Andrew Rea (AKA Binging With Babish) pits 32 classic American candies head-to-head in a single elimination bracket to determine—once and for all—the absolute best sugary treat. Andrew Rea's cookbook, Basics With Babish, released October 24. Check it out here.
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00:00 It's just sugar paste molded into something
00:02 that doesn't resemble candy or corn.
00:04 It's so sweet.
00:07 It's sweeter than if you just ate pure sugar.
00:09 I don't know how.
00:10 (dramatic music)
00:13 Hey there, folks, I'm Andrew Ray,
00:19 aka Binging with Babish,
00:20 and I'm here today to taste and judge
00:22 32 different kinds of Halloween candy.
00:25 This is a head-to-head tournament.
00:26 Each round, two candies are gonna face off,
00:28 and at the end, we're gonna determine
00:30 which is the very best Halloween candy.
00:32 We have two divisions,
00:33 and we're gonna start with the chocolate division.
00:35 Trick or treat, smell my feet.
00:38 Give me something good to eat.
00:39 (bell dings)
00:42 We rehearsed that.
00:44 First up, Baby Ruth versus Snickers.
00:47 I haven't had a Baby Ruth.
00:49 I don't remember when.
00:50 It's described as dry roasted peanuts,
00:52 rich caramel, and smooth nougat,
00:54 whereas Snickers is caramel, nougat, peanuts, chocolate.
00:57 Are these the same thing?
00:58 Are these direct competitors?
00:59 Perfect, you matched these up, that makes sense.
01:01 First up, the Baby Ruth.
01:04 Rough and tumble around the edges here.
01:06 We got some exposed peanuts.
01:07 Not sure how I feel about that.
01:09 Unwrap the Snickers.
01:10 Ooh, ooh.
01:12 The chocolate is what I'm expecting.
01:16 It's kind of waxy, kind of mass-produced.
01:18 I don't taste the caramel at all.
01:19 Definitely getting nougat, and definitely getting peanuts.
01:21 Let's see what happens with the Snickers.
01:23 Knee-jerk reaction, giving it to the Snickers.
01:26 Caramel is much more prevalent.
01:28 There's less nougat, which, you know,
01:29 I think that's filler.
01:30 And the peanuts are more finely chopped.
01:32 You don't have these big old chonkers of peanuts.
01:34 They're integrated into the candy itself.
01:36 Right off the bat, Snickers takes the cake.
01:38 We have Twix and 100 Grand.
01:40 Start with the Twix.
01:42 I have a left bar here.
01:43 Good, stretchy, chewy caramel.
01:46 Dig that, nice big old cookie.
01:49 Now 100 Grand, ooh.
01:50 We have a much more imposing form factor here.
01:53 It's a larger piece of candy,
01:54 and it's bespeckled with what I imagine is puffed rice,
01:58 or crispy crunchies, as they're described on the wrapper.
02:01 Oh my.
02:03 This is like revelatory.
02:05 Immediately, going to 100 Grand.
02:07 I am a Twix apologist.
02:08 I did not think that this was gonna go this way.
02:11 But this thing is like pure caramel,
02:13 and it's got crispy crunchies
02:14 that are crispier and crunchier than the Twix cookie.
02:17 I would call this an upset.
02:18 Absolutely, 100 Grand takes it.
02:20 I believe Milky Way has the added benefit of caramel
02:23 over Three Musketeers.
02:24 It's like 60/40 nougat caramel.
02:29 Into that, that's the age old question, isn't it?
02:31 What is nougat?
02:32 I think nougat's a filler.
02:33 I think that it's very inexpensive to make,
02:35 and it was bold of Three Musketeers
02:37 to make a candy bar that's only nougat.
02:40 It's like this fluffy,
02:41 semi-chocolatey, compressible insulation.
02:44 Ugh.
02:47 I think you have to agree that the addition of caramel
02:49 makes it a much more interesting,
02:51 much more delicious candy experience.
02:53 So I'm gonna have to go Milky Way over Three Musketeers.
02:56 Battle of the plain chocolate
02:58 versus the almost plain chocolate.
03:00 I don't like milk chocolate in general,
03:02 but especially Hershey's,
03:03 which to me tastes like the wrapper that it comes in.
03:05 So it stands to reason that
03:12 if you take the same exact chocolate-style product
03:15 and add crunchy puffed rice to it,
03:17 it's just gonna enhance the experience.
