BU Students’ Favorite Halloween Candies

Hear about the hot takes and candy opinions BU students have this Halloween season!

By: Celine Wu

Graphic by Sisi Chen

Halloween is the one time of year where eating an ungodly amount of candy is completely justified. I personally think that Halloween candy beats out the candy of every other holiday, including Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter.

Every Halloween, there’s a sort of familiar ritual. You open a giant variety bag of candy, hand out the candy in small batches, and every time you go to fill up the bowl again after another round of trick or treaters, the same candies are always gone, while the same ones remain at the bottom of the bowl. So, as October rolls around and the shelves fill with assorted candy bags, which ones are actually worth buying?

To find out, I did an informal survey of people around BU, collecting responses through street interviews on Comm Ave and a Google Form sent and posted around campus. While this isn’t exactly a scientific ranking of BU’s favorite Halloween candies, it offers a glimpse into what students would actually reach for.

Our verdict: Reese’s took the top spot for favorite candy, with Twix following close behind. On the other end of the spectrum were Almond Joy and candy corn, which ranked as the least favorites. One student had a particularly strong opinion about the Almond Joy saying, “People who like Almond Joys are not real coconut lovers.” Candy corn, however, is a different story. Despite its poor showing in the rankings, it inspired some of the strongest opinions in the hot-take responses. Few candies seem to divide people quite as much. Some consider it a Halloween staple, while others would happily leave the entire bowl untouched. Butterfingers also received some unexpected love, with multiple respondents arguing that they deserve more appreciation.

The most notable response to me was actually during a street interview where a student said “We should make dorm trick-or-treating a thing. We’ve lost the magic in Halloween. Why doesn’t trick-or-treating exist anymore?” I think it’s a really interesting question. Between Halloween parties and other campus events, the simple tradition of walking door to door for candy can feel like a thing of the past. The college Halloween scene seems to be frat parties, small gatherings, and nothing else. College students may be older, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up an excuse to dress up, socialize, and, most importantly, collect a lot of free candy.

I think the idea of having BU dorm floors competing to see who hands out the best candy would be so interesting. Would Stuvi have be the best place to get full-size bars, or maybe would Warren be the best for candy variety? We already have plenty of opinions on which candies deserve a spot in the bowl. Maybe it's time BU gave us a chance to put those opinions to the test.