Worst Candies to Give Out on Halloween Night
Every Halloween, kids know exactly which houses to hit and which ones to skip. The homes with good candy earn a reputation fast, while the ones with disappointing treats get remembered for all the wrong reasons. Chocolate bars and chewy sweets always go first, but a few candies never seem to leave the bowl.
The problem isn’t always taste. Sometimes it’s the texture or a complete mismatch with what kids expect from a holiday built on indulgence. Knowing what not to buy can save money and sidestep disappointment.
Circus Peanuts
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These marshmallow-like candies remain a mystery despite their existence dating back to the 1800s. They’re shaped like peanuts but flavored like artificial banana. It has a spongy texture that no one asks for. Most kids try them out of curiosity, then avoid them for life.
Nik-L-Nip Wax Bottles
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Tootsie Roll launched these wax bottles filled with colored syrup in the early 20th century. You bite the top off, drink the sweet liquid, then throw away the wax. Few kids enjoy candy that starts with chewing wax and ends with sticky confusion.
Candy Corn
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Candy corn looks festive enough, but the taste rarely wins fans. Made from sugar, corn syrup, and glaze, it leans so heavily on sweetness that even kids lose interest fast. The texture doesn’t help either; it lands somewhere between wax and soft plastic. In surveys, it almost always ranks near the bottom of Halloween favorites.
Good & Plenty
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These pink-and-white capsules hide black licorice inside, which is already a hard sell for most kids. Add a glossy candy coating and a strong hit of anise, and you’ve got a recipe for rejection. It’s the kind of candy that gets eaten only if there’s absolutely nothing else left.
Necco Wafers
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These thin, chalky discs have been around since 1847. Their long shelf life once made them ideal for military rations. Today, flavors like clove, licorice, and wintergreen make them feel more medicinal than sweet. Even their soft pastel colors can’t distract from the dusty, brittle texture that turns kids away.
Smarties (U.S. Version)
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These chalky discs are more filler than favorite. The tart flavor barely changes between colors, and most kids lose interest after a few pieces. Adults hand them out because they’re cheap and allergy-safe, but they usually end up uneaten.
Raisins and Raisinets
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These are fine any other day, just not on Halloween. Raisins feel more like a lunchbox snack than a treat, and even a layer of chocolate can’t save Raisinets from the same fate. They’re the candies that keep getting traded until someone gives up.
Cheap Foil-Wrapped Milk Chocolate
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These budget chocolates often come wrapped as coins or Halloween shapes. The packaging looks nice, but the chocolate inside usually tastes flat or a little off. That unpleasant tang comes from butyric acid, a preservative also found in spoiled butter. One piece can make even good chocolate taste worse by comparison.
Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans
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These jelly beans, inspired by Harry Potter, include random flavors like vomit, earthworm, and soap. The novelty works once. After that, kids start avoiding them altogether. No one wants a candy that feels like a dare. They’re more of a party trick than a Halloween treat.
Tootsie Caramel Apple Pops
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They sound great in theory, but for kids with braces or fillings, they’re almost impossible to eat safely. It’s a tart green apple lollipop coated in caramel, but the execution doesn’t hold up. The caramel gets sticky and hard to bite, while the apple flavor tastes artificial.
Lemon Lollipops
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Lemon is one of the least liked hard candy flavors. Kids often link it to cough drops or cleaning spray instead of sweets. These lollipops usually sink to the bottom of the bag, added to bulk assortments because they’re cheap, not because anyone wants them.
Dubble Bubble
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It’s more tradition than treat at this point. This classic pink gum comes with a comic strip and a heavy dose of nostalgia. But the flavor disappears almost immediately, and the texture stiffens into rubber before you’ve finished reading the joke.
Rockets (Canada)
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These look and taste nearly identical to U.S. Smarties. They’re dry, powdery, and barely flavored. They’re harmless, but they don’t spark much excitement. Candy that tastes like flavored chalk usually ends up at the bottom of the bag, untraded and uneaten, waiting for someone to feel generous or bored.
Twizzlers
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Twizzlers never tasted like strawberries so much as they resembled strawberry-scented plastic. Their texture had more in common with electrical tubing than candy. That said, they weren’t entirely without purpose. You could bite off the ends and use one as a makeshift soda straw, or in a pinch, tie a broken shoelace. Kind of multi-use licorice. Keep away from their Halloween baskets, though.
Pennies
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Every few years, a handful of pennies still shows up in someone’s Halloween stash. They add weight, pose a choking hazard, and can’t buy anything. Most vending machines don’t accept them. You can’t trade them for better candy, and they usually end up tossed aside with wrappers and broken glow sticks.