03:19 A crunch takes it because Hershey's,
03:22 it needs something else.
03:25 It needs peanut butter or a marshmallow
03:27 or a different kind of bar of chocolate
03:29 to really make it work.
03:31 We have Butterfinger versus Kitted Cats.
03:34 We have crispy wafers in chocolate.
03:36 These ones are peanut butter flavored,
03:37 and they're like candy shards in there,
03:40 whereas these are more like a cookie wafer.
03:42 I'm gonna start with the Kit Kat
03:43 'cause frankly I wanna leave this flavor in my mouth.
03:45 I have preferences here.
03:46 I love Kit Kat,
03:49 but it made the mistake of getting in the Thunderdome
03:53 with the Butterfinger.
03:54 It's so good.
03:57 I mean, I love chocolate and peanut butter.
03:59 It's gotta be my favorite flavor combination on the planet,
04:01 but then they added all this like,
04:02 crispity crunchity is the only way to describe it.
04:04 They really chose apt descriptors.
04:05 It takes it by a mile.
04:07 Like, I'm sorry, this is a huge mismatch.
04:09 M&M's and Reese's Pieces.
04:11 This is really tough
04:12 because I love both of these individually.
04:15 I love them the most when they're together.
04:17 [chewing]
04:20 In the specific context of Halloween,
04:24 we gotta go Reese's
04:25 because this has gotta be the most common candy handout.
04:28 Reese's takes it by a nose.
04:30 Almond Joy versus York Peppermint Patties.
04:33 Coconut versus mint goo.
04:35 It was always a very funny form factor to me,
04:39 this kind of piece of modern art here.
04:41 Sweetened coconut, chocolate, almond.
04:45 It's a wonderful combination.
04:47 And with York Peppermint Patties,
04:48 we're dealing with a much simpler combination,
04:50 but I think a more effective one.
04:52 We got dark chocolate, which big win for me.
04:54 And you've got the same sort of icy white paste
04:57 in the center, but this one is imbued with mint.
04:59 It is refreshing.
05:01 I feel as though I just brushed my teeth.
05:03 I gotta go York.
05:04 This is ticking all different kinds of boxes for me,
05:06 namely dark chocolate.
05:07 [bell dinging]
05:09 Whoa.
05:09 This is the last one in the round,
05:11 so they just took the last two
05:13 and they were like, "Figure these out."
05:15 I mean, I don't even have to taste it.
05:16 I'm Reese's Cup all the way.
05:17 I love chocolate and peanut butter more than anything.
05:19 This is kind of like chocolate clay, but this is science.
05:23 It does not even taste like chocolate.
05:26 What is this flavored?
05:27 Brown flavored.
05:28 And this.
05:29 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups takes it by a mile.
05:33 Time to move into the candy division.
05:35 Airheads versus Laffy Taffy.
05:38 Both of these you could get for five tickets
05:39 at Chuck E. Cheese's.
05:40 This is the plainly worst one.
05:42 Airheads, not only are you getting better flavors,
05:44 you get quite mystery.
05:45 This was my favorite when I was a kid.
05:47 I still don't know if every one of them is different
05:49 or if White Mystery's all the same flavor.
05:51 Cherry, sour apple, and banana.
05:53 What are these, vegetables?
05:54 Was not prepared for the electric color
05:56 underneath the sun-faded wrapper.
05:59 Candied apple, or sour green apple.
06:01 Not sour, first of all.
06:05 Versus the goat.
06:07 White Mystery.
06:09 This is not nearly as good as I remember it.
06:13 The texture's not great.
06:14 It's like grainy.
06:15 Laffy Taffy's super smooth.
06:17 Okay, we have another upset on our hands, folks.
06:19 Laffy Taffy takes it in the taffy, taffy off.
06:22 These are Now and Laters.
06:23 Have I just never seen Now and Laters?
06:25 I love Starburst, particularly pink Starburst.
06:28 Let's see if I get lucky.
06:30 Nope.
06:31 The Battle of the Strawberries.
06:32 This is a very hot pink, artificial-looking strawberry.
06:35 This looks like it has chunks of strawberry in it,
06:37 so I'm very excited to see what happens here.
06:39 Oh, God.
06:41 That one's got some rings on it,
06:44 which have been around for a while.
06:46 On to the Now and Later strawberry.
