I Tried And Ranked Every Candy In Hershey's Halloween 2026 Lineup

I strive to be the house with the best Halloween candy every year. Growing up, I giddily looked forward to trick-or-treating at the houses that everyone knew gave the best treats; decades later, I can still remember which houses doled out full-sized candy bars, homemade puppy chow, or even still-warm bags of freshly popped kettle corn. Even then, I looked forward to someday being a Halloween hotspot of my own, handing out all of the best candy to the costume-clad kids on the spookiest night of the year.

Hershey's is kind of the king of candy, and Halloween is the best time for the candy maker to show off its very best treats. The Halloween 2026 lineup is full of familiar favorites reimagined in bite-sized versions, portioned for easy on-the-go eating while still filling bags for eager trick-or-treaters. Taking my duty as a bag-filler seriously, I tried the entire 2026 lineup of Hershey's Halloween candy and ranked them from worst to best to decide which ones I'll be handing out this year — and which ones I'll leave on the shelf.

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer/distributor/etc.

I understand why these exist, but I have to admit I don't understand why they're included in a trick-or-treating assortment. Peanut butter-filled pretzels aren't exactly exciting, and they always leave me feeling like I need several glasses of water after eating them. Salty without much sweetness, the snack is hardly a treat and might fare better on a list of best bar snacks or snacks I'd pair with bourbon.

Though the bite-sized, peanut butter-filled pretzels are good in their own right, they simply don't hold a candle to the other treats in this lineup that are true desserts. The mini size also means less peanut butter, so even peanut butter fans may not find this snack quite hits the mark. One I'd leave on the shelf in lieu of sweeter, more decadent options, this is handily my last-place pick.

Because I'm a bit partial to chocolate candies, I tread carefully when ranking the gummy selections in this lineup. Both gummy options are similarly shaped Jolly Rancher gummy minis, but one is labeled as "Trickies" and sold in a black bag. From what I can tell, these gummies in blue-colored bags are less sour, perhaps slightly different shapes, but otherwise exactly the same. They are certainly gummy and fruity, but beyond that, I have to admit I found them chewy and a little bland.

To make sure my ranking wasn't just chocolate bias, I asked my fiancé to try the gummies and give his honest review. He loves gummy candies, and Jolly Rancher chews are his favorite, so these stood a solid chance with his opinion added. His thoughts were short (and sweet, pun intended), calling the candy "average gummies." Not high praise for someone who snacks on similar versions daily — if they had more of a juicy flavor, sweeter flavor, or more moisture inside, these might be ranked higher, but as-is, they aren't any better than a store-bought fruit snack.

I have to be honest: I can't quite tell the difference between regular Jolly Rancher gummies and Trickies, other than that they have different-colored packaging. I'm not sure I could tell them apart in a blind taste test, but side by side, I could swear the Trickies tasted slightly more sour, closer to classic Jolly Ranchers. The Halloween-themed packaging may have tricked me into liking these more (and may be how Hershey's team came up with the name).

Because the gummies are so similar to the classics in the blue packaging, I had to rank them around the same place, but needed a way to determine which one would score higher in the lineup. The shapes, flavors, and texture are all about the same, so it mostly comes down to packaging, which is clearly a little more Halloween-themed for the Trickies. From there, I thought these were just fine compared to the other offerings in the lineup, but I wouldn't seek them out above my beloved chocolates.

The Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme chocolate bars are popular for a reason. The best white chocolate out of any brand filled with crunchy chocolate cookie pieces, the bars are both texturally interesting and perfectly sweet, and understandably attract avid fans of white chocolate. The 2026 Halloween version takes the classic concept, makes it miniature, and adds a subtle vampire-fang design to the front of the bar. It's cute, but not what I expected when I read that the white chocolate bar was going to be turned into fangs.

What's fun about fangs, as a food concept, is being able to use them to make yourself into a vampire before eating. These bars aren't that — instead, the fangs are etched into the front of the bar and are even a little hard to see, meaning that the concept almost entirely gets missed, especially if you open it upside down. The flavor is otherwise fine, if a bit more artificial than I remember the creme being. A fine bar but less exciting than others in the lineup, it falls lower on the list.

Full disclosure, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are one of my favorite candies of all time, so I have a slight bias towards them. With that being said, it's especially interesting to see these ranked closer to the bottom of the list. Truthfully, there aren't any spectacularly bad items on this list at all, so my ranking is perhaps overly analytical for what are perfectly normal candies. The reason I ranked these lower than others is fairly simple: They are a plain, somewhat boring offering in a lineup of themed treats, and they lack the creamy softness of larger sized Reese's cups.

The Reese's Peanut Butter Cups included in this lineup are found in the Reese's sweet and salty snack box, which also includes Reese's Pieces, filled pretzels, dipped pretzels, and animal crackers. The box comes with just four small Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which are sized in between the mini Reese's cups and the regular size. The smaller size means, like the minis, they are denser and less soft, which is what I like so much about the regular and shaped sizes. While a good candy all the same, these aren't as exciting nor as delicious as others on the list, so I ranked them closer to the bottom.

