Halloween candy: what treat does the trick for you?

Date: 10/19/2021

It’s that time of year when you plan to buy candy for trick-or-treaters. The decision is usually based on budget: how many kids you expect versus how much money you want to spend.

The question is – do you consider which confections are valued by kids and those that were thrown away, traded, or fobbed off onto a younger sibling?

For me, Halloween was a time I saw fairly exotic items come into my hot little hands – candies of which I never heard: Mary Jane’s? Squirrel Nut Zippers?

I’m old enough to have been raised in a time when people made their own treats, like the elderly couple in Hadley who made popcorn balls to hand out.

Gone are those days.

The dreaded items for me were apples – they were not special enough – and boxes of raisins. Yes, I like raisins but they are not Halloween material.

And by the way, who decided a candy bar that was a quarter of the size of a normal candy bar was “fun size?” As a kid I thought a candy bar double the usual size would be much more fun.

I thought as a public service I’d ask The Reminder staff to revisit their childhoods to see if there is a consensus about what was prized and what was tossed.

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Although Halloween was never my favorite holiday, probably due to dealing with the homemade attempts by my mother to turn boxes into something-like costumes; I was (and sorry to say still am) a sucker for candy.

Chocolate has always been a favorite, although it was more rare in Halloween pickings when I was a child than it seems to be now. Visiting a home that gave out Hershey miniatures was winning the jackpot. It was way more likely to get Tootsie Rolls as the chocolate offering – or, of course, tootsie pops. Both were fine by me.

The most prevalent was candy corn, candy squash and small sleeves of sweet and sour tarts. These were for trading with my four brothers and sisters, or to eat after all the other candy was gone.

Small boxes of raisins were given as a nod to healthy treats, and much maligned in my family. It took me personally a long time to get over getting them at Halloween, and finding some use for them in everyday life. More popular with us were receiving small bags of popcorn that were handed out readily, before all Halloween candy had to be sealed.

My downfall was taffy.  Turkish taffy, Sugar Daddy’s, Mary Jane’s, Bit O Honey and Oh Henry were all a challenge for my teeth and fillings. In every case, the challenge was accepted, although not always won.

I probably suffered through one Fireball a season. I ate Mike & Ike’s licorice candies only when desperate, and only one or two out of a box before remembering I did not like them. I drew a line, however, at Raisinettes; they were in my mind, sacrilegious. Amy Porter (who went trick or treating in Tenafly, New Jersey)

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While most households stick to the fun size fundamentals, there were always those one or two houses that truly went for the gusto. I am talking full-size candy bars with a limitless range of options, with my go-to always being Skittles or a giant Hershey’s bar. A local neighbor of mine also worked at Hershey Company, often giving out yet-to-be-released candy offerings that felt like they were coming fresh out of Willy Wonka’s kitchen.

Out of all the icky candies, I would have to say the seasonal staple candy corn remains the most despicable. The bizarre flavoring and even more bizarre texture make them a repugnant treat that would go straight to the dumpster can. I also have never been a fan of Whoopers or Milk Duds.

I can remember a few households that would hand out change or offer toothpaste as an accompaniment to the candy barrage. In hindsight, offering dental protection for kids after engulfing mounds of sugary sweets isn’t such a bad idea. Matt Conway

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When I was little, my parents would take my little brother, Alec, and me trick-or-treating down the streets in our neighborhood and then to my grandparent’s home in Wilbraham to trick-or-treat on their street. I distinctly remember the thrill of dressing up one year in a light blue princess costume, only for my mother to bundle me up in a puffy purple jacket because it was an unseasonably cold Halloween.

Alec and I had a system. We would go to the – roughly – 25 houses, and at the end of the night we would dump our candy out on the dining room floor. We’d then organize the candy by type – Snickers, Milky Ways, 3 Musketeers, Reese’s, Almond Joys, Mounds, Twix – those were the prized possessions. Then the lesser favorite candies, still put in their own individual groups: Dots, Necco Wafers, Tootsie Rolls, Fun Dip, licorice and a few more. We would then pawn off the candies that we didn’t like on relatives who we knew enjoyed them and stow away our chocolates for safekeeping.

