13 Hershey's Chocolate Bar Flavors, Ranked From Worst To Best

Milton Hershey first made a name for himself in the world of confections by making and selling caramels made from fresh milk under his Lancaster Caramel Company. After encountering some chocolate-making equipment at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, he branched out and formed the Hershey Chocolate Company a year later, producing chocolate coatings for caramels, baking chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate novelties, and cocoa powder. In 1900, Hershey sold off the caramel company, kept the chocolate one, and released his first eponymous milk chocolate bar, which was affordable for the masses at 5 cents. That one bar helped build an American empire, a Pennsylvania town that bears his name, and even a Hersheypark theme park.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate is still the company's signature bar, but over the next century, the company would go on to produce and sell many others that proudly carry the Hershey name. Some of them have been with us a while, while others are relatively new. The Takeout employed its sharpest sweet tooth and took a bite out of each to see which one was the best, and which was perhaps not so great. Here is the most chocolatey ranking you've always been waiting for.

While Hershey's chocolate runs milky sweet, the company has often tried to answer the call of eaters who want things a bit darker. An early foray was its Not-So-Sweet bar of the early 1930s, which was discontinued and replaced in 1937 by the Bittersweet Bar. Things didn't really get serious until 1971 when it released Hershey's Special Dark, advertised in the Syracuse Herald-Journal as "sweet, but not too sweet. Dark, but not bitter." Since then, it's remained a staple in bags of miniatures. On the surface, you probably wouldn't even notice a difference between the Milk Chocolate and the Special Dark unless you put the two together. As you can imagine, the familiar brown color is a bit, well, darker. The bar has the same grid of 12 pieces, each called a "pip".

A bite is pure smoothness. It's noticeably darker than the milk chocolate bar, but any dark chocolate aficionado would probably scoff at its dark chocolate-ness. There is a touch of bitterness and a nudge of sweetness, and it all just seems like this bar can't decide which way to fully lean. This one is purely for the Hershey diehards who like chocolate to be a smidge more rich. If you were really into dark chocolate, you'd probably look elsewhere.

My theory goes that every candy bar is made better with the inclusion of nuts. Hershey only got around to this notion with the Special Dark bar in the 2000s.

Unlike it's mainly flat older brother, this bar has a uniform coating, with the name Hershey written in large block letters across a slightly mounded surface. It somehow looks darker than the Special Dark without almonds, but when placed next to one another, the complexions match up. This younger sibling has little freckles here and there thanks to its nutty attributes, and some of those almonds look like they're ready pop out. The nuts presence is more prevent on the underside, as the almonds looked like a road adorned with rumble strips.

Taking I bite, my brain knows the chocolate is the same as the bar above, but somehow it tastes different. A tad darker and richer, it's punctuated by the almonds packed within. The crunch provides a needed diversion to elevate the dark chocolate that wasn't high on my taste buds list to begin with. It just goes to show that candy is always better when you add nuts.

Not sure where you stand on affogato, but I'm more into saying the word than pouring a hot cup of espresso over a scoop of gelato. Well, Hershey's decided to use the Italian dessert as inspiration for a chocolate creme bar that debuted in the fall of 2026. The packaging is lovely and bright with a sandy background like a Whatchamacallit wrapper, and is accented by splashes of purple. It also includes a busy graphic of the dessert it's trying to mimic.

The bar has 10 pieces/pips, each bearing the company logo. The pieces are scored and break easily, maintaining their square shape. At the break, the creme filling is visible, although the amount looks very thin, and not all that runny.

Taking a bite, the espresso-flavored caramel makes itself known, combining with vanilla creme to deliver a dual punch. When it joins with the milky chocolate, the two fillings create an onslaught of flavors, which at first adds up to a nice little treat. The caramel has a light touch of espresso flavor and retains a lot of its sugary sweetness. While I did like the bar for a few pips, after that, these strong personalities started to come off as artificial and I was ready to say 'arrivederci' to it for a spell.

In the 1980s, Hershey's sought to keep up with the Joneses of Europe, who were producing popular milk chocolate that was milder and creamier. In 1989, the company introduced its first new milk chocolate bar in 95 years with Symphony. The name was chosen to evoke smoothness and relaxation, and the line came with two flavors that are still conducting today: Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate, and the same chocolate, but with almonds and toffee. They're decked out in ornate packaging, punctuated with a lovely curvy cursive script sporting the name. As my mom would say, "fancy, schmancy."

