Greatest American candy bars of all time
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Raising the bar
America began its love affair with candy bars over a century ago – and it doesn't seem like it'll be waning anytime soon, with new editions and variations appearing on grocery store shelves all the time. But there are some sweet treats that have left their mark on the nation's hearts more than others. We've gone back in time to revisit the very best bars the country has enjoyed over the years, from discontinued delights like the Chicken Dinner and the Seven Up to classics that are still popular today. Click or scroll through our gallery to see whether your favorite made the list.
40: Goo Goo Cluster
The candy bar named after the sound babies make, the Goo Goo Cluster was created in Nashville in 1912. The first combination candy, it contained marshmallow nougat, caramel, roasted peanuts, and chocolate. In the 1920s and 1930s it was marketed as 'a nourishing lunch for a nickel', and the recipe has never changed.
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39: Bit-O-Honey
This honey and almond taffy bar dates all the way back to 1924, when it was launched by Chicago's Schutter-Johnson Company. It comes in six segments, divided by wax paper – which is useful, as it would be extremely chewy to bite into chunks. Much to the surprise of many, it's still on sale today, and is now produced by Nestlé.
38: Seven Up
This 1930s invention was made up of seven separate chocolate segments, each with their own unique flavor. Combinations varied over the years, but flavors included brazil nut, buttercream, caramel, cherry, coconut, fudge, and orange. Sadly, but also understandably, it was difficult to produce, and was discontinued in 1979.
37: Chicken Dinner
Thankfully, this candy bar tasted nothing like chicken. It was introduced by the Sperry Candy Company of Milwaukee in 1923, at a time when underprivileged families may have been lucky to have one meal per day – and comparing it to a whole dinner was an effective marketing tactic. It lasted up until the 1960s.
36: PeanutChewsCandy/Facebook
36: Peanut Chews
Over a century old, Peanut Chews were introduced by the Goldenberg Candy Company in 1917. They contain peanuts and molasses, and are available with a dark chocolate or milk chocolate coating. When they first came out, they were a popular staple in soldiers’ rations, as they're so high in protein. In 2004, 'Goldenberg’s' was taken off the label, much to customers' confusion – but the logo was soon put back on.
35: Denver Sandwich
Neither from Denver nor a sandwich, this chocolate and peanut wafer bar was introduced by the Sperry Candy Company in the early 1930s. Described as a chocolate covered, salted nut roll, it only cost 10 cents back in the day. However, when Pearson's Candy bought the Sperry Candy Company in 1962, it was dropped from production, along with the Chicken Dinner.
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34: Reggie!
This short-lived candy bar, produced by Curtiss, only lasted from 1978-81. Named after New York Yankees player Reggie Jackson, it featured a rich caramel center, roasted peanuts, and a chocolate coating. Although there have been rumors it will return, it hasn’t been available since the 1990s. However, old bars are still sometimes sold on eBay.
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33: Space Food Sticks
A candy bar that's been to the moon! Space Food Sticks were developed by Pillsbury and NASA, and were sent into space with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. They came in flavors like chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter. However, in the 1980s they were taken off the North American market.
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32: Old Nick
From the same producers as Bit-O-Honey, the Old Nick was launched by the Schutter-Johnson Company of Chicago in the 1940s. It was a bar of fudge and nuts coated in milk chocolate, whose adverts featured the tagline, 'American’s Favorite Candy Bar'. But, while the Bit-O-Honey is still available, the Old Nick was discontinued in the 1960s.
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31: Coconut Grove
A creamy coconut bar with a bittersweet dark chocolate coating, the Coconut Grove was manufactured by the Curtiss Candy Company in the 1950s. Sadly, it's no longer available – instead, you'll have to opt for a Mounds bar to get your chocolate and coconut fix.
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30: Good News
Consisting of gooey caramel and peanuts coated in milk chocolate, this niche candy bar was first made by Los Angeles candy company Adams & Brooks. Parents would hand the bars out to friends to celebrate the birth of a baby – hence the name – and, to this day, they usually come with a sticker that says either, 'It’s a girl', or 'It’s a boy'. Curiously, it’s only sold widely in Hawaii these days, though you can buy a box from the candy maker’s website.
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29: Rally
This 1970s throwback was a fudge, caramel, and peanut bar covered in milk chocolate. It was promoted as 'The Crowded Candy Bar' when The Hershey Company started advertising its products. After disappearing from shelves, it was briefly revived in 2013, but we'd like it to come back for good.