Truth be told, I had these animal crackers ranked much lower before I received a text from my sister, who I shared some with, telling me how good they are. After some serious candy-related introspection, I decided that I may have been too harsh about my ranking for animal crackers that are perfectly good. These are excellent animal crackers, made with crispy shortbread, creamy peanut butter, and sweet, milky chocolate.

I originally ranked these animal crackers low for an admittedly picky reason: the cookies aren't very defined animal shapes. I'm still not sure what animals I received in my package, and I considered this a huge factor in my original ranking. Wouldn't kids, when they get animal crackers, be excited to find out which furry friends their package contains? According to my sister, who didn't even glance at the crackers before eating, this is a minor flaw that only the pickiest animal-cracker critics among us (like myself) would even notice. For everyone else, these sweet and crunchy crackers are a slam dunk and an excellent treat to receive on Halloween night.

There's really nothing bad I can say about Reese's Pieces. Though they aren't particularly exciting or on theme, they are a great candy, and the miniature package size is a perfect Halloween offering. You still get plenty of pieces in the miniature package, and the smaller size is perfect for handing out on Halloween night. Of course, the pieces aren't as cute as Reese's pumpkins or as fun as chocolate-dipped pretzels, but any peanut butter-loving kid would be thrilled to have a few packs in their bag.

Because this lineup is filled with Halloween-themed treats, it would have been fun to see Reese's Pieces in spooky colors like black and purple, or with spooky motifs printed on the fronts. They could also reference their iconic appearance in Steven Spielberg's "E.T." with alien-themed packaging. What would really push these candies above and beyond is if they could be shaped like tiny pumpkins or witches' hats; as-is, they're perfectly fine candy and rank near the middle of the bunch.

If you didn't know which candy company produces KitKats, this Halloween lineup makes it clear with its creative take on the classic wafer treat. Normally a plain rectangle of chocolate-covered wafer, KitKats are already a unique and delicious candy on their own, but this year's version showcases how fun the candy can also be. Molded into the shape of Count Dracula and a witch, the bars are cute and fun for Halloween — and also seemingly a little bigger, though it could be an illusion due to their unique shape.

I likely would have ranked the KitKat Count and Witch bars a little higher — if not highest — if it weren't for one thing: I found the bars overly chocolatey. KitKats are great because of the wafer, which is usually coated in a thin layer of chocolate. This KitKat, with its uniquely molded shape, has a higher chocolate-to-wafer ratio, making it more of a chocolate bar than a coated wafer. Still slightly crunchy and plenty cute, this bar is a fun addition to the Hershey's Halloween lineup and easily one of my top three choices.

Way, way, long ago, when trick-or-treating still involved homemade treats, there was a house or two on my street that would make chocolate-covered pretzel rods for the trick-or-treaters who rang their bells. It was a unique treat in a sea of packaged chocolates and gummy candies, and it was especially fun for kids like me, who liked things a little more savory. These chocolate-dipped pretzels made by Reese's reminded me of those houses, and somehow managed to make the sweet-and-salty treat even better than I remember.

What's great about these pretzels is that they're coated in chocolate and include a thin layer of peanut butter. Like Reese's with a salty crunch, these pretzels are the perfect treat to have on hand for kids who like more savory treats. What I love most about them is the mini, individualized size, which fits neatly into trick-or-treaters' bags and avoids cross-contaminating the peanut butter with other nut-free treats. These are a clever, tasty addition to the Halloween 2026 lineup of treats, and one I'd definitely stock for this year's trick-or-treaters.

Something very bad must have happened to the Reese's pumpkin recipe for these not to rank at the top of the list. A classic combination of soft, creamy peanut butter and milky chocolate, these are the candies I and many others look forward to the most every season. The shapes always seem to rank highest among Halloween candies, and the snack-sized pumpkins offered in this year's Halloween lineup are no different; they still handily take first place.

Hershey's peanut butter shapes always taste even better than the cups, whether it's trees, eggs, or pumpkins, and I don't think it's just because the shapes are more fun. It's because the peanut butter is softer, sweeter, and more plentiful in the shapes than in the cups, where it's more densely packed and coated in a harder, firmer layer of chocolate. If you love peanut butter and chocolate, these miniature versions are just as good as full-sized pumpkins, and even better if you're looking for just a small, sweet treat. Easily the best of the bunch, these peanut butter pumpkins are worth grabbing several bags of — so you can save some for yourself after all the trick-or-treaters have gone to bed.

I conducted this ranking in a straightforward manner: I tried each candy and ranked them from the ones I liked best to the ones I liked least. To keep the ranking as unbiased as possible, I also offered samples to secondary testers and blended their reviews with my own. Because the candies are all similar versions of existing candies, I was critical of how size affected taste and texture, the value, and how well the candies fit the Halloween holiday theme. Otherwise, I considered what I always do in any ranking: Which ones I'd recommend to a friend (or give to my trick-or-treaters).