Welcome back to The Takeout’s Official 2021 Halloween Candy Power Rankings. With just a few more weeks until Halloween, we’re dropping weekly ratings of the top 10 best-selling Halloween candies in America. Just as a reminder, here are those 10 candies again:
America’s 10 most popular Halloween candies:
- Skittles
- Reese’s Cups
- Starburst
- M&M’s
- Hershey’s Miniatures (Hershey, Mr. Goodbar, Krackel)
- Twix
- Snickers
- Sour Patch Kids
- Tootsie Pops
- Jolly Ranchers
And ICYMI, here are where the weekly rankings sit so far:
- Week 1: Best Halloween candy wrappers
- Week 2: Most nostalgic Halloween candy
- Week 3: The Halloween candy with the best texture
- Week 4: Most portable Halloween candy
- Week 5: The best (and worst) Halloween candies for sharing
- Week 6: The all-around tastiest Halloween candies
This week, we will rank them on this criterion: Which of 2021’s top Halloween candies is the best to share with others?
10. Tootsie Pops
As staff writer Dennis Lee puts it: “Uhhh...who the frick is sharing a lollipop?” (While we’re at it, here are some other foods you definitely shouldn’t share.)
9. Twix
Have you ever tried to break a Twix in half? Have you? They’re too hard and crumbly to snap in half, and too gooey to allow for bite segmentation between friends. Plus, we don’t want to share Twix. Those are ours. You can have the shiny wrappers.
8. Reese’s Cups
A friend in need is a friend indeed—unless that sucker’s trying to steal your Reese’s. The only way to split a Reese’s Cup is to offer someone a bite. And if you offer someone a bite, you run the risk that they’ll take an enormous chomp out of the middle of your peanut butter cup. This begs the question: Why would you ever want to split a Reese’s Cup?
7. Snickers
Snickers are structurally unsplittable, as they’re too toothsome and gooey to snap in half. However, if you’re on a kissing basis with someone, you could, hypothetically, take one bite and leave them with the rest. The trouble comes when the first biter overshoots the fun-sized bar’s median. That’s a relationship ender, folks.
6. Sour Patch Kids
In theory, Sour Patch Kids would be easy to share. However, as sour devotees know, these things come nestled in a heaping tablespoon of sandy sour sugar dust (SSSD). If you attempt to tip these into someone’s palm, they better be ready to carry SSSD on their person for the next three to five business days. And don’t even think about letting them stick their grubby little fingers directly into your bag. Not in these unprecedented times, fools.
5. Hershey’s Miniatures
While too small to allow for a shared taste, mini bars are uniquely swappable. It’s easy to trade a Mr. Goodbar for a Krackel or a Krackel for a milk chocolate Hershey’s. And, since these come in those big ol’ Halloween candy variety packs, there’s typically enough for everyone to snack happy.
4. Jolly Ranchers
When we say Jolly Ranchers are “shareable,” we mean “easy to part with.” We’re not particularly attached to these rock-hard candies; plus, they’re individually wrapped, so it’s easy to pass one to a friend. Unless you’ve already unwrapped your Rancher and started eating it—in which case you better have excellent spittin’ aim. Right to the gullet, pardner.
3. M&M’s
Now we’re talking. M&M’s are tidy, slippery, and relatively melt-proof; plus, they’re easy to tip out of their snappy little bag and into the hand of a pal. And, as Takeout editor in chief Marnie Shure puts it, “Any parent knows the bribery power that a single M&M has over a child. The shareability of M&M’s is their greatest asset.”
2. Skittles
Where should you deposit your extra Skittles? Into the palm of a new friend, that’s where. Skittles are even tidier than M&M’s; plus, you can always pawn off your least favorite flavors. Finally, we haven’t confirmed this mathematically (stay tuned), but it sure seems like Skittles mini bags pack the most bang for their buck. More Skittles = more new friends.
1. Starburst
In yet another banner week for the Starburst community, The Takeout staff agrees: Those otherwise cumbersome individual wrappers mean Starbursts are just as sharable as they are portable. The trick-or-treat portions come two to a pack, and who needs two Starbursts at a time? One takes long enough to eat as it is. Give the second to a friend (or lover), and once you’ve finished your Starburst, you can delve into a different candy as a palate cleanser. It’s a foolproof strategy.
Read all our previous 2021 Halloween Candy Power Rankings here:
- Week 1: Best Halloween candy wrappers
- Week 2: Most nostalgic Halloween candy
- Week 3: The Halloween candy with the best texture
- Week 4: Most portable Halloween candy
- Week 5: Best (and worst) Halloween candies for sharing
- Week 6: The all-around tastiest Halloween candies