Wait, Who's Buying All This Candy Corn?

There are a few questions that can be so polarizing, you'd hesitate to ask anyone but your closest friends for their opinions. Almost anything involving politics falls into that category, and it can be equally risky to bring up pineapple on pizza. But during the 31 days of October, the quickest way to start a fight with almost anyone is to tell them how much you love candy corn — or by telling them how much you hate candy corn.

Those tri-color sugar shards can either be the greatest thing about Spooky Season, or the reason why you're avoiding the candy aisle until there's nothing but Santa-shaped chocolates on the shelves. According to Brach's, the company that is responsible for around 95 percent of this seasonal blessing (or scourge) sold in the U.S., sales of candy corn can vary wildly from state to state.

The company examined its candy corn sales, including both Brach's Classic Candy Corn and the Brach's Autumn Mix, which includes candy corn, and determined the states that are most and least likely to fill their shopping carts with bags of the stuff. According to its thematically appropriate orange, yellow, and white heat map, the top five states where candy corn is the most popular are, in order, California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Michigan. And the five states with the slowest candy corn sales are Alabama, Hawaii, Nebraska, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Some of the sales info seems kind of obvious: four of the five top-selling candy corn states are also the top four most populous states, and nine of the 10 most candy corn-craving places are also in the top 10, population-wise. Ohio is an outlier because even though the Buckeye State is seventh when it comes to population, it's apparently not in the Top 20 (!) for candy corn purchases. And neighboring Indiana is tenth on the candy corn ranking, despite being the 17th most populated state.

"Candy corn has been a Halloween staple for more than half a century," Katie Duffy, Ferrara's Vice-President and General Manager of Seasonal Marketing said. "But we also know that candy corn is one of the most divisive treats out there and there are some people who don't enjoy the classic treat. (I'm looking at you, Nebraskans and Wisconsinites)."

Ferrara (which produces Brach's candies) seems to think that if you hate candy corn, it's just because you haven't had the right candy corn yet. This year, it's introducing two new kinds of candy corn, including Nerds Candy Corn which wraps a soft and chewy, fruity Nerds candy with a candy-coated shell. It's also releasing Minions-themed candy corn, which "combine the flavors of banana, blue raspberry, and vanilla" instead of the more traditional flavors of, uh, orange, yellow, and white.

If candy corn is still not your jam, then Brach's is also dropping Nerds Halloween Gummy Clusters this year; a Nerds Fun-Size Treat Bag that is filled with individual pouches of three different kinds of Nerds candies; and Black Forest Gummy Bears and Keebler Fudge Stripes Minis Cookies.

With all of these treat options, nobody is saying you have to eat candy corn.