10 Trader Joe's Candies You Need To Grab On Your Next Shopping Trip

Trader Joe's is an excellent place to shop for groceries on a budget thanks to its relatively affordable array of fresh meat, produce, outstanding frozen dinners, and snacks. (Not to mention the 11 Trader Joe's side dishes you should look out for.) But what if you have a sweet tooth that needs to be satisfied as soon as possible? Since Trader Joe's sells goods under its own house brands (with rare exceptions, like its giant Danish Kringles which shoppers stock up on), you won't be able to find old reliables like Hershey or Sour Patch Kids for sale. 

Make no mistake: Trader Joe's has plenty of great candies for sale. Whether you're craving some kind of chocolate or seeking fruit gummies, you'll be able to find something to brighten your day in the aisles of ol' TJ's. (Most of the items on this list are chocolate, but there are a few fruit candies that are well worth your time despite not being included, like Fruity Gummy Candies and A Gaggle of Gummy Candies.)

The name is an obvious reference to Swedish Fish (the iconic candy now owned by Mondelez, which also owns Oreo) and there's good reason for that, but the two candies aren't identical. For one, Scandinavian Swimmers come in all sorts of different shapes, from yellow seahorses to red lobsters. They taste different, too. Apart from the more varied flavors (mango-peach and huckleberry, for instance), they have a softer, more yielding mouthfeel with an almost creamy texture once chewed that complements the mellow sweetness quite nicely. If you'd like something with a little more zing, the store also sells Super Sour Scandinavian Swimmers.

The astronomical theme of the packaging is apt, as these are basically mini asteroids made of potato chips, pretzel nuggets, and corn chips bound together with a chocolate coating. They're sort of like your average chocolate-covered pretzel nuggets, only 10 times crunchier with an even more pronounced contrast between salty and sweet — so in other words, basically perfect. These bags will be gone in 10 seconds and you'll still want more when it's done.

They don't hand out places in the Trader Joe's Hall of Fame to just any popular candy. These peanut butter cups are darker and more decadent than the kind you'd buy from Reese's and are an iconic Trader Joe's product for a reason. They're sweet and snackable enough that you'll have to hold yourself back from eating half the container in one sitting, but complex enough in their flavor that you won't feel too guilty if you do.

Have you ever been enjoying a root beer float and wished it was in a convenient, portable cookie form? Well, you're in luck. Not only do these little candy pieces made of vanilla sandwich cookies coated in a root beer-flavored coating taste uncannily like the real thing, they even have built-in popping candy to imitate all those delicious bubbles. The only downside is you can't drink these guys up through an aesthetically pleasing red-and-white-striped straw.

Honeycomb candy is a dense, porous confection that's sometimes made with real honey, but is invariably very sticky. It's not usually found outside nostalgic candy stores these days, but Trader Joe's brought it all across America. Coated in a thin layer of milk chocolate, these are sweet, decadent, and utterly enjoyable — so long as you're not wearing braces.

If you liked Snacky Clusters but wished they were a little more sweet, Brookie Caramel Candy Clusters could be the move. Based on Trader Joe's Brookie (brownie/cookie) snacks in its bakery section, these treats combine brownies, cookies, and caramel together and coat it all with a bit of dark chocolate. It's crunchy, powerfully sweet, and delicious; but these are maybe a little too rich to snack on all at once.

Oh, don't give us that look. Maybe you think recommending you buy a caramel hard candy is like asking you to churn your own butter or attend an old-fashioned flagpole sitting, but there's something to be said for plain simplicity when it comes to sweets, and these candies fit that perfectly. Sure, it's essentially just sugar and butter, but so what? Those are two of the most delicious substances on Earth! Put some in a glass jar and start grandmamaxxing.

You've probably had plenty of chocolate bars with nuts, rice, or other sorts of filling only to find they were about as crunchy as a Biscoff cookie soaked in milk. Well, worry not: Trader Joe's has all the crunch you could ever need right here. This bar of tasty milk chocolate is filled with little pieces of corn flakes which add some seriously stout texture. If you eat it fresh out of the fridge you might crack a molar, but real crunch fiends will be more than happy with this one.

If you'd rather keep all your teeth intact while eating chocolate, Trader Joe's Crispy Rice Milk Chocolate Bar is a good compromise. If you've ever eaten a Crunch bar, this is pretty much just that, although this one does come from Belgium so it's a little bit fancier than the average chocolate bar.

White chocolate is, ironically enough, kind of the black sheep of the chocolate family; not least because it's debatable whether white chocolate is actually real chocolate at all. Whatever it is, it tastes pretty darn good, especially when Trader Joe's uses it to make its Blonde Bars. Flavored with caramel and bolstered with crunchy crumbs of sugar cookie, this is a creamy, elegant delight; even if it may or may not be, strictly speaking, a chocolate bar.