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28: 5th Avenue
The 5th Avenue is a cross between a Clark Bar and a Butterfinger, with thin layers of crispy, toffee-like peanut butter covered in milk chocolate. It was created in 1936 by the H.B. Reese Candy Company – the makers of the iconic Reese's Peanut Butter Cups – and the name was an attempt to associate the candy with New York City’s most fashionable street. The original recipe was topped with almonds, but these were removed in the 1990s as a cost-saving measure.
27: Mr. Goodbar
One of Hershey’s most enduring bars, Mr. Goodbar, made from roasted peanuts and milk chocolate, was introduced in 1925. It got its name during a taste test, when Mr Hershey apparently misheard someone saying, 'That’s a good bar'. During the Great Depression, it had the nutritional edge over other candies, thanks to the inclusion of high-in-protein peanuts.
26: Skor
Initially released by The Hershey Company in 1981 to compete with the Heath bar (see number 23 on our list), this simple creation consists of a thin slab of butter toffee, covered in smooth milk chocolate. Hershey acquired Heath in 1996, but continues to market both bars despite their similarities; the only real difference is that Skor is slightly thinner and crispier. Curiously, the name Skor means 'shoes' in Swedish, though Skör – with an umlaut – means ‘brittle’, which makes more sense for a candy bar name.
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25: Charleston Chew
Named after the popular dance, vanilla nougat and milk chocolate Charleston Chews were created by the Massachusetts-based Fox-Cross company in 1922. Later, chocolate and strawberry flavors were released. The packaging encouraged you to freeze the bars and smash them on a hard surface so that they broke into little pieces. You can now also get Mini Charleston Chews.
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24: Clark Bar
The Clark Bar has a honeycomb and peanut butter center, and a chocolate coating. Introduced in 1917, it was purchased by candy manufacturers NECCO, but after the company's factory closed in 2018, it was nearly lost forever. Thankfully, Boyer Candy Company saved the day and bought the brand so the bar could continue being sold.
23: Heath
This crunchy toffee and milk chocolate bar was created by the Heath family at their store in Robinson, Illinois, in the late 1920s. For the first 20 years it was produced by hand, and delivered to customers along with their milk. The business grew into a multi-million-dollar corporation, and the family subsequently fell out over money.
22: Idaho Spud
Bearing the slogan 'The Candy Bar That Makes Idaho Famous', this quirky, potato-shaped bar has been made by The Idaho Candy Company since 1918, and has a cult following in the Northwestern United States. The treat consists of a cocoa-flavored marshmallow center, covered with dark chocolate, and sprinkled with coconut flakes. It was originally marketed as a ‘healthful’ candy bar, since it's made with agar agar instead of gelatin.
21: Krackel
Another Hershey’s creation that has 'withstood the taste of time', according to its advertising tagline, the Krackel bar was launched in 1938. Made from chocolate and crispy, puffed rice, many fans have noted its similarities to Nestlé's Crunch. The full-size version was discontinued for a short while from 1997 to 2014, but it has since made a full comeback.
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20: Oh Henry!
One of America’s oldest candies, the Oh Henry! was first created by the Williamson Candy Company in 1920. It features layers of caramel and nougat like a Mars bar, but there are peanuts inside too, like a Snickers. When it was first launched it was a single bar, but now you get two fingers in a packet.
19: Zero
This underrated bar doesn’t get tons of attention, but we think it’s worth a second look – especially if you love white chocolate. First launched in 1920, the Zero is a combination of caramel, peanut, and almond nougat, covered with a layer of white chocolate fudge. It kind of resembles a white chocolate Snickers, though the Zero bar predates Snickers by a decade.
18: Tootsie Roll
This chocolate-flavored taffy bar was invented by Austrian immigrant Leo Hirshfield and named after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. The recipe dates back to 1896 – and a key, but surprising, feature of the ingredients list is Tootsie Rolls from the day before. Initially they came in a single size and cost a penny, but now different varieties are available.
17: Mounds
Almost indistinguishable from an Almond Joy (number 10 on our list), Mounds is its older, richer sibling. It was created by the Peter Paul Manufacturing Company in 1921, and features a sweet coconut center and a dark chocolate coating. It comes in red packaging, and is now sold by Hershey’s.
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16: 100 Grand
When the 100 Grand bar first came out in the 1960s, it was called the $100,000 Bar – and radio DJs played pranks on listeners, offering '100 grand' for answering a question correctly. However, after one upset listener found out she was receiving the puffed rice and caramel chocolate bar instead of a cash prize, a Kentucky radio station was sued in 2005.
