Discover 15 American candy bars that are impossible to resist. Some have nougat. Some have nuts. They’re all delicious.
1. Hershey’s Bar
The Hershey Bar isn’t the most popular Hershey’s candy. That honor goes to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. But the simple, unadorned milk chocolate bar has remained the company’s most iconic signature product ever since Milton Hershey perfected a unique chocolate process that used milk instead of milk powder.
2. Snickers
Named after a horse, the Snickers candy bar has withstood the test of time. It’s also won the chocolate race as Mars’ most popular bar and a contender for most popular chocolate bar in the world. More than just chocolate, Snickers bars contain caramel, nougat and peanuts. And not just a random number of peanuts. Each regular bar has 16 peanuts.
3. Kit Kat
The Kit Kat isn’t just a chocolate-covered wafer bar that’s fun to eat. It’s also one of the world’s most global candy bars with huge presences in countries like Japan and the US as well as in England where it was invented. Kit Kats are especially popular in Japan. That country has a rainbow of Kit Kat flavors including matcha-infused Green Tea.
4. Twix
Proving that two candy bars are better than one, each full-size Twix package contains two chocolate-covered cookie bars. If you’re wondering which one is better, the answer is both.
5. 3 Muskateers
The 3 Musketeers bar mystifies candy bar lovers around the world over who have watched the candy’s evolution and wonder what it is. To say that it’s a chocolate bar filled with nougat is incorrect. Instead, it’s better described as a milk chocolate bar filled with a special whipped cream and caramel ‘mousse’.
6. Dove Bar
The Dove Bar’s relationship with ice cream bucks the trend. While candies like Snickers and M&Ms inspired ice cream flavors, Dove Ice Cream was the inspiration for Dove’s chocolate candy bar. Yes, the ice cream came first.
7. Baby Ruth
Baby Ruth may be the American candy with the deepest pop culture connections. The chocolate-coated bar filled with caramel, nougat and peanuts also has one of the most confusing candy names. Since the candy bar debuted in 1920, when Babe Ruth was in his prime, you might think that Baby Ruth was named after the Yankees slugger. You would be wrong. Legend has it that President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth Cleveland, provided the candy bar’s name’s inspiration.
8. Milky Way
The Milky Way is essentially a chocolate-coated bar with caramel and nougat. It’s pretty much the same as a Mars bar and practically the same as 3 Musketeers Bar. All three are signature candy bars produced by Mars, one of America’s largest privately owned companies.
9. Butterfinger
Otto Schnering, the owner of the Curtiss Candy Company, created the Butterfinger nearly a century ago by coating crispy peanut butter layers with a chocolate coating. Although the recipe was somehow lost 70 years later, the new owner, Nabisco, figured out the formula well before they later sold the candy to Italy’s Ferraro.
10. Mr. Goodbar
Despite the 1975 Hollywood movie called Looking for Mr. Goodbar, you don’t have to look hard to find a Mr. Goodbar in real life. Hershey’s has produced the popular chocolate candy bar studded with peanuts for almost a century as well as a miniature version since 1939.
11. Crunch
Originally called Nestle Crunch Bar, today’s Crunch chocolate bar is otherwise similar to the crispy bars of the past. Just as in the past, one side of the milk chocolate bar is flat while the other displays the bar’s generous amount of crisped rice.
12. 100 Grand
You may know the 100 Grand as the $100,000 Bar since that’s the candy bar’s original name. Whatever you choose to call it, the candy bar i when he was a kid. Was it the name, the gooey crunchy puffed is a candy bar for young people with fresh teeth who demand serious chewing satisfaction. It’s definitely not for older folks with fillings, crowns and implants.
13. Whatchamacallit
For years, the Whatchamacallit was the candy bar with the craziest name. Then the Thingamajig became a contender for that title for a few year until it was discontinued in 2012. Whozeewhatzit, which is pretty much an updated Thingamajig, entered the crazy candy bar name race in 2021. Whatever you want to call it, the Whatchamacallit candy bar has peanut-flavored crisps and caramel. A chocolate coating completes the bar.
14. Ghiradelli
The, Ghiradelli has grown beyond its Bay Area home which makes sampling the famous chocolate bar a much easier proposition. Since America’s third oldest chocolate company is now owned by a Swiss chocolate conglomerate, its bars are available at drug stores across the country. Flavors typically include milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate as well as caramel, fruit, nuts and sea salt.
15. 5th Avenue
Although the 5th Avenue candy was was named after the tony New York City street, the bar’s origins trace back to Philadelphia in 1936. Since its competitor, the Clark Bar, was invented in Pittsburgh in 1917, our guess is that the 5th Avenue candy bar was invented to create significant interstate competition. Either way, the crispy peanut butter layered chocolate bar has passed the test of time
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