Love it or hate it, feelings run high over candy corn come Halloween

Cruel joke for trick-or-treaters or coveted seasonal delight? The great Halloween debate over candy corn is on.

Cruel joke for trick-or-treaters or coveted seasonal delight? The great Halloween debate over candy corn is on.

In the pantheon of high-emotion candy, the classic shiny tricolor kernels in autumn's white, orange and yellow are way up there. Fans and foes alike point to the same attributes: its plastic or candle-like texture (depending on who you ask) and the mega-sugar hit it packs.

"I am vehemently pro candy corn. It's sugar! What is not to love? It's amazing. It's like this waxy texture. You get to eat it once a year. It's tricolor. That's always fun," comedian Shannon Fiedler gushed on TikTok. "Also, I know it's disgusting. Candy corn is objectively kind of gross, but that's what makes it good."

Or, as Paul Zarcone of Huntington, New York, put it: "I love candy corn even though it looks like it should taste like a candle. I also like that many people hate it. It makes me like it even more!"

Love it or loathe it, market leader Brach's churns out roughly 30 million pounds of candy corn for the fall season each year, or enough to circle planet Earth about five times, the company says. Last year, that amounted to $75 million of $88.5 million in candy corn sales, according to the consumer research firm Circana.

When compared to top chocolate sellers and other popular confections, candy corn is niche. But few other candies have seeped into the culture quite like these pointy little sugar bombs.

While other sweets have their haters (we're looking at you Peeps, Circus Peanuts and Brach's Peppermint Christmas Nougats), candy corn has launched a world of memes on social media. It inspires home decor and fashion. It has its knitters and crocheters, ombre hairdos, makeup enthusiasts and nail designs.