The Oredigger’s Staff Picks for Best Halloween Candy

by Zachary Barry, Lauren D’Ambra, Shannon Keohane, and McKenna Larson

If you asked a dozen people what their favorite Halloween candy is, you would undoubtedly get at least ten different answers. For some people, the best Halloween candies are chocolaty, fruity, sour, or even spicy. With such a wide variety of choices, this year for Halloween, several of us here at The Oreddiger decided to compare our favorite Halloween candies in case you draw a blank when it comes time to purchase Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters or yourself. The current editor in Chief, Lauren D’Ambra, picked Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, last year’s editor in Chief, Shannon Keohane, chose 100 GRAND bars, staff writer Mckenna Larson went with Tootsie Pops, and my favorite are Peanut M&Ms. We now present to you our reasoning for these picks as the best Halloween Candies. 

When it comes to the best Halloween candy, there’s really only one answer: The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. They’re sweet and delicious and a great candy choice for any time of the year, but they’re absolutely perfect for Halloween night. They come in multiple shapes and sizes, so you can have your pick between thick or thin, more peanut butter or more chocolate, and generic or Halloween shapes. I mean, come on, is there a better candy combination than peanut butter and chocolate? The answer is no, no there is not. And before anybody can call me a Reese’s fanatic, I’m not the only one who shares this sentiment. According to Insider, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the top selling candy in America, with sales peaking right around the week of Halloween. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the best!

It’s been a while since my days of being a Halloween candy aficionado but, I wholeheartedly back Lauren’s choice of Reese’s peanut butter cups. More recently, I have come to appreciate the balance of flavors and textures achieved by the 100 GRAND Bar. 100 GRAND Bars are a chewy caramel log surrounded by crisped rice and then covered in creamy milk chocolate. It’s known as an American Classic having been invented in the late 1960s by Nestle. Kind of a fun candy to look up as it’s been used over time as a play on words. In 1996, for instance, flight attendants protested in response to $14 million in cash bonuses being doled out to company executives. As Bloomberg News reported, “Smiling United Airlines flight attendants strolled down the aisles at UAL Corp.’s annual meeting in Chicago in April, handing out Nestle’s 100 Grand candy bars with a note attached to each that read: ‘Just in case you’re not one of the 600 people who got the bonus, we’d like you to have 100 Grand.’”

Tootsie Pops are the ideal Halloween candy for many reasons, primarily that it is a perfect combination of two distinctly delicious candies. The outer layer is a fruity, sweet lollipop, and the inside is a chocolatey taffy-like Tootsie Roll, which when combined provide the ultimate experience of flavors and textures. It’s a mashup made in candy heaven. Since the Tootsie Pop is a lollipop, with a little discipline it is a longer lasting treat than one or two bite Halloween candies which seem to vanish in an instant. Tootsie Pops also come in several colors and flavors which increase the appeal to a wider audience. These factors, combined with the portability and lack of mess that come with eating a lollipop make the Tootsie Pop the best trick-or-treat score.

My favorite Halloween candy, and candy in general, is Peanut M&Ms. I think part of why they’re my go-to Halloween candy, in particular, is that for me Halloween is a time of being nostalgic for when I was still young enough to go trick-or-treating and my life wasn’t as stressful or complicated. When I was growing up Peanut M&Ms were my families favorite candy, so I have memories of sharing any Peanut M&Ms I’d get on Halloween night with them. That being said, it’s not just rose-tinted glasses that keep me coming back to my childhood favorites. As many others at the newspaper have already pointed out, chocolate is a quintessential element in the best Halloween candy, and I think that peanuts complement the chocolate well without being overly sweet.