06:48 It's almost a dead heat, honestly,
06:51 in terms of flavor, texture, and appearance.
06:53 Whatever on both parts.
06:55 I'm giving it Starburst for sheer nostalgia factor.
06:57 [bell dings]
06:58 Ooh, what the hell?
06:59 [laughs]
07:00 I do not know how to objectively match these
07:03 against one another.
07:04 I love raspberry Tootsie Roll pops,
07:05 and I love Milk Duds,
07:07 and I think this is gonna come down to freshness.
07:10 Milk Duds can really go bad.
07:14 Well, medium freshness, medium well.
07:17 Just a big old hunk of caramel wrapped in chocolate.
07:19 Tootsie Roll pops, these are timeless.
07:21 This thing could be 20 years old, and I would have no idea.
07:23 That's the stuff.
07:26 For sheer variety's sake, in both flavor and texture,
07:30 and consistency of quality, again,
07:32 these could be 10 years old and they'd be fine.
07:33 If this was a year old,
07:34 I would not even be able to eat them.
07:35 Gotta go Tootsie Roll pops,
07:37 in spite of my venomously anti-Tootsie Roll rhetoric.
07:40 What am I, 100 years old?
07:41 What are these?
07:42 I've never met anyone who's purchased this product.
07:44 I've never met anyone who's tried this product.
07:46 I think they're all dead.
07:47 These feel hard as rocks.
07:48 These are ancient.
07:50 So this is gonna be a fantastically informative,
07:53 really, experience.
07:57 They smell like chemicals or styrofoam or something.
07:59 They feel and look like styrofoam, good and plenty.
08:02 Not something I think I've ever tried
08:04 because it's licorice pills.
08:06 Tastes like star anise.
08:13 Not into it.
08:14 What is this?
08:19 What flavor is it?
08:20 Sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, high fructose corn syrup,
08:23 yellow six, artificial flavor.
08:25 What is the flavor?
08:25 I might not like licorice,
08:27 but I love that these are candy coated
08:28 and I love that they're crunchy on the outside,
08:30 chewy on the inside.
08:31 These are just awful in every way.
08:33 So we're going good and plenty for this round.
08:36 Again, don't need to try this one
08:37 because I know that nerds are gonna trounce Smarties.
08:42 I do like Smarties,
08:43 even though they're a sort of unflavored sugar pellet.
08:46 Yeah, lightly sour, mostly sugar, very little flavor.
08:52 Still somehow addictive.
08:53 Still, I actively want more, but come on,
08:56 you can't beat nerds.
08:57 There's only one way to describe nerds.
09:01 They're a sensation.
09:01 They start sweet, they end sour, they're crunchy.
09:03 Huge winner.
09:04 As craveable, as weirdly, oddly addictive as Smarties are,
09:08 gotta go nerds.
09:09 They're one of the all-time greats.
09:10 Skittles at Dots.
09:12 Dots age very poorly.
09:13 They become extremely chewy and rock hard
09:16 within minutes of being exposed to oxygen.
09:18 Oh, it's good.
09:21 It's really dense and chewy, but Skittles,
09:24 I mean, come on, double grape.
09:26 Won't hear me complaining.
09:27 Superior flavor, texture, appearance.
09:31 Skittles is the clear winner.
09:32 We have candy corn versus Twizzlers.
09:34 I love Twizzlers.
09:35 I love being able to bite the ends off
09:39 and blow air through them.
09:41 [whistling]
09:42 These age like fine wine.
09:44 I like opening these and just leaving them out,
09:45 getting them real chewy.
09:46 This is a classic and so are these,
09:48 but it's just sugar paste molded into
09:51 something that doesn't resemble candy or corn.
09:54 It's so sweet.
09:57 It's sweeter than if you just ate pure sugar.
09:59 I don't know how.
10:00 You eat like 10 of them and you're like,
10:01 I don't even want any more candy.
10:03 Twizzlers, you could eat this whole bag
10:04 and be like, where are the Twix's?
10:06 For flavor, appearance, texture, longevity,
10:08 Twizzlers beats candy corn by a wide, wide margin.
10:12 Swedish Fish versus Sour Patch Kids.
10:15 I love Sour Patch Kids and I will die on that hill.
10:19 I love Swedish Fish too, but I love sour stuff.
10:21 Plus you only get one flavor over here
10:24 and that flavor is red.