The chocolate is good, and true to its name, it's a step up in creaminess. It actually tastes more like a chocolate bar made by a rival than by Hershey's, but I guess that's its whole reason for its being in the first place. I tried this bar several times and yet I kept forgetting what it tasted like. It's neither offensive, nor anything memorable. It basically has the same creaminess as the Affogato one, minus the other two flavors overflowing at the same time. The simplicity helps make it more palatable, but this wouldn't be my first choice for a pure milk chocolate bar.

With the success of its almond-filled bar, in 1925, Hershey's turned its attention to a new bar filled with peanuts. When it came to naming it, someone told Milton Hershey that it was a good bar and he misheard it as Mr. Goodbar. It stuck, and on name alone, Mr. Goodbar is a 10 out of 10, having been lovingly spoken about on "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld," in "Blazing Saddles," and used as a title for the Judith Rossner novel "Looking for Mr. Goodbar."

Mr. Goodbar's bright yellow packaging, with fun italicized red logo, shows it's a more playful bar than the others. It has the same top look as the standard Hershey bar, but turn this one over and you'll see a sea of peanuts resembling a pebble mosaic walkway. The chocolate bar has perhaps the strongest and most pleasant smell of the lot, calling to an eater like a siren of Greek mythology.

The chocolate here seems sweeter than usual, but the salt of the peanuts gives it a new taste dimension. Its minor crunch gives it an additional nice texture to enjoy. While Mr. Goodbar has been around forever, its cachet today seems to have lost a little luster over its century of foodie existence. It's still a big name to me with the taste to back it up. Now can Mrs. Goodbar get her own bar finally?

Hershey has long been associated with the holy trinity combo of chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker to form s'mores, and even released a bar in 2003 called S'mores. In summer 2025, Hershey's introduced a new bar specifically designed to add a new wrinkle to the beloved campfire treat with its Milk Chocolate with Caramel bar. Its unique square design is tailor-made to fit below a whole graham cracker, but for our purposes, we just want to know if it tastes good on its own.

The bar contains two pieces, but breaking it at the seam didn't seem to work as designed — it broke jaggedly, and the caramel started to get loose. Luckily, the caramel didn't go very far as it's a slow oozer. There's plenty of chocolate to be had in each piece, but when you get to the tranquil sea of caramel, that's where there tasty magic begins. The caramel is very sweet and indeed makes a good fluid partner with Hershey's milk chocolate. I assume it would work wonders in s'mores, but perhaps pack extra napkins as it would probably get quite messy.

Arriving alongside the Affogato bar in 2026, Hershey's Salted Caramel Creme also carries a similar clean and appealing look with its packaging. The color accent doesn't pop like the Affogato's purple, but here, the one chosen matches the drapes, with the golden-brown stripe giving an eater a hint of the goodness within. The bar has the same 10-piece structure grid, with a slightly raised mound to show its pregnant filling.

As there are two Hershey's chocolates that focus on caramel, I spent a good deal of time going back and forth between them. The one intended for s'mores is a fine addition to the roster, but the Salted Caramel Creme is an obvious step up. The caramel just has a more appealing and luscious taste. Perhaps it's the touch of salt, perhaps not, but something about it just speaks to the mouth, and the mouth not only likes what it hears, it loves its taste. I'd love to see a version of this bar with a cookie stick on the inside. Would anyone besides Mars be crying foul at a Hershey's take on a classic Twix bar?

I've already established my simple theory that nuts make chocolate better, and I know Hershey's got my back on this. The original best-selling milk chocolate got a sequel in 1908 with the introduction of Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds. For over 100 years, whole almonds were used, but the company made customers unhappy by tinkering with chopped ones in 2016. The bar returned to its original form in 2018, and here we are today.

Like Special Dark, Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds is a continuous flat bar with a raised mound, sporting the company name in tall letters. Turn it over and you'll see the bumpy almonds hiding out. In my bar, I counted about eight of them, and I was ready to pounce. The combo is fantastic, where the warm and creamy Hershey chocolate connects with whole almond pieces. The almonds aren't enormous, and I wish there were actually 16 underneath, but it all adds up to a winner of a bar that no one would lodge any complaints about today.

