The 10 Worst Holiday Candies

If you’re planning to put out a dish of sugary treats for your guests this holiday season, you’d do well to avoid nougats, peppermint bark, and old-fashioned hard candies. CandyStore.com, a bulk candy retailer, surveyed more than 13,000 people about their personal tastes, and unsurprisingly, all sorts of “grandma candies” are likely to go untouched across America this year.

Christmas nougat candies—like Brach’s peppermint candies with the Christmas tree in the center—were rated the worst of the worst. CandyStore.com solicited comments from customers, and they did not hold anything back. “It’s always stale and so, so gross,” one person wrote. “Hard and stale, and the flavor is unholy,” wrote another.

Reindeer corn, the Christmassy cousin of candy corn, comes in second. (And if you really want to disappoint your friends and family year-round, you can also find pastel candy corn for Easter, harvest corn for Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July candy corn.)

Candy canes, on the other hand, are a reliable choice around the holidays. They've been around since at least the 17th century, and it appears they still have a pretty loyal fan base. However, if you’re going to buy a bag of the hook-shaped treats, stick to traditional peppermint. Other flavors of candy cane have been named the eighth-worst holiday treat. “Rainbow candy canes are a disgusting trick to lure you in,” one survey respondent wrote. They're less awkward to eat than ribbon candy, at least.

Check out the graphic below to see the other unpopular candies that topped the list.

Source:

CandyStore.com

So what candies should you buy for your Christmas Eve party? CandyStore.com also tracked the most popular holiday candies by state, and you can see those results here.