Key Takeaways
- Candy is expected to account for about one-third of the $13 billion Americans are set to spend on Halloween this year.
- While chocolate remains the bedrock of Halloween, experts say tastes are shifting toward fruit flavors, sour candies, and the combination of sweet and spicy.
- Viral sensations like “Dubai chocolate” are proving to be more than just a flash in the pan, according to industry insiders.
October is here, which means prime-time baseball—and Halloween, the “Super Bowl” of candy sales.
Americans are expected to shell out more than $13 billion to celebrate Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation, with nearly $4 billion of that on candy. That makes it vitally important for confectioners like Mars Wrigley, one of the biggest candy, chocolate and gum makers in the world, which spent more than two years developing its 2025 lineup.
Timothy LeBel, president of sales with Mars Wrigley North America—he also holds the title of “Chief Halloween Officer”—told Investopedia the company will offer more than 90 products this fall as it seeks to capitalize on a busy season for an industry estimated to be worth more than $50 billion.
As the company, known for products like Snickers, 3 Musketeers and Milky Way bars, develops its menu, it considers shifting trends in consumer tastes and preferences, generational differences in how people enjoy treats, and emerging influences like the effect of GLP-1 medications on purchases of candy and other snacks.
Why This Matters to You
Shifts in tastes can happen slowly over years as people’s preferences get updated and people search out new sensations. One of the places that’s most evident is in candy, where industry experts say they see people seeking new textures and flavors—but also a taste for the classics.
Sometimes trends that lead to pullbacks in one direction create opportunity in another. GLP-1s, for example, can suppress appetites, but some users can also experience dry mouth or unpleasant breath, experts say. “Our gum business has benefited from that,” LeBel said.
Here are some trends Mars Wrigley and others are seeing in the sweets business right now.
Chocolate Still Rules, But Fruit-Flavored Sweets Are on the Rise
Four-fifths of Halloween candy shoppers plan to buy chocolate, LeBel said—but not only chocolate.
“Chocolate is still the foundation of Halloween,” he said. “But what I would say is that whether it’s Millennials, Gen Z or Gen Alpha, you’re also seeing a shift in preference to more fruit-flavored candy.”
Younger consumers are adventurous with their taste buds, and fruity candy easily lends itself to experimentation, according to Miriam Aniel Oved, head of integrated marketing at consumer research firm Tastewise.
Dubai Chocolate Mania Persists
So-called “Dubai chocolate”—chocolate bars with a creamy pistachio filling, which has become a fast-growing niche of the U.S. candy market—is sticking around.
Interest in Middle Eastern flavors like saffron, rosewater and cardamom over the past 12 months is among the reasons sustaining interest in it, Oved said. That’s meant pistachio has moved from bars into lattes and other uses. Mars Wrigley offers Dubai-style products through its Galaxy brand.
Pistachio, Oved said, “is having a huge moment.”
Gummy Textures, Sour Flavors Are a Winning Combo
Chewy, gooey, squishy and sour candy is a home run with teens, tweens and young adults who want playful candy experiences. There’s “a lot of buzz around ‘contrast confectionery,’ or a mix of different textures and flavors,” Oved said.
Multi-texture candy is very much in demand, LeBel said. “When your palate bites into a gummy candy, there could be a crunch texture waiting inside, or a liquid center, or it can be a ‘popped’ experience,” he said.
Sour, according to LeBel, is the fastest-growing flavor in the fruity chewy category, LeBel said. Shapes can also affect texture; Mars Wrigley has introduced “Life Savers Gummies X’s and O’s,” which reshape the traditionally round candy and recall the game tic-tac-toe.
Sweet and Spicy Is Still Going Strong
“Swicy,” the sweet and spicy flavor trend, landed in snack and beverage aisles nationwide last year. It isn’t going away.
Consumer interest in “swicy” is growing, Oved said, adding that swicy is finding its way into both non-chocolate candy and chocolate products. Lately, food brands are experimenting with specific flavors of swicy, such as chili mango or gochujang, she said.
”You’re about to see [swicy] everywhere,” said LeBel, who said some of the company’s retail partners, when presented with a version of “Skittles Fuego,” asked that they be made even spicier. “We continued to play with the flavor for about a year before we launched it to give it the right balance of spicy and sweet,” he said.