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15: PayDay
A delectable combination of sweet and salty, the crunchy, caramelly PayDay was invented in 1932 by Frank Martoccio of the F.A. Martoccio Macaroni Company – and it has survived nearly a whole century. It became part of The Hershey Company in 1996, which also tried out spin-offs including a bar with honey, and a bar with chocolate.
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14: Crunch
This much-loved milk chocolate and crisped rice bar was introduced by Nestlé in 1938. It's has had lots of cute taglines over the years, including 'More fun to munch!' But, behind the packaging, it’s almost identical to the Krackel bar introduced by Hershey’s the same year. Crunch bars made it to the UK in 1965, and they're still on sale on both sides of the Atlantic today.
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13: Chunky
This four-segment chocolate bar was introduced by New York confectioner Philip Silvershein in the 1930s. Back then it contained cashews, raisins, and brazil nuts, though the recipe was simplified to peanuts and raisins when Nestlé bought the brand in 1984.
12: Whatchamacallit
If you were lucky enough to try the Whatchamacallit in the late 1970s when it was first produced, you’ll remember it consisted of peanut-flavored crisped rice, covered in chocolate. In 1987, Hershey’s added a layer of caramel – and in 2009, the company introduced the Thingamajig, which contained peanut butter crème and cocoa crisps.
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11: 3 Musketeers
Have you ever wondered what this chocolate-covered nougat candy has to do with the 19th-century French novel The Three Musketeers? When it was introduced by Mars in 1932, you got three different flavored sticks – chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry – in one packet. Sadly, nowadays you just get one.
10: Almond Joy
Mounds' younger sibling, Almond Joy has almost identical packaging – except it's blue, rather than red – and was launched two decades later, in 1946. It has the same coconut center, but is topped with almonds and coated in milk chocolate. It is also now sold by Hershey’s.
9: Take 5
Named after its five ingredients (milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel, peanut butter, and pretzels), the Take 5 first appeared in 2004. In 2016, the bar was relaunched with the help of students, who designed a new wrapper and logo as part of its comeback campaign.
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8: Milky Way
The candy bar inspired by the soda fountain classic, the Milky Way claimed to have 'more malted milk content than a soda fountain double malted milk!'. Launched by Mars in 1923, they were huge, weighing 3oz (in comparison to today’s 1.8oz bars).
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7: Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
'The Great American Chocolate Bar', Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is the candy manufacturer’s flagship product, launched in 1900. It took a lot of trial and error to create the formula, as chocolate recipes were a secret closely guarded by the Swiss at the time. Eight years later, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds came out.
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6: Butterfinger
Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the 'crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery!' bar, with a honeycomb, peanut, and caramel center and chocolate coating, was launched by the Curtiss Candy Company in 1923. It’s best known for its humorous 1990s adverts featuring Bart Simpson, which aired around the time Nestlé bought the brand.
5: Dove
One of the world’s bestselling chocolate bars, Dove is known as Galaxy outside of the US, and is loved for its silky smooth texture and extra-creamy taste. The bar was invented in the 1930s, when Greek-American Leo Stefanos started selling Dove brand ice cream bars from his Dove Candies & Ice Cream stores around Chicago. Distribution outside of the city only started in 1985, but the bar proved to be a quick hit; by the following year, the company was acquired by Mars.
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4. Twix
Originally launched in the UK in 1967, the Twix made it to the United States in 1979. It features two biscuit fingers coated in caramel and milk chocolate, and is instantly recognizable by its gold packaging. The crunchy, chocolatey bar is now one of the country’s favorites.
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3. Baby Ruth
Originally named Kandy Kake, this famous bar was reformulated and renamed Baby Ruth in 1921. Most people believe that baseball player Babe Ruth inspired the name – but the Curtiss Candy Company claims the bar was named after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter. A tasty combination of peanuts, caramel, and chocolate-flavored nougat, Baby Ruth is now owned by Nestlé.
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2: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
An American candy classic, these melt-in-the-mouth, chocolate-smothered cups prove that sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. They were originally created in 1928 by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. His departure to launch his own candy business caused quite the scandal at the time, but things came full circle when Hershey eventually bought Reese's in 1963. Today, Peanut Butter Cups are a global sensation with endless variations of size and flavor, but the original version still remains our favorite.
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1: Snickers
Everyone’s favorite nougat, peanut, and caramel chocolate treat was launched by Mars in the US in the 1930s, and is the world's top-selling bar. It was named after its founders' racehorse, Snickers. In 2012, it was the most popular candy bar in the country, with 15 million produced every day to keep up with demand, and global annual sales topping an incredible $3 billion.
Next check out these classic candy bars we wish they’d bring back