Halloween, full of scares and spooks, wouldn’t be complete without a little something sweet as well.
The amount of Halloween candy sold has steadily increased since 2020 and consumers have bought 3.1 billion dollars worth of Halloween candy in 2022, according to statista. While favorite candies are purely personal, some candies sell better than others. Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups sell the most candy across America, but in Texas, Starbursts are the most popular candy, according to Candy Store. Not every candy is a winner, and some of the most hated Halloween products include candy corn, circus peanuts and smarties.
Business freshman Caden Rainwater said Skittles are the highest value candy with many positives, including taste and amount.
“It takes longer to eat than a classic candy bar,” Rainwater said. “There’s also plenty of quality in every Skittle. There is no skittle that is shorted out.”
As a business major, Rainwater said he enjoys candy with both quantity and quality.
“I’m an efficient man and that’s what I’m looking for in my Halloween candy,” Rainwater said. “I want bang for my buck.”
Whoppers are the worst halloween candy, and Rainwater said he finds the quality of the malt balls to be absolutely terrible.
“I’m not trying to walk miles on a Halloween evening for a brick the size of a chocolate ball,” Rainwater said. “And that’s what a Whopper is.”
Nutrition freshman Caroline Stacy said her favorite Halloween candy is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups due to loving peanut butter.
“Peanut butter is good for you. It does have certain nutrients that are good for your body,” Stacy said. “The chocolate, not so much, but it just tastes so good.”
When it comes to least favorite candy, Stacy said her least favorite is candy corn, but she also dislikes candy with whole peanuts.
“I think candy corn has a weird texture,” Stacy said. “And people are probably going to come for me about this, but I also don’t like Snickers. The texture of whole nuts is also not my thing.”
On Halloween night, Stacy said she’d trade her least favorite candy, Snickers, for any type of fruit candy or anything with peanut butter.
“If there were any type of suckers, like Dum-Dums, I would definitely trade for those or Reese’s,” Stacy said. “But if I had a Snickers, you can have it. No need to argue about it”
Agricultural leadership junior Owen Darden said, while they aren’t his favorite, he does enjoy candy corn and enjoys eating them when they hit shelves in fall.
“I don’t think candy corn is that bad, which might be a controversial opinion,” Darden said. “I like to eat it at this time of year.”
When trick or treating in the past, Darden said his neighborhood would often give out non-traditional treats.
“They were handing out hand sanitizers once,” Darden said. “And when we got caramel apples at one point, they were really messy. Especially when you’re a kid with a pillow sack and the wrapper was homemade.”
Darden said the chocolate candies are not the same in quality and Snickers are superior over other chocolates.
“My least favorite would be the lower tier chocolates like Three Musketeers and Milky Way’s,” Darden said. “I don’t think they really stand up to Snickers.”