What are the best (and the worst) Halloween candy varieties in 2022?

Oct. 3—When it comes to Halloween candy, opinions differ widely on best and worst. As long as you aren't allergic to peanut butter or chocolate, it's hard to top full-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And despite Brach's Candy's best efforts, candy corn consistently ranks near the top of treats people love to hate.

CandyStore.com surveyed more than 15,000 people, then combined that data with a dozen other best/worst lists from across the internet to create their definitive ranking for the best and worst Halloween candy for 2022. Let's take a look, starting with the best.

#1 — Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Of all the best/worst lists whose data got rolled up into this survey, Reese's cups took the top spot in all but one. It's not hard to see why. They combine the sweetness of milk chocolate with salty peanut butter filling. This is one of the only Halloween treats kids need to actively hide from their parents. But don't take my word for it.

The truth hurts:

This guy gets it:

#2 — M&Ms

I can't agree with this one, but I suppose I understand it. If you like plain old chocolate, M&Ms are great. I typically run through several other varieties of my son's candy before I get around to the M&Ms, but they're an old-school classic.

Also, I tried to look up some good M&Ms tweets, but all I got back was a bunch of bickering about the new purple M&M. Is this really what we're fighting about now?

Wait, I did find one that's pretty hilarious after all:

#3 — Snickers

Snickers is up one spot on CandyStore's survey from the No. 4 spot last year. I tend to lump Snickers and Milky Way into the same basic category of nougat-based candy bars, and they're fine. Now, if someone could figure out a way to hand out those frozen Snickers ice cream bars for the holidays? That might be the perfect dessert.

I will say, though, a whole lot of people are choosing Snickers in this Twitter poll:

This technically has nothing to do with Snickers but I still love it:

#4 — Skittles

Skittles is on the rise, having moved up from the No. 9 slot three years ago. Apparently the California lawsuit alleging that the Skittles dye is "unfit for human consumption" has done little to hurt its reputation among the sweet-toothed.

She's a fan:

I spit my coffee out on this one:

#5 — Sour Patch Kids

Again, an old-school classic that doesn't go out of style. They're a great, sour treat, and by now surely everyone knows that if you eat too many of them, you end up with an ulcer on your tongue. Curse you, malic acid!

#6 — Hershey bar

Up multiple spots from last year, this one is take-it-or-leave-it for me. Hershey's milk chocolate has a very specific taste. It's markedly different from the chocolate used in Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and seemingly in many other candy bars. This entry also takes into account Hershey's Cookies'n'Cream, which I feel is vastly superior to the OG chocolate bar.

#7 — Hot Tamales

This one is a new, and probably controversial, entry to the list. Do you want your candy to have a little bit of a spicy kick? If so, this is your jam.

Now here's an interesting idea:

#8 — Kit Kat

Kit Kats are fine. Simple, yet effective. I've found a lot of limited-edition varieties that I like much better than the plain ones — lookin' at you, Apple Pie Kit Kat — but once I've gone through my son's Reese's and Lemonheads, I'lll definitely start reaching for Kit Kats.

Here's an informal poll ... is this Kit Kat heresy?

#9 — Twix

I'll never forgive Twix for doing away with the peanut-butter variety. Sure, they half-heartedly brought it back a few times, but I'll have you note that caramel only makes two appearances on this list. For my money, Snickers has the right amount of caramel in it.

#10 — Butterfinger

Should be higher. On the rare occasions when I have a Butterfinger, it reminds me of what a good balance it is, treat-wise. It balances chocolate with a peanut-butter flavor that is completely different from the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, yet also nearly as good. It is also still the only Simpsons-endorsed product on this list, and that's got to count for something.

----And now, let's go in reverse order and hit the worst...

#10 — Good & Plenty

I will argue with anyone to try and prove that licorice is, in fact, not candy. As a matter of fact, it's a root, and I am not interested in getting roots tossed into my Halloween bucket. It's not even the best pill-shaped candy. For my money, that goes to Mike & Ike. And if you need any more proof that licorice is terrible...

#9 — Black Licorice

See what I'm sayin' here? It's just bad. I suppose you could pull a real "trick" on people and order some of that crazy salmiaki licorice from Scandinavia that's got like, salt and pepper mixed into it... if you really want to make enemies or get your house toilet-papered.

This Copenhagen factory makes 330 pounds of licorice per hour. That's 330 pounds too much:

#8 — Tootsie Rolls

I do not know what Tootsie Rolls are. But they aren't chocolate. It's like someone who doesn't have any chocolate at their house tried to mix up a bunch of other ingredients and end up with chocolate. And then it didn't work. I prefer their tangy cousin, Tootsie Frooties, and you can tell that even the company knows they're better, because they're more expensive. Tootsie Rolls are some sort of weird chocolate gummy. I'm not into it, and most of you apparently aren't either.

#7 — Mary Jane

I like honey, but I hate digging candy out of my teeth. So while I do enjoy the taste of this old-school classic, I can see why it would make an appearance.

This might just be possible:

Here's our taste test of "budget Halloween candy" that includes Mary Jane's hyphenated cousin, Bit-O-Honey:

#6 — Smarties

The very definition of an "eh, they're alright" kind of candy. Every once in a while, you'd get one of those giant single-serving Smarties that had kind of a weird, moist-Styrofoam consistency, but was also really tasty. Those are the superior Smarties.

#5 — Wax Coke bottles

You are objectively a terrible person if you give this to trick-or-treaters.

This is a good take. I don't want my Halloween candy to be 87% wax:

#4 — Necco Wafers

Some of you never sat next to your grandmother in church in the late 1980s, and it shows. I'll never accuse these of being good, and there's probably a special place reserved for the person who decided that the all-"chocolate" Necco wafer roll was a good idea. But, I mean... the orange and yellow ones were okay...? That's the best I can do.

You know, they say if two people argue long enough, eventually someone draws a Hitler comparison. Really thought we might avoid that. And yet...

#3 — Peanut Butter Kisses

"The orange and black ones," as my sister and I used to call them. Much like Mary Janes, the primary characteristic of this candy is getting massively stuck in your molars. Would not recommend.

#2 — Candy Corn

It is the worst. It is awful and terrible and not good. Brach's continues to perpetrate this crime on children year after year. They've even created a whole new market, where they create deliberately-awful limited-edition candy corn (see our TribLive Taste Test of their Turkey Dinner Candy Corn below), which is kind of an evil-genius move, I have to admit.

The call to arms has been issued:

Well, at least she's being realistic:

Here's our taste-test of Turkey Dinner candy corn:

#1 — Circus Peanuts

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I've kind of come around on circus peanuts. I do not like the true taste of banana, and the weird, banana-adjacent approximation that you get with these? I have to admit, it's kind of good. This and candy corn swapped spots in 2022 for the worst candy. Judging by the internet, however, I may be alone in this...

They even render dads speechless:

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .