lover. Has anyone tried the s’mores candy corn? This is the first year I’ve seen it, and I haven’t tried it yet. I can’t bring myself to try candy corn-flavored things, like Oreos and M&Ms, though.

  3. The first time I visited the US was around Halloween. My girlfriend’s parents posted us a box of candy (and, inexplicably, Halloween patterned socks) and I was quite excited about eating candy corn for the first time.

    Probably like many Europeans, I will never understand the appeal of Hershey’s – but you do you and all that.

    • I also don’t understand the Hershey’s appeal. I understand peanut butter and chocolate together, just not that chocolate. Peanut butter M&Ms I can get behind though.

    • Actually, they sent us two pairs (that’s right, *matching*) Halloween patterned socks, which we wore together and it was adorable.

  4. I was so happy when I saw that my and my friends were ranked number 12 in terms of deliciousness!
    But then I googled it and apparently it is actual candy. There goes my excuse for throwing myself at hot people this halloween.
    Damn you Americans and your weird candy names!

  5. You’re totally right about the candy corn and, in my opinion, all things mellowcreme. I spent some time working for a candy company, and you’d be amazed at the number of people who order candies for Halloween that were last popular before our parents were born.

  6. I have never once been able to eat a piece of candy corn normally. I absolutely must bite off each little colored segment individually. I gave up that candy years ago because it made me question my sanity.

    Good list, except all the chocolate should be higher and all the non chocolate should be lower. ;)

    • I was unaware there was another way to eat candy corn. What, do some people just shove it in their maw by the fistful??

      • The same people who eat a swiss cake roll by just biting into it, rather than unrolling the layers, probably.

        • I eat Mars bars by pulling them apart – that is quite the (messy) skill. I understand the compulsion.

          • Temperature and time. Start cold to assist getting the chocolate from the outside with minimal caramel loss (this is the difficult part). The caramel comes away from the nougat easily. Enjoy said caramel, because that is really the whole point of this compulsion. The remaining nougat, meh, shove it down anyway.

  8. Candy Corn turns me on big time. So much I’ll even buy it off season to nom on it, while wearing whatever Disney Princess costume I managed to grab at Party Expert. And when I’m really into it, I’ll even carve a scary face into a spaghetti squash.

    That’s how I get my Halloween fix in early February.

    • I’m all about the candy corn. Every year I keep looking for a great candy corn-themed costume, but I always end up settling for something else.

    • I’m so sorry. There really should be more carob-based candy as a substitute. If we can come up with meat substitutes, why can’t we have chocolate substitutes?

    • I’m in the same boat. But my objection to halloween candy isn’t the high availability chocolate, its the absence of candy canes. There should always be candy canes.

  10. I can agree with 1-3 (especially with some time in the freezer!), but think M&Ms (plain & peanut) should feel slighted, and Hershey’s special dark minis should come long before any type of jelly bean.

    • Jelly beans do not belong in Halloween. They are Easter candy. (Possibly acceptable at Christmas, but I think that’s a personal bias because my mom always puts Jelly Bellies in our stockings. Oh, um… I mean Santa. Sorry.) I feel like this is kind of just a general candy ranking. Many of these don’t strike me as Halloween candy.

  11. Where’s the love for the Flavor Rolls? Tootsie Rolls in orange, lemon, lime, cherry, and vanilla flavors.

  12. the one thing I can say for candy corn is that it’s at least less disgusting than conversation hearts are.

  14. HOW CAN JUNIOR MINTS NOT BE IN THE TOP TEN MOST DELICIOUS CANDIES

    I FEEL OPPRESSED BY THIS LIST

    #juniormintsinvisibility

    HOW DARE YOU AUTOSTRADDLE

    I’M NEVER READING THIS WEBSITE AGAIN

    • Junior Mints are the most visible candy in a whole trick-or-treat satchel! They get their gross minty flavor all over every single candy! If you leave one box of those things unattended overnight, everything turns to crap!

        • Trigger warning: Junior Mints one time made me throw up. And now when mint gets on my other Halloween candy, it reminds me of throwing up those Junior Mints. No other candy has ever made me throw up. Junior Mints are lucky candy corn is so disgusting.

      • This thread is cracking me up. I am indifferent toward Junior Mints, as long as they stay out of the operating room gallery. ;)

  16. CANDY CORN IS DELICIOUS! Last year I ordered a four-pound bag off of Amazon. Which was actually a terrible idea, but it was amazing for a while.

  18. I’m another candy corn lover! In fact I like when it’s shaped into little pumpkins the best because it’s more candy per bite! :D

    • The pumpkins are my favorite too! I like to pretend that they are pumpkin pasties from Harry Potter and that really I’m not just eating them in my bedroom by myself but in fact I am in The Dinning Hall surrounded by flying jack-o-lanterns with Peeves shouting obscenities all my friends who are witches and wizards like me…

      This is why I love Halloween. The only time of the year anymore when it is socially acceptable to dress like a wizard…

  19. As a Britisher I say Haribo halloween mix, because the ghosts taste amazing. But an Internet friend posted me pumpkin spiced kisses and they are so damn good.

