Un-official official Halloween candy ranking
What candy will reign supreme?
Anna Valaik / A&C Section Editor
Photo courtesy of unsplash.
Growing up, it was always an adventure and challenge on Halloween night to find the houses with the best and biggest candy selections while running around the neighborhood with a crazy costume on. For most of the year in many households, an unlimited candy supply is a rarity; so finding delicious, sugar high-inducing candy on Oct. 31 is an important priority for children. However, what differs from person to person, is what ranks as the best Halloween candy: the candy they would run six blocks for just to get a taste of its mouth-watering goodness. Some people are chocolate lovers, searching for those once-in-a-lifetime houses with the full-size Hershey bars. Others prefer making their eyes water from the addicting Sour Patch Kids or Sour Skittles.
When it comes to choosing a favorite Halloween candy, it really depends on the person. Despite this, The USD Vista wanted to figure out if there was one particular candy, one candy all people would gladly accept on Halloween night, that beat out the rest. We took to our Instagram followers to survey students on this very question; what candy is the best Halloween candy? The USD Vista created two informal, unscientific separate polls with four different candy types each. From those results, The USD Vista chose the highest-ranked candy from each poll and pitted those against each other to see which would reign supreme.
The Results:
The first poll aimed at finding people’s favorite chocolate-based Halloween candy.
The Chocolate Lover’s Poll (292 responses):
Snickers: 12%
Reese’s: 45%
M&M’s: 10%
Kit Kat: 33%
Reese’s won by a landslide. Reese’s, the perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter, is a timeless candy. It truly does it all; it’s delicious a bit melted, with the gooey chocolate and peanut butter dripping into one another, room temperature, and even frozen. Kit Kats came in at a close second, which might come as a surprise to some people. Kit Kats are all about the ritual of breaking them apart and slowly finishing each one, one at a time. With their long, slender build, they are fun to snap, crack, and break apart.
Falling far behind the two frontrunners were Snickers and M&M’s. M&M’s can be a hit or miss. Since they come in a pack full of small M&M pieces, people often eat them more than one at a time. For this reason, there is less time to enjoy their taste and truly savor the candy. Snickers, on the other hand, is the classic candy bar size, chock-full of peanuts, caramel, and chocolate. Possibly, for some, this nut-to-chocolate ratio is not as satisfactory as the ratio within Reese’s. All in all, Reese’s takes the title as people’s favorite chocolate-based Halloween candy.
The second poll aimed at finding people’s favorite sweet, sugary, and sour Halloween candy.
The Sugar Lover’s Poll (272 responses):
Nerds: 12%
Skittles: 20%
Starburst: 22%
Sour Patch Kids: 46%
In this poll, there was a clear, resounding winner: Sour Patch Kids. Many people enjoy the sour rush those sugar-covered gummy figures give when consumed. With different colors and flavors, the red, green, yellow, and blue all pack a different punch, and when eaten together, one’s eyes begin to water and their tongue rejects, yet enjoys, the distinctive flavor. They are not too sour, though; it’s the perfect taste to satisfy that specific craving but not go overboard with it.
Well below Sour Patch Kids was Starburst, with 61 of the 272 people surveyed choosing them as their favorite Halloween candy. Starbursts, similar to Sour Patch Kids, come in different flavors, and people love to have their favorites within those colors. Pink, for some reason, seems to be the most well-liked Starburst choice. Starbursts are a unique candy, as their texture and taste almost resemble gum. The process of chewing them and waiting for the Starburst flavor to melt feels similar to chewing gum, but with a shorter process.
Skittles, in third place, was close behind Starburst. Skittles, just like M&M’s, may lack good ratings because they are often consumed quickly, which means they lack in experience and taste. Lastly, Nerds only received 31 votes out of 272. Nerds, being probably the smallest Halloween candy out there, simply just can’t do what those giant Sour Patch Kids can do. Once the small box of Nerds is opened, it is easy to devour them in under ten seconds. Rarely do people have patience to slowly consume each and every bite, so Nerds continue falling short when compared to their bigger and better counterparts.
The Finale (274 responses):
Sour Patch Kids: 37%
Reese’s: 63%
The winner of the ultimate Halloween candy is Reese’s. Although a somewhat tight race, the chocolate-lovers reign supreme.
Bonus Poll: Thoughts on candy corn?
Great: 47%
Gross: 53%
There is so much hype around candy corn, the classic Halloween candy, and whether or not it is overrated or underrated. This is a controversial topic, as many people either love or hate this candy. Just as predicted, the results were close, but the naysayers won at 53% voting against candy corn. Since these results were so close, though, it appears this debate may never come to a clear answer.
Despite these results, Halloween is about having fun and enjoying the holiday, which means accepting all people no matter if they like Reese’s or not. Every candy has their place within Halloween, and that is what makes Oct. 31 so special.