New Halloween Candy of 2019

It’s that time of year again: Halloween! The time of spooky scary skeletons, glowing jack-o-lanterns, parades of costumed children marching up and down the streets, and scary movies under a blanket. But these don’t come close to what Halloween is really about. The best part of this holiday is obviously CANDY! This is the only time of year we can splurge on these sugary treats without feeling guilty. This year, there are even more new versions of candy. I wasn’t able to taste all of them, but I’m going to be judging them based on prior knowledge and my gut feeling.

Snickers Pecan Bar

Snickers bars are the classic of classics. These delicious treats were created in 1930 and they consist of a chocolate bar with a wafer, caramel, and peanuts inside. The nuts provide the perfect crunchy complement to the oozing caramel. Personally, pecans are better than plain peanuts because pecans are less salty than them. However, in the chocolate bar, the salt of the peanuts goes perfectly with the sweet chocolate. Some people might prefer replacing peanuts with pecans in the chocolate—maybe the company will experiment with more nuts in the future (just hopefully not walnuts).

M&Ms Chocolate Bars

If you don’t already know M&Ms exist, do you even like candy?! The only candy that M&Ms made was introduced in 1941—the little disk-shaped chocolates that everyone has tried. They’ve appeared in cookies, ice cream, and countless other products, but never in a chocolate bar. The new creation—the M&M chocolate bar—is an innovative regular chocolate bar with mini M&Ms inside, providing a nice crunch to an otherwise soft bar.

Reese’s Thins

Whenever a snack comes up with a “thin” version, I’m always on top of it. When Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were first invented, everyone fell in love with the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. They came in many different sizes, but this is the first year we have a thin version of the original product. I think this version will be better than the original because it will be crisper to bite and there will be less peanut butter floating around in your mouth. The precedent was set by Oreos: Oreo Thins surpassed the original Orea in quality with their lighter cream stuffing, at least in my opinion.

Toffee M&Ms

There are already over 25 flavors of M&Ms, and Mars Confectionary seems to keep coming up with more! Toffee is a mix of sugar, caramel, molasses, butter, and flour (basically nothing good for you), but it tastes amazing. I think putting this mixture in a chocolate M&M shell will be a great combination. It might be a little sweet and incredibly unhealthy but that’s what candy is all about.

Starburst Duos

Starburst is one of my favorite candies because of its chewiness. It’s almost like gum but much sweeter, and imagine this: you can swallow them. They were first made in 1959, and now 60 years later, you have two flavors at once. The Starburst Duos look just like the regular ones but they have two colors, representing two different flavors, from blue raspberry lemonade to strawberry watermelon. In this age of excess, two flavors are always better than one.

Reese’s Take 5

It’s not often that two different candies combine together to create something entirely new. Take 5 is only 15 years old, released after most current Stuyvesant students were born. It has five ingredients: chocolate, pretzels, peanuts, caramel, and peanut butter, which is more than a normal Snickers bar. Reese’s and Take 5 collaborated on this new bar which has even more peanut butter. Personally, I wouldn’t want this many flavors in one candy bar because they would be a little overwhelming, but it might work for some people.

Hi-Chew Sweet and Sour

Due to the number of kids in this school obsessed with Hi-Chew’s, I’ll bet at least half of you have already tried this. They were first released in 1975, and for a while, everyone was content with the sweet, chewy mixture. Then they released a sour version which is still slightly sweet but gives off a Sour Patch vibe. This new sweet and sour version will be a perfect combination: enough sweetness for those with a sugar tooth to be satisfied, but not so over-the-top either.

Pumpkin Pie Kit Kat

This was originally released in 2017 as a Limited Edition. Now, it’s up for grabs everywhere! Its origins go all the way back to 1911, making the iconic wafer candy over 100 years old. I love the combination of chocolate and wafer: it is crunchy while satisfying my sweet tooth. I love all the different flavors of Kit Kat and pumpkin pie will be interesting to try. Even though I’ve never tried it before, my experience tells me that all Kit Kats are good, so I’m pumped to try this one out.

Sour Chewy Nerds

I’ve never really liked Nerds, because they were so tiny and barely had any flavor. The only flavor that would come out of them would be if you “drank” them, but then half the box would be gone by the time you’ve tilted your head back and let them slide into your mouth. Finally, after over 35 years, Nerds are becoming bigger. There are two kinds: crunchy and sweet or sour and chewy. I’m excited about the sour and chewy one because it reminds me of Sour Patch.

Sour Punch Bites

I’ve never really been a fan of Sour Punch, just because I’ve never really liked the concept of a sour Twizzler. They were created in 1985, and they look like a straw covered with sugar and a little sour powder. They are hard to eat because you’d get sugar all over your hands if you ate them. But now that they’re bite-sized, they are easier to take out of the bag and eat. Everything is better bite-sized!