10:25 Whereas with Sour Patch Kids,
10:27 you get the added benefit of a little pucker.
10:30 Sour Patch Kids is better than Swedish Fish.
10:34 I'm sorry.
10:34 You get more flavors, you get sour stuff,
10:36 you get Patch Kids.
10:37 All right guys, round two, getting serious.
10:39 A little more funny business.
10:40 100 Grand versus Snickers.
10:42 100 Grand really deserves a resurgence.
10:45 It deserves your attention.
10:46 Snickers has the advantage of peanuts,
10:48 but 100 Grand is packing a ton more caramel,
10:51 but also crunchy, you guys, on the outside.
10:53 It's got a denser, chewier texture.
10:56 It's more satisfying.
10:57 A huge part of Snickers marketing
10:58 is like meal replacement for some reason.
11:00 They're like, you hungry?
11:01 Eat a [beep] candy bar.
11:03 100 Grand isn't doing that.
11:04 They're saying this tastes like $100,000
11:06 and it does.
11:07 Now we're going crunch at Milky Way.
11:10 This is a tricky one.
11:10 Beautiful simplicity versus textures and flavors.
11:14 And even though I feel like nougat is just a filler,
11:16 I'm gonna go Milky Way.
11:17 You got caramel, you got some nougat, Milky Way takes it.
11:20 Peanut butter candy and chocolate
11:21 versus just peanut butter candy.
11:23 How about that?
11:24 I love Reese's Pieces, but Butterfinger's adding
11:26 a whole bunch of different textures and chocolate,
11:29 the most important ingredient in peanut butter.
11:31 Between these two, much as I love you,
11:33 Reese's Pieces, going Butterfinger.
11:35 Battle of the chocolate covered goos.
11:38 This is a genuinely hard one.
11:41 I love York peppermint patties.
11:43 I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
11:44 and they're pretty much the same form factor.
11:46 It's this kind of like whipped up sugar goo
11:49 wrapped in chocolate.
11:50 What do I do?
11:51 The whole world's watching.
11:53 Sorry, York.
11:54 Peanut butter and chocolate's gonna beat mint
11:56 and chocolate any day.
11:57 Starburst at Laffy Taffy.
11:59 Laffy Taffy was a surprising improvement
12:02 upon the Airheads form factor,
12:05 but Starburst for its variety of flavors
12:08 and the number of flavors you get in a pack.
12:10 I gotta go Starburst.
12:11 Tough, tough matchup.
12:15 Good and Plenty is disgusting
12:17 and Tootsie Roll Pops are good.
12:19 Skittles and Nerds.
12:21 Worthy opponents.
12:22 Better fruit flavors, interesting textures,
12:24 sour then sweet, crunchy.
12:27 They last forever somehow too.
12:29 They're like the box never empties.
12:30 It's a tough decision, but I have to go Nerds.
12:32 Yet another what's gonna be a contentious face off.
12:36 I really love Sour Patch Kids.
12:37 Once I had to go to the doctor when I was a kid
12:39 'cause I ate too many Sour Patch Kids
12:41 and I like had burned my mouth and I was in wretched pain.
12:45 That's how much I love Sour Patch Kids
12:46 and I only just like Twizzlers.
12:48 You're getting more flavor variety here.
12:51 You're getting the option to chew or suck upon.
12:54 So Sour Patch Kids has taken it.
12:56 So it begins.
12:58 Ooh wee.
13:01 This one's an easy one for me.
13:02 I've been singing the praises of 100 Grand all day.
13:05 Milky Way, Nougat.
13:06 There's not even a gram of Nougat in this thing.
13:09 It's all caramel.
13:10 Milky Way, I don't know how it made it later
13:13 in the brackets than Snickers
13:14 because I feel like Milky Way is like a worse Snickers.
13:17 100 Grand is the clear winner over Milky Way.
13:20 The battle of the peanut butter chocolates.
13:22 Butterfinger versus Reese's Cup.
13:24 This is a tricky one
13:26 because this is real peanut butter flavor and chocolate
13:28 versus the sort of peanut butter flavored candy,
13:31 but a way cooler, more exciting texture.
13:34 Ah, see?
13:36 This is nonsense.
13:37 Look at this.
13:37 You lose a chunk of your chocolate
13:39 and I don't know about you,
13:39 when I was a kid, this wasn't escaping.
13:42 That's an added step that I don't need
13:45 when I could just have the crispy, crunchy Butterfinger.
