One of the most important parts of Halloween is sorting through the goodie bag after a long night of ringing doorbells, putting on the scariest faces and begging just "one more block" as the sun goes down. Ranking candy isn't just for fun, it's an important part of deciding what you can trade with your brothers and sisters, and knowing which pieces dad is going to sneak from your stash later.
While we might not all agree on what is the very best candy around Halloween, at least we can all agree on this: treats are much better than tricks.
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The hard pieces of bubble gum always end up being relegated to the bottom depths of our Halloween candy bags.
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#34 Jolly Ranchers
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Not only do Jolly Ranchers always get stuck in our teeth, but we always end up with the dreaded green apple. More trick than treat if you ask us.
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Generally we love Nerds candy, but on Halloween we want all the chocolate we can get!
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A candy ring always sounded like a good idea, until you actually get one and then it turns out it's just a good way to end up with sticky hands and candy covered with dirt.
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When the neighbor kids are too loud, we threaten to give them Bit-O-Honey at Halloween. Unfortunately, they're kids and were born in the 2010s and not the 1940s and have no idea what a terrible threat this is to their candy haul.
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Candy that exists to share with your mom on Halloween because she's just going to pilfer them all from your treat bag when you go to sleep anyway.
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The combination of both tart and chalky is problematic enough to drag Smarties down in the Halloween power rankings.
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We're not even sure if this is candy. Goes in your mouth, but it's also got the word 'wax' in it and we tend not to eat candles year-round.
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Lifesavers are the safety candy of the Halloween haul. If one piece isn't to your liking, the next one probably will be the cherry-flavored one you were looking for.
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Many people like to say candy corn is the worst Halloween candy, which is totally not true because there are at least two more candies before it on this list.
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#25 Candy Pumpkins
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Candy corn, but with better PR of being pumpkin-shaped. Also they're bigger than candy corn and more is always better, so they rank ahead of the generally low-ranked candy corn.
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Someone did NOT just drop a piece a fruit into our candy bag. Probably friends with the dentist.
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#23 Butterfingers
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Ever have a Butterfinger and not end up with crumbs all over your costume? If you have, it's because someone handed out Butterfingers they bought in 2003.
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#22 Popcorn Balls
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When you're an older child and your parents insist you share with your younger family members who cannot keep up with your trick-or-treating prowess, the popcorn ball is the first treat to be handed over willingly.
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#21 Carmel Apples
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When you want fruit and you also want to finally get rid of the loose tooth that's been bothering you.
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#20 Candied Apples
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Candied apples are great because you and your siblings can fight with them, knock each other out with these sugary battle axes and recover just in time to get them stuck in your hair.
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It's not that tāffy's bad, you just don't know what flavor you're getting until you've unwrapped it and no one is going to trade you for a chocolate banana tāffy when you're clearly offering a re-wrapped orange cream tāffy in exchange.
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#18 Good & Plenty
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Like Good & Plenty? Good, there will be plenty of them left for you.
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#17 Pretzels and Crackers
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Some well-meaning family in your neighborhood is going attempt to give out crackers or pretzels as a healthy alternative to sugary treats at Halloween. When their kid-having friends laugh at them and says no child wants pretzels they'll race to the store at 4 p.m. on October 31 to correct their error and spend the next six months eating pumpkin-shaped pretzels.
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#16 Halloween Peeps
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It used to be that you could only combine marshmallow and sugar at Easter, but now you can look forward to debating "fresh or stale" just about any holiday. Bonus, they make killer s'mores.
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The sign of the house that forgot to buy Halloween candy but doesn't have the courage to turn off the porch light and hide under the covers, more than a few pennies will end up in trick-or-treat bags this Halloween, ignoring the approximately 2,732 articles written about the death of the penny since 1979.
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Candy most likely to be allowed by parents to be enjoyed while still trick-or-treating.
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You've found the dentist's house.
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Jelly beans are the candy to eat while you sort the good candy from the bad candy.
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There are so many varieties of Skittles, we can't get enough of these chewy, fruit bits these days. One of the best Halloween candies that isn't chocolate.
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#10 Nestle Crunch
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Nestle Crunch bars aren't for everyone. They're a touch sweeter and some people think the crunch isn't enough to rise above the pack, but let's face it, it's the first chocolate bar you have as a kid that isn't just plain chocolate.
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We know we really like 3 Musketeers and their soft nougaty centers, but we're not just that excited for them. A double when we're looking for late-October home runs.
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#8 Chocolate Bars
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A classic icon is a classic icon for a reason and no one should be disappointed in perfectly good chocolate bar.
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Crispie chocolate wafer bars with a hint of coffee flavor. Sadly, they're a Canadian delicacy so we're all going to have to move to north of the border to trick-or-treat this year to get them. Wait, did we say 'flavor' for these treats? We meant 'flavour' (if it got us a Coffee Crisp).
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#6 Strawberry Licorice
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Any candy that doubles as a straw gets to automatically jump three spots up the Halloween candy ranking.
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Few things are as fun to play with and eat as M&M's candy. Even better is sorting them by color because you're convinced the green ones taste better than the red ones. It's true! They do!
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Did someone say Kit Kat bars? Sweet cream sandwich waters covered in chocolate? I won't even ask you to 'smell my feet' when I ring your doorbell if you have Kit Kats.
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Candy and a cookie all in one bite? Halloween is the best holiday of the season, and that's before we get to the caramel.
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The are few things as addictive as chewy, fruity sweet gummy bears. The only thing we don't like about them is there never enough in the bag!
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The candy bar that has more kids yelling "No, dad, you can only take one this is my candy!" on Halloween than any other.
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#1-Tie Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
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Remember the first time you went trick-or-treating on Halloween and you realized people gave away some of the best candy away in exchange for saying 'please' and 'thank you' at their door? That was the first time you got a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in your treat bag.