These Are the 11 Best Non-Chocolate Halloween Candies, Ranked

While we love parading around in our creative costumes, one simply can’t have the perfect Halloween night without indulging in a canyon of candy. Trick-or-treating is the reason we put so much thought into our sweet decisions, and it matters.

When we think Halloween candy, our minds tend to run toward chocolate. Parents have admitted to stealing their kids’ chocolate candy the most. Hershey released new vampire-shaped Kit Kats this year, and almost everyone considers Reese’s Pumpkins to be one of the best Halloween candies of all time. But what about those of us who prefer hard candies, lollipops and gummies? And, preferences aside, chocolate-free sweets are a fantastic alternative for kids who may be allergic to chocolate and peanuts especially.

For the best range, we chose the spookiest non-chocolate Halloween candies we could find. Some are sour, some are sweet, some are perfectly wrapped for trick-or-treating and others are best for bowlfuls at parties.

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11. Haribo Sour Bats

While Haribo Gummy Bears are some of the best candies, I can’t say the same for the Sour Bats. The texture was too thick and difficult to chew. My jaw got tired after just one! The Bats also came in a single, sugary amalgam that I had to pry apart. Of the three flavor combos—orange and black currant, green apple and black currant and cherry and black currant—the green apple duo was my favorite.

Bottom Line: The flavor was solid, but the gummies were extremely tough to chew and difficult to separate.

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10. Welch’s Halloween Fruit Snacks

I know what you’re thinking—those aren’t candy! And yes, you’d be correct. Technically. But kids and adults alike still go crazy for all sorts of fruit snacks, and Welch’s is at the tippy-top. Each pack comes with an assortment of bats, castles, ghosts, pumpkins and witches in assorted fruit flavors. And since they’re gluten-free, made with real fruit and individually packaged, they’re a no-brainer as a solid trick-or-treat option.

Bottom Line: While delicious and easy to pass out, there’s not enough of a wow-factor for me to rank them higher than the other candy options.

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9. Gummy Eyeballs

These gummy eyeballs come to you from Target’s brand Favorite Day. And while they’re a bit difficult to stomach aesthetically, they are in fact still edible. The gummy texture is soft enough to bite through even for its size, and it reminds me of a giant version of a fruit snack with its more generic flavor. If you’re looking to run a haunted house, have your guests reach their hands into a bowl of these for a wicked creep factor.

Bottom Line: While creepy and perfect for the season, they’re middle-of-the-road with a generic flavor composition.

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8. Albanese Ghoulish Gummies

When it comes to gummies, I’ve always had an affinity for matte, opaque gummies. I can’t fully explain it. But that’s what these are, and the designs are so adorable. Bats, ghosts and pumpkins haunt this bag, and their flavor choices are not par for course. You’ll find orange, black cherry and strawberry-banana options, a refreshing departure from the normal flavor array. That being said, I wish they were a bit softer with a few more shapes and colors. Still a solid pick for a holiday party snack bowl.

Bottom Line: The Ghoulish Gummies are super cute and tasty but I wanted more than three flavors options, and I have a feeling kids would too.

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7. Candy Corn

An absolute nostalgia classic. You can’t have Halloween without a big ole bowl of candy corn for the taking! That being said, candy corn can certainly be a divisive subject. I’ve always loved them, but I know quite a few people who’d rather go with no candy at all than be given candy corn. And while I enjoy popping handfuls of them every October, they’re not at the top of my must-have list. If you’re a candy corn fan that’s looking for an upgrade, try mixing them with peanuts for a sweet and salty combo.

Bottom Line: These are a standard Halloween candy that everyone has likely tried at least once. Some love ’em, some hate ’em!

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6. Brach’s Mellowcreme Pumpkins

Much like its candy corn cousin, Brach’s Mellowcreme Pumpkins are created from a foundation of sugar, corn syrup and gelatin with other mix-ins like honey to make them into mellowcreme. I like them ever so slightly more than candy corn due to their wider build and balanced flavor distribution. The softer texture is also a big win for me.

Bottom Line: These are as adorable as it gets with just the right amount of sweetness, but I’d rather use them to make an edible pumpkin patch on frosted brownies than give them out to trick-or-treaters.

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5. Jolly Rancher Trickies

Hard candy is my absolute favorite kind of candy. And of the plethora of hard candy options, Jolly Ranchers rank dangerously close to the top. My family would buy bags of them for our house on the regular. They went into our “Jolly Rancher Jar” in the kitchen for easy eating. They’re dear to my heart.

Trickies have a much softer, gummy texture but manage to keep the vibrant Jolly Rancher flavor. Plus, they’re soft enough to chew but tough enough to keep their substance. The only downside is that they’re not individually packaged, so best to keep them as a shareable option for the family. Maybe in a little jar, perhaps?

Bottom Line: If these were individually packaged, they’d possibly be my top pick for trick-or-treaters!

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4. Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers

Now these are an elementary school classic. I don’t know about you, but these were quite literally everywhere in my school growing up. All my classmates adored them, and we almost always had them as an option for our little Halloween parties. And honestly, I get it. The texture hits the gummy sweet spot—hefty but pliable. Plus, they’re sour! Throw a few of these on a dirt cake with pumpkin mellowcremes and gummy eyeballs for a creepy fun dessert.

Bottom Line: These sour gummies evoke some serious nostalgia. The best part is that they’re just as delicious as we remember.

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3. Sour Patch Kids Monsterheads

One cannot simply make a ranked candy list without mentioning one of the greatest of all time: the Sour Patch Kid. This time, he’s a certified Big Kid. With a mix of orange, purple and green combinations, these Sour Patch Kids are a monster of a hit. The best part? They’re individually wrapped and perfect for trick-or-treating. And, yes, no matter how much they hurt the roofs of our mouths, we’ll never stop chowing down.

Bottom Line: Sour Patch Kids are a certified classic, and you can almost never go wrong with these as a non-chocolate candy option. The fact that these are individually packaged makes them an even better fit for Halloween night.

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2. Nerds Spooky Gummy Clusters

If you’re a ’90s kid, you likely remember the absolute sensation that was the Nerds Rope. It was gummy, it was crunchy, it was everything you wanted in a candy. Us kids went wild for them. Now, the rope has been reinvented as clusters, and they’re just as delicious as they were when we were younger. The Spooky version of these little poppables are purple, orange and white with a cherry-adjacent flavor. Honestly, it was tough to stop eating them.

Bottom Line: Nerds are always a solid hit, especially when you mix them with a gummy center. While the clusters I found were in a larger bag, you can find them individually packaged in variety packs for trick-or-treaters.

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1. Tootsie Caramel Apple Pops

Am I a hard candy fanatic? Yes. Is my favorite candy of all-time a lollipop? Yes. Am I biased in this decision? It’s possible, but that doesn’t change the fact that Caramel Apple Pops have been a favorite fall candy of mine since I could walk. It is the most ethereal combination of textures. The hard-to-soft, melty caramel outside that slowly reveals into a sour apple candy center is unmatched. They’re also individually wrapped and last far longer than any other candy on the list. They’re a Halloween home run!

Bottom Line: These suckers last a while longer than some of the other candies on this list, and the flavor and texture will always be a sweet surprise. I’ll take an entire bag, please!