13:48 I'm going Butterfinger.
13:51 I think it's just a better choice
13:52 for the peanut butter and chocolate mashup.
13:54 Tootsie Roll Pops versus Starburst.
13:57 I love Starburst.
13:59 I appreciate the variety of flavors,
14:00 but this little packet of two Starburst,
14:03 that's gone in 30 seconds.
14:04 This is taking you a solid five minutes to polish off.
14:07 This is a much more exciting time to be had as a child.
14:11 Last one in the round.
14:13 Oh, and it's a tough one.
14:16 Both are sour then sweet.
14:18 That's appropriate
14:19 because this is a bittersweet decision.
14:21 These are what I have every time I go to the movie theater.
14:28 These were my favorite when I was a kid.
14:30 Sour Patch Kids, squeaks it out.
14:32 The semifinal round.
14:33 Four candies enter, only one will leave.
14:36 Who will be victorious this Halloween?
14:38 Butterfinger versus 100 Grand.
14:40 We're getting into the territory of,
14:42 I wouldn't just eat these because they're Halloween candy.
14:45 I would eat this on a daily basis.
14:47 Butterfinger, I already knew that.
14:49 I would eat these any time of day, any day of my life.
14:51 100 Grand, I'm just learning this today.
14:53 I'm 35 years old.
14:55 You can still teach an old dog new tricks.
14:57 That being said,
14:59 Butterfinger is one of the most unique candy experiences
15:02 on the market.
15:03 The sort of like fragmented sugar candy structure
15:07 in the middle that still eats like a candy bar.
15:09 I don't know how it works.
15:10 It's magic.
15:11 It always has been.
15:12 And it is going to unfortunately
15:14 take the crown from 100 Grand.
15:15 Tootsie Roll Pops versus Sour Patch Kids.
15:18 I would rather have one packet of Sour Patch Kids
15:21 than an entire lifetime's worth of Tootsie Roll Pops.
15:23 One of the big factors here is craveability
15:25 and snackability.
15:26 I could eat a five pound bag of these
15:27 without even realizing what I was doing.
15:30 The final round.
15:32 Who will reign supreme this Halloween?
15:35 [bell dings]
15:36 Sour Patch Kids versus Butterfinger.
15:41 What we're dealing with here is
15:43 sour then sweet versus peanut butter and chocolate.
15:45 Two of my very favorite things.
15:48 And I'm being asked to choose between them.
15:50 It's not fair to me or to you.
15:53 Let's start with flavor.
15:55 I think Butterfinger is taking the win for flavor.
15:58 These taste very good,
16:00 but they're more about the sour then sweet eating experience.
16:03 Texture.
16:03 Layer upon layer of peanut buttery candy flavor.
16:08 A nice light crunch, airy texture.
16:10 Craveability.
16:11 I feel like I could eat a lot more Sour Patch Kids
16:13 in a sitting than I could Butterfinger.
16:14 In fact, I'm sure of it.
16:15 You could eat a lot of these
16:17 and not suffer many consequences.
16:18 We're talking about something that you'd be excited
16:21 to see a lot of in your candy bag
16:23 'cause you can eat so much of it
16:24 versus something you'd be excited to see
16:27 because it's a special treat.
16:29 Ubiquity over occasion.
16:31 Light celebratory color versus deep, dark, dense intrigue.
16:36 I think I'm gonna have to give the crown
16:38 for the ultimate Halloween candy to
16:41 Butterfinger.
16:45 This is such a magical candy product.
16:47 I still don't know how they do it.
16:48 It still delights me every time I have one.
16:51 This is like so distinctly Halloween.
16:53 And as much as I love Sour Patch Kids,
16:55 Butterfinger takes it home for the ultimate Halloween candy.
17:00 What have we learned here today?
17:02 Virtually nothing.
17:03 What I say about the ultimate Halloween candy
17:04 doesn't matter.
17:05 What is your ultimate Halloween candy?
17:07 Because that's what truly matters.
17:09 That's what you wanna see at the bottom of your bag.
17:11 That and Butterfinger 'cause it's really good.
17:13 [gentle music]
17:16 This is the equivalent of, think of a metaphor.
17:19 Here we go.
17:20 What's a very common thing?
17:21 This is the equivalent of finding rocks in your backyard.
17:26 And this is the equivalent of finding slightly nicer rocks.