The best houses, though, were the ones that gave away large or king-sized chocolate bars. My parents always bought king-sized Hershey chocolate bars “for our trick-or-treaters,” but the joke was that we live on the end of a dead-end road, and Alec and I were almost always the only trick-or-treaters on the street! Nonetheless, if a reader is not on a budget and is looking to be the hit of the neighborhood, buy the full-sized candy bars. Your neighbors’ children will love you!
Payton North

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While of course I always liked the classic candies like Reese’s, Snickers, etc., I was kind of the oddball among my friends as I would gladly trade my Sour Patch Kids or Airheads for the Whoppers malted milk balls, Mounds, Almond Joys.

I’m also a staunch defender of candy corn, though I am also an admitted candy corn snob. Store brand candy corn can be left on the shelf. But Brach’s with its real honey? I’ll take all of it, please.

Also, while trick or treating, I never encountered the mythical full size or king size candy bars that some in this article have mentioned. To me, those are like Sasquatch or Nessy – it might exist, but I’ve never seen enough evidence to believe it. Chris Maza

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My dad was not much of a candy eater except on Halloween. As kids we had two rules for Halloween candy: It had to be checked by an adult before we ate it, and all Butterfinger bars went straight to dad. In all my years of trick-or-treating I don’t think I ever ate a Butterfinger bar.

My favorite candy was – and is – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Fortunately, it’s not my kids’ favorite, so I’ve been able to carry on the family tradition by having them “share” their Reese’s with me. Some of my least favorite items are Charleston Chew and Mary Janes. Halloween candy needs to have some chocolate in it! Michael Ballway

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I was a bit too honest when I was a kid – they used to hand out boxes in elementary school to collect change for UNICEF during trick-or-treating, and I actually did.

However, my younger sister was a candy collector, so we split the haul.   

Neither of us liked Sugar Daddy’s or Sugar Babies – fortunately our dad did.

We weren’t crazy about the candied apples or the mini boxes of raisins that showed up in her bag, either.

However we had one neighbor who always gave out our favorite – full-sized Hershey bars – and she gave my sister two so there was one for me.  That was the same neighbor who used to pour a shot of brandy for parents who were escorting their little ones around the neighborhood … of course that wouldn’t happen today! (It was the 1960s). Debbie Gardner

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One candy I was always excited to see at Halloween was Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Nothing was more exciting when pulled from the pillowcases in which we'd lug home our haul of candy than the rare full-sized round cups, so much larger than any of the “fun-sized” candy bars most houses handed out. They were also a break from the pure chocolate rush of the majority of treats. My other tried and true favorite was Tootsie Rolls – not quite chocolate, not exactly caramel. I may have loved Tootsie Rolls, but I can still feel the taffy consistency stuck to my teeth and the ache in my jaw after chewing them.

On the other hand, there was nothing so revolting, so offensive to my 8-year-old taste buds as black licorice. The deceptively sweet, yet bitter candy was about as off-putting as one could imagine. Circus Peanuts had a similar effect, but for the opposite reason. Few candies lack flavor in quite the same way as circus peanuts. The chewy, chalky, orange lumps were certainly a dishearteningly thing to find mixed in with the candy bars and rolls of Smarties that I enjoyed every Halloween. Sarah Heinonen

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The one candy I coveted above everything as a kid on Halloween was the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pumpkins. To this day Peanut Butter Cups are my all-time favorite candy, but I loved anything and everything chocolate. My brothers were more partial to the sweeter candies like Skittles or Sour Patch Kids. Unfortunately for them I still loved to eat all the sweet candy as well. I don’t think any of us threw out our candy but if anything, our parents would have the candy we did not like. Thankfully, we never ran into the issue of people giving out healthy foods or toothbrushes as far as I can remember. Dennis Hackett

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Back in the good old days when it was socially acceptable for me to go trick or treating, which I am now realizing was more than a decade ago, you would find me probably dressed as Ash Ketchum and seeking out one of two things: Twix or Reese's Cups. To this very day, they are a top five candy in my eyes, and I still seek them out more than I probably should.

Honorable mention goes to the older couple at the corner of my street growing up that would never hand out candy, but instead would hand out a large amount of something homemade, like popcorn balls or pretzels, all individually wrapped and a delicious counter to the overabundance of sugar I had collected. They also happened to be one of the most well-decorated houses in the neighborhood each year.

The candies I despised, however, are a longer list than I previously realized. First off: anything lemon flavored is a non-starter for me, regardless of the type of candy. Also on the trading block for me was Mike and Ikes, Dots, and Milk Duds. Milk Duds actually taste good, but they require such an unreasonable amount of effort to chew them, while they also get stuck in my teeth, that they are simply not worth the effort to me to enjoy them. Peter Currier