The search is on for the perfect Halloween candy.
My husband, Neville, and I love Halloween. For the past two years, we were out-of-town on Halloween, leaving the fun job of giving out candy with our house/dog sitters. And even though the number of trick-or-treat characters has dwindled in our neighborhood over the past few years, choosing the candy treats we give away still gets a lot of attention from me.
When I was the costumed character trolling for candy back in my hometown in West Tennessee, I always knew which houses were the most likely to give out the “good” candy. My friends and I were like a secret spy network, ferreting out which houses in our territories were passing out sticks of gum and which ones had “real” candy. If a house had full-size bars, word spread like wildfire! I promised that when I grew up, I would always be one of those houses that didn’t skimp on the Halloween goodies.
Choosing the candy has gotten more difficult, however. The choices have multiplied exponentially. While chocolate was always the ruler in “the old days,” sweet-sour combos have come on strong in the new age. Spicy/hot, like Hot Tamales, are also popular choices today. When I was a youngster, anything gummy was considered below par, but now those gummy treats are some of the most popular.
Other changes: Candy corn would get you voted out of the neighborhood. Today’s ranking – done by Candystore.com and based on candy purchases – finds candy corn holding down the No. 6 rank. Bubble gum was the least favorite treat to come home in my trick-or-treat pumpkin. Today, Dubble Bubble is No. 19, ahead of 3 Musketeer bars (No. 20) and Twix (No. 22)!
Nothing ranked as low as popcorn balls (and any homemade treat), but Lifesavers (No. 23 today) and Licorice (No. 25) sure came close.
Skittles didn’t come out in the U.S. until the 1980s, so I’m not sure where it would have ranked when I was a kid. They are No. 1 now, with more than 3 million pounds of Skittles sold annually.
Some things, however, do not change. M&Ms rank No. 2 today, followed by Snickers and then Reese’s cups. Those three, along with full-size Hershey bars – were the gold standard when I was an elementary school witch and a middle school Bat Girl in the 1960s.
The search for what we will pass out today has another criteria as I pick the perfect Halloween candy for our trick-or-treaters. Because we don’t have very many kids in the neighborhood anymore, Halloween leftovers are always a real possibility, no matter how generous I am with the ghosts and goblins who come to the house. Taking the leftovers to the office is also no longer possible, as my office is just down the hall and the only person in it is me.
For these reasons, plus a complete lack of willpower when it comes to sweets, I try to find that perfect Halloween candy: Something to keep my promise to my younger self to be one of the “good” candy houses while also purchasing candy that I personally don’t like, making leftovers easier to resist.
I’m thinking No. 16 on the Candystore.com list will fit the bill perfectly. If your child comes home with a handful of full-size Milky Way bars, he or she has probably been to my house this year.
Happy Halloween!