Hello and welcome back to “Hoot Recommends,” where members of The Brandeis Hoot’s editorial board share our thoughts on different topics. This week, members of our board will be sharing their favorite halloween candy!

Cooper

Milky Way Midnights are the best candy. Period. Full stop. Normal Milky Ways are … fine. But, something about a dark chocolate Milky Way is just special. Maybe it’s because these were so rare in the areas I went trick-or-treating, but the mystical Milky Way Midnight is the best Halloween candy in my objectively correct opinion.

Abby

I’m entirely unsure why, but the Reese’s Halloween Pumpkins are my personal addiction. They taste so different from the “normal” Reese’s you find in your local Walgreens or CVS or movie theater, and I have no idea why. Is it the alternate shape that contributes to the flavor? A change in the peanut butter to chocolate ratio? A super special Halloween secret ingredient, like bat wings or ground up bones? We may never know. 

Naomi

I cannot fully explain why, but I am a big fan of peanut M&M’s. They’re like Reese’s but more fun and crunchier. They are also bigger than normal M&M’s and deliver the perfect mixture of sweet and salty. Maybe it’s 10 years at a “no peanuts ever” school but I just find peanut M&M’s to be a very exciting novelty.

Rachel

When I was a child trick-or-treating, I was a fan of all sorts of delicious candies. However, there was a candy I would always make to get a lot of when I went from house to house. That would be the delicious Whoppers. Three delicious malt balls in the cute off-white wrapper. There is something delightful about popping one of those little balls in your mouth and rolling it around, sucking off all of the chocolate, and then getting to chew and savor the almost cookie-like ball. It is a delicious experience that you go through three times when eating Whoppers. Every now and then, there may be a dud where the malt ball ends up too sticky and does not have the right crunch. However, when you get one that is just right, it can be a magical experience. I feel that I have/see Whoppers the most during the Halloween season. At least, I see the three-ball package during the Halloween season. Other times, I usually see the big box of Whoppers, like the kind at movie theaters. However, that is too big for my self-control and my appetite. So during the Halloween season, I can have myself the perfect amount of Whoppers. I hope all of you can understand the beauty of these malt balls and enjoy them yourself on Halloween!

Calli
Each year, after all of the Halloween candy trading had concluded, I always seemed to end up with an abundance of Halloween pretzels. Just kidding, those things should be banned from Halloween entirely. They aren’t even a treat! Anyways, my true love of Halloween candies belongs to Snickers. These babies contain the perfect ratio of nougat, caramel, crunchy peanuts and chocolate. I like to convince myself that they are semi-healthy as they contain whole peanuts. There is simply nothing not to like about these candies, and I sincerely apologize if you have a peanut allergy. 

Michael

I never cared much for Halloween candy, or candy in general, until the pandemic. That year, my mother brought an ENORMOUS jar of M&M’s and I became utterly obsessed with that goddamn thing. Since then, I have basically been eating M&M’s non-stop. As I’m writing this, I have four—actually, five boxes of M&M’s in my room which are basically my dessert every day. I’m talking about chocolate M&Ms, by the way, as I’ve tried other types of M&M’s but they are simply not the same. Once you bite through the outer layer with a satisfying crunch, you taste the rich milk chocolate and immediately lose all self-control. I’m not a Halloween person but Halloween provides the perfect excuse for me to indulge in even more M&M’s than I do already. 

Cyrenity

I love Trolli sour gummy worms. They are my favorite candy; they get me through homework assignments and tired days. Something about their colorful appearance and the fact that they’re just covered in sour sugar crystals just makes them so appealing! Besides that, I’d say Twix bars. It doesn’t matter if it’s a right one or a left one, as long as it is indeed a Twix bar. 

Jamie

This falls into the category of “candy I will not seek out on my own time but will enjoy if I get it on Halloween.” Dots. Like, the gummy candy. I especially like the pink ones (dubiously strawberry flavored? Unclear to me). It is so Halloween, and I absolutely will refuse to get them in any other context. 

Lucy

My favorite Halloween candy is the ever-pretentious 100-Grand bar. As a child of a peanut-free home, my choices for candy were always somewhat limited. I have no allergies but, because of one of my siblings, any candy containing nuts was not allowed in my home. That is why I did not have peanut butter until I was 13. I thus am a strong believer that peanut butter is kind of nasty. I believe people who like peanut butter only like it because they acclimated to the taste as children, who have notably bad taste in food. That was all a sidebar. The pertinent point at hand is that 100-Grand bars are a slept-on masterpiece. Super chewy caramel covered with non-Hershey’s milk chocolate and coated with puffed crunchy rice that is inexplicably much better than puffed rice in Crunch bars. 100-Grand bars are an American classic that I probably only ever got on two or three Halloweens but rest assured, they are what all future trick-or-treaters to my residence shall receive. 

Myla

For me, the best candy of all has to be Twix. It is so simple, but the components complement each other so well—the crunchy biscuit pairs perfectly with the gooey, decadent caramel, and as if it couldn’t get any better, the whole thing is covered in chocolate. It is the perfect bang for your buck candy where you can partake in all your favorite flavor and textural sensations at once, without the rude interruption of something like peanuts to completely ruin the whole experience for you. Not to say I don’t like the flavor of peanuts in my candy. In fact, I would probably put Butterfinger as my runner-up favorite candy. Something about the addition of a nut itself to a candy upsets me, but I digress. You just can’t beat the deliciousness that is Twix!

Jenny

Does Hi-Chew count as a Halloween candy? In my stereotype, all Halloween candy is chocolate. But if Hi-Chew counts, it is definitely my all time favorite. As an Asian kid, I grew up with different Asian candies, but Hi-Chew has a special place in my heart. It is sweet, chewy, fruity, does not create a big mess eating it and does not get your hands dirty. Back when I was in middle school in China, Hi-Chew was my number one snack in class. Unlike chocolate which isn’t preserverable when the weather gets hot, Hi-Chew is perfect for any weather. Also, the candy wrapper won’t make a big noice when you secretly unwrap in class, so the people sitting next to you and the teacher won’t notice.

Natalie 

Since I am lactose intolerant, I haven’t eaten a nice chocolate candy bar in a hot minute. However, when dairy used to not destroy my insides, I really enjoyed a nice Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup or a 100-Grand bar. Now, unfortunately, I resort to gummies and candy without chocolate, which is objectively so much worse. I hope that one day I’ll have the courage to just eat a pound of chocolate candy and not care about the consequences, but for now, I’ll stick to the lame candy.

Logan

I’ll eat the hell out of a Reese’s cup.