Our Staff’s Favorite Halloween Candies

Thumping up the stairs to your neighbor’s porch, you yell and demand candy. They arrive with the goodies and place them into your open bag, inquiring about your adorable costume. 

Once you come home from a long night of running, sweating and screaming, you sort and inspect how much of each confectionary you received. Digging out a piece of your favorite candy feels triumphant. 

Though trick-or-treating is likely but a memory for most of our staffers, we still get excited and passionate about our beloved Halloween sweets. We’ll definitely be “goblin’” them up Sunday. 

Sour Patch Kids: Henry Butler

Sour Patch Kids have the perfect combination of sweet and sour, the sour powder quickly transitioning into the sweet gummy. It is sheer perfection. If my mom gets a variety pack of candy, I will avoid everything but Sour Patch if I can. Nothing beats a good bag of Sour Patch. 

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Caitlyn Rocker

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the best candy in the history of the world. They have the right mix of chocolate and peanut butter. Reese’s are mouth-watering candies that make you just want to eat a whole pack. 

Snickers: Andy Choi

Thick roasted peanuts mixed with sweet caramel and nougat covered in milk chocolate make a Snickers bar one of the tastiest candy bars in the world. It is the best candy bar because of the way the flavors come together to harmoniously create a unique bite. 

Original M&Ms: Grace Muskovitz

Original M&Ms are undoubtedly the candy of choice for boys and girls across the nation and world. Most would sacrifice their first-born son and most prized goat for a fleeting touch between their oral cavity and the heavenly shell-covered chocolate which we call M&Ms.  

Skittles: Katie Notch

Skittles are clearly the superior Halloween candy. The bright red packaging holds the multicolored pellets of assorted flavors. The fruit blend pairs to create a combination of tangy and sweet chewy candies. The smell following the satisfying tear of the wrapper embraces the nose hairs like a mother embracing her first born. The artificial coloring is simply a joyous sight. The white “s” upon such a small canvas shows the true artistry of the crafted treat. This confection is not a trick, nor a treat; it is a delightful gift that leaves the tastebuds of all age groups satisfied and left wanting more. I love this candy, and tiny children in costumes will never stand in my path of acquiring it. 

Mounds: Maria Lemos

Whenever I tell someone Mounds are my absolute favorite candy, their reaction is always almost the same. I realize I’ve crossed two controversial taboos found in chocolate bars: dark chocolate and coconut. I will never understand the popular hatred towards the latter. It’s truly one of the best things out there. However, I’m not complaining, because every year when Halloween comes around, I’m getting all the Mounds. The perfect nuttiness and sweetness of the coconut paired with the slightly bitter dark chocolate is the formula for heaven. I would do anything to go back to the first time I bit into the delicacy of a Mounds bar.  

SweeTarts: Anna Gorman

I don’t care that SweeTarts are the most hated candy among dentists, okay? I will defend them until the day I die. My teeth may slowly succumb to plaque, but it’s worth it for a small tablet of sweet-then-sour fruitiness or two. Or five. Or an entire box. The point is, SweeTarts get too much hate. They’re chalky and hard like jawbreakers, but does that stop me? No. If anything, it makes me go back for seconds. The rattle of the tablets in the box is a symphony; the taste, a vision; the aftertaste, a blessing. The world gets a tad bit brighter with SweeTarts. They are my go-to for Halloween, which is why you’ll find me buying them in bulk at Target and hoarding them while watching Disney’s Hocus Pocus. 

Twizzlers: Rachel Lichtenwalner

Gagging, screaming, terror and protest: just the usual reactions I’m met with upon mentioning Twizzlers as my favorite candy. Unlike my fellow Bear Witness comrades, I’m not going to try to convince you why my choice of treat is superior; everybody has their taste preferences. I just so happen to have the taste preference of a grandmother, according to my friends. I’m an old soul who loves strawberry-flavored wax. 

Peanut M&Ms: Isabella Dudley-Flores

I am sorry to those allergic to nuts because they’re missing out on the superior candy — AKA Peanut M&Ms. I usually do not like foods with nuts in them (Why would you ruin banana bread like that?), but Peanut M&Ms are an exception. The peanut in each piece breaks up the sweetness and adds a crunch, which is why I prefer them to the original. I didn’t realize this was my favorite candy until last Halloween. I took many certain small yellow packets from the selection my mom had out for trick-or-treaters (sorry, not sorry, guys). 

Sour Skittles: John Michael Carter

My mouth tingles in excitement at the sight of the small, vibrantly-colored candies coated with acid. That’s right — I just ripped open a pack of Sour Skittles. My palate detests me as it suffers from sores on the roof of my mouth and my tongue because of the candies’ acerbic nature — the pain is worth it. The Sour Skittles invigorate my bored taste buds. 

Left Twix: Sarah Dewey

Whenever I tell anyone what my favorite candy is, they think I’m crazy. I don’t see why. My favorite candy is Twix… let me be more specific: the left Twix. Now, most people think that the left and right Twix taste the same, but let me tell you that they are very different, and left Twix are obviously superior. Left Twix have more caramel than cookie, while right Twix have more cookie than caramel. Most people think that the left versus right debate is just so that Twix will get more sales. I refuse to believe that. Left Twix will always be superior. 

100 Grand: Clay Burdette

I don’t generally choose favorite candies — anything chocolate is my go-to — but my default answer to the question always ends up being 100 Grand. My first memory of 100 Grand was when I was sitting on my family room’s black and white rug, dumping my pillowcase out onto the floor. The fruits of my labor, albeit being a quick jog through the neighborhood, stared up at my hungry eyes with bright, plastic wrapping. I picked up the 100 Grand, a dense rectangle of chocolate, wafer and caramel, and fell in love with it. Twix is close in line because it’s virtually the same thing, but 100 Grand just offers more in one bite. Anything with caramel is 100% superior.

Milk Duds: Aidon Higdon

When I was younger, the candies I used to eat were M&Ms, Skittles and Hershey bars. But when my dad takes my brothers and me to watch movies at AMC, he often buys me Milk Duds when I am nice to him or my brothers. Now, I am hooked on the mild caramel taste and stickiness of those not-perfectly-round balls of milky chocolate caramel.