10 candies that are treats and 10 that are tricks

Bart Simpson famously said, “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger,” and we agree. Butterfingers are a truly unique candy bar when compared to the other candy rack regulars, as they contain a crispy, layered, peanut buttery core covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Butterfingers are a cut above the rest, and that statement is confirmed by the fact that they’re currently made by Ferrero SpA, the same Italian company that makes those fancy Ferrero Rocher bonbons and Kinder bars.

Getting subpar treats is tiresome—give us a break, and break out the Kit Kats! Thick chocolate covering light and crispy wafers is a classic candy combination, and we’re always psyched to sink our teeth into one. Plus, Kit Kats are a candy that encourages sharing, as even the fun size contains two sticks!

Sorry, original Hershey’s Bars; we eschew your traditional taste in favor of the flavors of creamy white chocolate and crunchy chocolate crispies. Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme bars aren’t one of the more popular trick-or-treat options, but we’re always delighted to find a fun-size bar in our Halloween haul. If you disagree, we’ll gladly trade you for yours!

Milky Way bars might be our favorite variety of candy bar because they contain our all-time favorite dessert pairing: chocolate and caramel. The chocolate is the perfect thickness, the caramel has just the right amount of stretch and chewiness, and with a thick layer of soft nougat to bring the whole thing together, a Milky Way is a magnificent masterpiece. 

How are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups always so moist in the middle? Probably because they use actual peanut butter, which is protected from drying out by a solid chocolate shell. We like the traditional peanut butter cup shape, but we’ll also shell out extra money for seasonal shapes like pumpkins, Easter eggs, Christmas trees, and hearts…even though they all just look like blobs.

There’s already a lot of chocolate on this list, so let’s add a pop of color. And what better way, than with the candy that allows you to “taste the rainbow”? Of course, everyone has their favorite color of Skittle (ours is red), but we’re going to use this platform to take a somewhat unpopular stand: Green Skittles tasted better when they were green apple. Mars, Inc. made the switch from lime to green apple in 2013 but changed it back to the classic lime flavor in 2021 after years of backlash.

Those commercials aren’t total exaggerations: People really do get happier when they eat a Snickers bar. Sort of like a Milky Way with nuts, Snickers consists of milk chocolate and peanuts held together with nougat and caramel. It’s a simple yet satisfying combination that is always welcome in our trick or treat bags—and they’re great in the freezer, too!

We like having a lighter option for candy bars, especially when you’ve been gorging on your Halloween haul and just want to eat one more bar. Of course, we’re not implying that a Three Musketeers is some sort of healthy candy bar—it’s still a certified sugar bomb—but the fluffy, airy nougat is sometimes a welcome break from caramel, nuts, cookies, and peanut butter.

Our favorite cookie-centric candy bar is the Twix, which covers the biscuit in gooey caramel and a thick layer of chocolate. Despite all those exterior layers, each Twix still contains a satisfying crunch—and if you’re lucky enough to get a full-size bar, it also comes with a sharable companion.

Getting a York Peppermint Pattie in your bag was always a surprise. Maybe it’s the shiny silver packaging, maybe it’s the thickness of the cool peppermint interior, or maybe it’s because they sound like they come from England, but York patties just seem so fancy. The truth: Although they were briefly made by the British confectionery company Cadbury, they actually hail from York, Pennsylvania, and are currently made by The Hershey Company!

How is the one candy that represents Halloween so terrible and yet also so ubiquitous? Our money is on the fact that the orange, yellow, and white colors represent Halloween so well, and candy corns do look like they should taste good. The pumpkin-shaped ones are even more adorable but just as icky.

The first few times we tried a Charleston Chew, we thought it was stale, but it turns out they were just normal Charleston Chews. Even though they are just chocolate-covered nougat bars—something that sounds good in theory—we find them unpleasant because the nougat isn’t light like a Three Musketeers bar or paired with caramel like a Milky Way or Snickers. Instead, it takes on a harder, chewier texture that’s more like the consistency of tāffy. 

We recall getting circus peanuts in our trick-or-treat bags numerous times, and it’s always an odd sighting. Not only do they have nothing to do with Halloween—aside from the color—but they’re downright weird. They look like peanuts and are orange in color, but for some reason have a banana flavor. (What the heck is that about?!) The only good part of circus peanuts: General Mills claims they inspired Lucky Charms cereal. 

Too chewy with not enough flavor, eating dots is like gnawing on colorful pieces of plastic—especially if the package of dots has gone stale, which seems to happen all too often because cardboard doesn’t keep candy fresh. (Side note: We actually enjoy eating those little wax candies with the liquid inside, which are often shaped like soda bottles or tubes.)

Licorice is already a divisive enough candy in its rope form; it doesn’t need to also exist as some sort of weird pill. So please don’t put any of these pink and white candies into our trick-or-treat bags—we’re good, and regular licorice is plenty.

Hershey’s chocolate is fine when it’s part of a Reese’s Cup or numerous other candies the company produces—but by itself, Hershey’s chocolate just doesn’t cut it. Hershey bars are too sweet and too acidic compared to all the imported chocolate varieties you can easily obtain—and there are even some delicious domestic brands now, too.

It’s not obvious what Mary Janes are, which makes for an unpleasant first experience when you try one and discover it’s a hard chunk of tāffy with a strange peanut butter and molasses flavor. Every piece you get in your trick-or-treat bag looks like it was from a hundred Halloweens ago, as Mary Janes have used the same packaging since their invention in 1914. 

We’ll once again look to “The Simpsons” for some candy-related wisdom, as Bart Simpson once said of a devious girl: “She’s like a Milk Dud … sweet on the outside, poison on the inside.” That is absolutely true of both the girl and the candy, as we’re not fans of these way-too-chewy chocolate-covered caramel candies in our trick-or-treat bag, at the movies, or anywhere else. Just the thought of getting these stuck to our teeth in a dark cinema is scarier than any horror movie they could put on the screen.

Necco Wafers are like slightly larger but slightly thinner chewable antacids. They were originally made in 1847 by Chase & Company and were called hub wafers, but the company merged with a couple of others in 1901 to form the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO), hence the name. If you think Necco Wafers are similar to those little Valentine’s Day conversation hearts, it’s because those, too, were also invented by Necco.

Newbies may wonder what exactly a Tootsie Roll is supposed to be. It’s too dry and chewy to be a chocolate bar, despite sort of looking like one. And it’s often too hard to pass as tāffy or caramel, especially since the cheap paper wrappers don’t keep these candies very fresh. Even if it is supposed to be tāffy, chocolate is a curious choice, as that seems like it would be one of the least desirable tāffy flavors.