North Carolina Chooses Favorite Chocolate Candy

What Is the Most Popular Chocolate Candy in North Carolina?

Halloween is coming, and if you want to be the most popular trick-or treat house in North Carolina, load up on Snickers, M&M’s and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Just so you don’t have to do the research, BetCarolina.com took a break from getting ready for the launch of North Carolina sports betting and tabulated the most popular chocolate candies in each state.

With National Chocolate Day on Oct. 28, we started with Statista’s research on the most consumed chocolate candy, then utilized Google Trends to search the level of interest in each from Oct. 1, 2022 to October 18, 2023. We then determined the Top 3 chocolate candies of each state.

No need to thank us. All those children with smiling faces and sugar rushes will be thanks enough.

Most Popular Chocolate Candies by State

State	Winner	Second	Third
Alabama	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Kit Kat	Snickers
Alaska	Snickers	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Arizona	Kit Kat	Snickers	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Arkansas	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Snickers	M&M’s
California	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Kit Kat	Milky Way
Colorado	M&M’s	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Connecticut	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	M&M’s	Twix
Delaware	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way	Snickers
Florida	Milky Way	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Georgia	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix	Kit Kat
Hawaii	M&M’s	Twix	Snickers
Idaho	Snickers	Kit Kat	Twix
Illinois	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way	Snickers
Indiana	Snickers	Milky Way	Butterfinger
Iowa	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Kit Kat	Snickers
Kansas	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	M&M’s	Kit Kat
Kentucky	Butterfinger	Kit Kat	Twix
Louisiana	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	M&M’s	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
Maine	Kit Kat	Twix	M&M’s
Maryland	Milky Way	Snickers	Butterfinger
Massachusetts	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Snickers	M&M’s
Michigan	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix
Minnesota	Kit Kat	Butterfinger	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Mississippi	Kit Kat	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Missouri	Milky Way	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Kit Kat
Montana	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
Nebraska	Milky Way	Twix	Snickers
Nevada	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix
New Hampshire	M&M’s	Snickers	Butterfinger
New Jersey	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way	Snickers
New Mexico	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	M&M’s
New York	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix
North Carolina	Snickers	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
North Dakota	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate	Kit Kat
Ohio	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way
Oklahoma	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix	Kit Kat
Oregon	Twix	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Butterfinger
Pennsylvania	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way	Twix
Rhode Island	Snickers	Twix	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
South Carolina	Kit Kat	M&M’s	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
South Dakota	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Snickers
Tennessee	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Kit Kat	Twix
Texas	Snickers	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Utah	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Milky Way	Twix
Vermont	Kit Kat	Twix	M&M’s
Virginia	Twix	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	M&M’s
Washington	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Butterfinger
West Virginia	Snickers	Kit Kat	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Wisconsin	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Twix	Butterfinger
Wyoming	M&M’s	Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate

Closer Look at America’s Favorites

In addition to being the top choice of North Carolinians, Snickers is No. 1 in Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia. North Carolina’s second choice, M&M’s, is No. 1 in Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wyoming. The third choice, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, however, are most popular of all – the favorite in 19 states from Delaware to California. Second choice nationally is the Kit Kat bar, a favorite in 12 states. North Carolina is therefore a bit out of step with the rest of the country when it comes to chocolate.

Clearly, there’s no logic behind a state’s favorite chocolate candies – geography, topography, politics are all irrelevant to America’s collective sweet tooth. The only other chocolates to get first place votes are Milky Way (Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska), Butterfinger (Kentucky), and Twix (Oregon, Virginia). And only one bar appeared on the chart without any first-place finishes – Hershey’s classic milk chocolate bar, which is the second choice in North Dakota, and third place in Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina and Wyoming. In the plains they like their chocolate plain.

Another area of interest in the chart is that all of the nation’s great regional brands – whether it’s See’s, Ghirardelli, Wilbur, Goldenberg’s, etc. – all play second banana to Big Chocolate. Reese’s, Kit Kat and Hershey are all in the Hershey family (although Kit Kat is a Nestlé brand outside America). M&M’s, Milky Way, Snickers, and Twix are part of Mars. Butterfinger is produced by the Ferrara Candy Company, after decades of being produced by Nestlé. Ferrera, based in Chicago, is confusingly owned by the Ferrero Group.

Overall, the chart shows that the most popular chocolate candy in the U.S. is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, introduced in 1928 by the HB Reese Candy Co., located in Hershey, Pa. – and has always been made using Hershey chocolate. In 1963, the company merged with Hershey. The peanut butter cup finished top three in 40 of 50 states, well ahead of Kit Kat, which took a top three spot in 26 of 50 states. Next up were Snickers and Twix with 20 top three finishes each.

Snickers, Reese’s and Kit Kats are also among the top selling candy bars, so their popularity translates to people buying them and not just saying they love them. Each does about $2 billion a year in sales.
Remember, sports betting is coming live to North Carolina in 2024. Be ready for it by checking out the best North Carolina sportsbook promos.

Author

Howard Gensler

Journalists / Reporter

@DNTattle

Howard Gensler is a veteran journalist covering the North Carolina sports betting market for BetCarolina.com. Before his focus on US sports betting, Howard worked at the Philadelphia Daily News, TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Howard is also a founding editor of bettorsinsider.com.