    • Yes Haribo halloween mix! I never got to go trick or treating as a kid, so I think I missed out on most of the sweets, but I remember the Haribo. (Side note: I did my year abroad in Bonn, which is where Haribo is originally from and where all celebrations involve an inordinate amount of the stuff.)

      • Haribo and Maoam for the win! Haribo celebration sounds good. I didn’t really trick or treat much as a kid, I just buy the haribo now incase a bin witch stumbles by and then they don’t and I eat them all myself :)

  20. I feel like 3 musketeers ahould be somewhere? Im happy to see kitkat in the top 10. Where are the Smarties? They still make those right. Lol.

  22. (warning for the gross?)I feel like half the candy corn hate is caused by having puked it up at some point. Or any candy, if you’re not allergic or just don’t like it. On the other hand, the Candy Corn drinks they sell in bars around Halloween are fucking delicious, 10/10 would rally again.

    • I once vommed up a giant candy snake which I had eaten too quickly. Put me off for life. Maybe that’s my root.

  23. This is ridiculous. Why aren’t semisweet chocolate chips mixed in to sunflower seed butter on the list???

  24. Jelly beans do not belong in Halloween. They are Easter candy. (Possibly acceptable at Christmas, but I think that’s a personal bias because my mom always puts Jelly Bellies in our stockings. Oh, um… I mean Santa. Sorry.) I feel like this is kind of just a general candy ranking. Many of these don’t strike me as Halloween candy.

  25. Kit-Kat and Nerds ranked high = I like you!

    There should be this like candy pal program where people would send me some of these that I haven’t tried and I’d bribe ’em with sugar skulls (which don’t taste so good, but look cool).

  26. awwww I’m sad that molasses kisses didn’t even make the list. Maybe that’s just a Canadian candy?

    • LOL. THOSE THINGS. Half assedly wrapped and leaking sticky brown goo all over everywhere.. two of them and I was done. Nobody ever wanted to trade for ’em cuz we all had six thousand ‘extras’. I would be finding those things at the bottom of my closet until April. :P

  27. I mean I would put skittles and sour skittles as my top two, and heath bars at a better ranking than they got, but other than that this list is pretty much on point with how I view Halloween candy

  28. *shakes head* Oh, Heather Hogan. I’m with you on just about every other thing, but CANDY CORN IS THE SWEET MANNA OF THE GODS and there is nothing anyone can say to convince me otherwise.

  29. Twizzlers outranking Baby Ruth, candy corn and other deliciousness? I’m not sure how to feel about this list. Def. agree with the top three. Peanut butter mixed with chocolate? How can you go wrong?

  30. Candy corn is that wonderful mixture of amazing and horrible and isn’t that just the best? It’s colorful and overly sweet and if you eat too many you’re stomach radiates a fun pain. But it’s also the ultimate marker of Halloween. Chocolate and Twizzlers and Gobstoppers are every day candy, but candy corn oh no no, those multi colored triangles are holiday specific. Unless you’re me and you did a little dance this past June when you discovered that you could in fact buy those odd little waxy candies on any day. But, they are still the candies of Halloween…even if kids hate you when you hate them out. Silly kids.

  32. I read this list multiple times to be sure I wasn’t missing the Dots! So delish. Though to be honest, I passed on them this year and bought haribo bears instead.

    • Nothing on this list is more vile than circus peanuts it is made from the very air of the boulevard of broken dreams.

  34. NO! 99% of the time I am in complete agreement with HH, but this list is just plain wrong! You bash candy corn but RED VINES are number 23?!? How dare you madam?!?

  35. Tootsie rolls were always kind of disappointments to me. I ate them expecting genuine actual CHOCOLATE, and I just ended up getting a chewy chocolate-flavored laffy-taffy type of thing.

    Skittles are also a little disappointing because they look like m&ms but they’re not. They’re not bad though, if you’re in a non-chocolate mood. (And with a slogan like “taste the rainbow!” how can you dislike them?)

    I agree with your top three picks. I love all things with chocolate and peanut butter and I even have a mild peanut allergy, but it’s worth eating anyway.

    • My mother fucking loves tootsie rolls. I can remember as a child watching her eyes following the hands putting those long tootise rols into my glow-in-the dark Boo at the Zoo bucket and her face. Her face of OH YEAH MAMA GUNNA GET SUM TONIGHT.

      And the years it was my dad’s turn take us trick-er-treating she was at home watching Bela Lugosi, waiting for us come home with some tootsie rolls. Apples little girl? No it was: Tootsie rolls little children, for you dear old mother?

      I like them alot too >_>.
      I don’t know why, because it’s true. They are chocolate favoured taffy.

  36. Haribo gummy bears for the win!!!! Junior mints do spread minty-ness. What about milk duds? ( I am from Australia but milk duds and red vines got me though my US rd trip)

  37. Reading this list made me crave pretty much everything on it.

    I love peeps, and they usually have Halloween-themed ones for sale (pumpkins, ghosts, etc.)

  38. Candy corn is the best! And I am a sad celiac year after year because the candy corn in stores around here isn’t gluten free so I have to order it from a specialty company. Le sigh.

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