Whether you are stocking a concession stand, grocery store, or your pantry, you want to know about each different type of candy so you can meet demand. You never know what customers may want. For either out-of-towners or your grandchildren, keep a wide variety of options around to please everyone. Here is the ultimate candy guide: different types and varieties. Learn all about the best sweets and why people love them so much.

Learn Candy Origins

Still the most popular type of candy today, chocolate was one of the first to hit the market. After making an appearance at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, inspiration struck Milton S. Hershey to make his own confections. The Hershey Kiss and chocolate bar with almonds both made appearances before 1910. Soon after chocolate, caramel hit the scene and became a treat of its own and an ingredient to combine with chocolate.

Popular Vintage Candies

Many candies invented decades ago are still manufactured and enjoyed today. Due to their popularity and ability to provoke nostalgia, several companies produce old-fashioned favorites. While the original candy makers make some, umbrella companies make others. Some of the most popular candies from the past that you can still enjoy today include:

• Rock Candy
• Charleston Chew
• Nut Goodie
• Bit-O-Honey
• Sugar Daddy
• Cow Tales
• Wax Lips
• Pop Rocks

Types of Chocolate Candy

The most popular type of candy in the United States—and many other parts of the world—is chocolate. In addition to the chocolate bar, people love candy mixed with peanut butter, caramel, nuts, and just about anything sweet or crunchy. Chocolate sales peak around the holidays when most people enjoy gifting the treat as well as eating it. Major and independent chocolate companies come up with new temptations annually, but the most popular chocolates are still:

• Kit Kat
• Snickers
• Reese’s
• Twix
• Almond Joy
• Baby Ruth
• Milky Way
• M&M’s

Types of Caramel Confections

Those who enjoy chocolate usually like its sweet counterpart: caramel. You can make caramel by boiling a mixture of sugars with milk or cream, butter, and flavoring like vanilla. It is typically soft and chewy though you can find hard caramels too (better known as toffee). Most companies pair either texture with chocolate as a coating or with other ingredients. Popular caramel treats include:

• Caramel Corn
• Caramel Creams
• Long Boys

Types of Gummy Candy

In the 1970s, companies started to experiment with textures and began producing gummies. People love the soft texture of gummy candy and the myriad of flavors in which it comes. Gummies not only come in different flavors, but they also come in different shapes and sizes. Gummy worms and bears are most common, but manufacturers can make any gummy with molds.

Puck up for Sour Candy

Many people who enjoy gummy candy love the sour varieties. Made with citric acid, sour candies are often made from gummies with a sour coating. Over the years, more extreme versions of sour candies have arisen. The sourest candies on the market include:

• Airheads
• Warheads
• Sour Patch Kids
• Toxic Waste
• Cry Baby Tears
• Taveners Sour Lemon Drops
• Sour Flush Candy Toilets

Chewing Gum

Gum has been around since 1900, with one of the most popular—Fruit Striped Gum—on the market since the 1960s. Gum comes in many varieties, with many candy-coated and mint-flavored to freshen breath. Still, candy companies make plenty of flavors—such as traditional bubble gum—which kids love.

Types of Hard Candy

When you want something to suck on for a while, hard candy is the perfect treat to grab. You might associate hard candies with an elderly relative or someone you know who always keeps them out on display. People like hard candies because they offer a small bit of sugar and flavor to cleanse the palette. Popular hard candies include:

• Jolly Rancher
• Life Savers
• PEZ
• Candy canes
• Dum-Dums

Lick a Lollipop

A lollipop is simply a hard candy on the end of a stick. Though hard candy does not make up all types of suckers, the best lollipops take time to finish. That means you must lick them—more than three times—to complete. Like hard candy, lollipops have been around since the early 1900s, though they used to be known as “candy sticks.”

Popular Seasonal Candy

Many candy companies create seasonal products to entice sales around the holidays. Christmas and Halloween are the most popular times for candy sales; however, Christmas is the number one time of year for sales of all candy—especially chocolate. The candy that sells the most each year is Reese’s, which has gained much success due to its seasonal-shaped peanut butter and chocolate confections. The holiday chocolates—shaped like Christmas trees, Easter eggs, or Jack-O-Lanterns depending on the season—have been so popular that other companies do the same with their confections. You can find seasonal Snickers, Twix, and more.

Celebrate a Candy Holiday

Candy is so popular that we have dedicated specific months and days to celebrate it. June is National Candy Month, but you can find ways to celebrate candy throughout the year. To commemorate a candy holiday, you should enjoy the candy you are celebrating. Sweet Services sells wrapped hard candy in bulk in addition to vintage candies from decades past. Fun holidays to mark in your calendar include:

• March 19: National Chocolate Caramel Day
• July 7: World Chocolate Day
• July 15: National Gummy Worm Day
• July 20: National Lollipop Day
• November 4: National Candy Day
• December 19: National Hard Candy Day
• December 28: National Chocolate Candy Day

Popular Candies Today

The most popular candies today are a mix of old and new. Inventing new sweets is challenging because people love their tried-and-true favorites. Further, when people try new candies, they often turn to treats from the past to satisfy their cravings. Food is an emotional experience, and the same goes for candy. You can enjoy a retro treat that your grandmother used to love by visiting an old-fashioned candy store or ordering it online.

Keep the ultimate candy guide: different types and varieties nearby so you’ll always have support in the land of candy. Everyone loves candy for a different reason, and everyone loves a different kind. Keep your favorites around, and remember to ask your friends and family about the favorite candies when catering to them. Not everyone loves chocolate just because you do. Find candy that will please everyone when you shop Sweet Services’ online store today.