Almonds are awesome — that's why so many Hershey's bars are filled with them. In 1921, Hershey's decided to get even more nutty, packing in a lot more when it introduced the Fifty-Fifty Almond Bar. It went by several other names in the ensuing years, and in 1977 was replaced by Hershey's Golden Almond Milk Chocolate. Marketed as "an elegant gift for special occasions" (via The Wichita Eagle), the bar with its golden wrapper and classical throwback Hershey script logo exudes class.

As I unwrapped the golden foil, I almost expected to find a winning Willy Wonka factory tour ticket within. Inside, the stout bar has eight thick pieces. No Hershey name imprint is in sight, and instead the curly cursive initials "GC" appear like a monogrammed hand towel. Breaking off a piece, the abundance of almonds is on full display. The chocolate is super-smooth and all-around excellent. It pairs wonderfully with the almonds present in each bite. These almonds are definitely plumper than the ones in a thinner Hershey's bar with almonds. One of the few drawbacks of this Golden bar is that the almonds don't often stay meshed in with the chocolate, and come loose, separating the two great tastes. 

Hershey's offers three different chocolate almond bars, with two that lean dark. The Golden Almond Milk Chocolate bar debuted in 1977, but it's unclear when the Dark Chocolate one arrived on the scene. Like its sibling, this bar exudes class as a specialty item that's perhaps best broken out for a special occasion.

Remember when I called out the Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds for being lovely but I wouldn't mind if it doubled up almond quotient? Well, the Golden Almond Dark Chocolate goes the extra mile by packing in almost three times the amount. There are not only more almonds, but they're also thicker and crunchier. They're encased in dark chocolate that is vastly superior to the "Special" too. This dark chocolate runs a bit more bittersweet, but contains no actual bitterness. It delivers a beautifully palatable dark chocolate flavor without going overboard. The pieces are also huge, and having just a few is the perfect amount, which means there's more deliciousness for later.

The Symphony bars aren't ones I've messed around with much in my orbits around the sun. Perhaps their looks were too fancy for me in my youth, but now that I'm an adult, I'm allowed such pleasures. The Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate one delivered its promise, and while it was nice and all, it still doesn't hold a candle to a regular Hershey bar. Well, toss in some almonds and bits of toffee into the recipe, and the ballgame's been changed for good.

The extra creamy milk chocolate works better when it has crunchy friends along for the ride. Chocolate fans are rewarded with the usual things one loves about chocolate, and its flavor is enhanced thanks to the delightful dual texture residing underneath. The amount of almonds and toffee under the hood aren't exactly plentiful, but they add just the right touch to make this bar one of the best of the bunch. Sweet music indeed. Now can we get some of that awesome toffee in other Hershey's bars?

None of the other bars in this ranking would be able to exist if the original Milk Chocolate one hadn't blazed the initial trail. It not only defines what Hershey's chocolate is, but what chocolate tastes like in America. People enjoy Hershey's Milk Chocolate in so many ways — from bars large and small, Kisses (which remains such a remarkable name for a candy), syrups and the like. However, with so many other chocolates in the world, sometimes people take Hershey's for granted. Yet, when we return to the original bar, eating it nostalgically transports us to another time. 

What's there really to say about the taste of Hershey's Milk Chocolate, beyond that it's perfect? Okay, we'd like to add that it thrives because there's no bitterness, nor anything else distracting whatsoever. It's just one smooth and creamy mover. When it starts to melt in the mouth, a new taste sensation seems to kick in, bringing a sense of warmth of old-school charm to the table. Long may you run!

White chocolate has its detractors. People say it's not real chocolate, and that's fine. The problem is there's no better way to relate the type of candy it is to an eater. Would a 'vanillatte' bar sound appealing? At the end of the day, all that matters is if the bar is any good. Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme came on the scene in 1995 and has proven to have staying power, even against all the white chocolate naysayers.

The Oreo is another timeless proven winner, but to me, it almost leans too heavily on its chocolate attributes and not as much on its creme. Here, the ratio is reversed: The creme is the crème de la crème, adding a large kick of sweetness and milky greatness. The tiny cookie pieces are the excellent accents, and come through with flying colors on both taste and texture. The bar itself is just a lovely sight too, with its top almost looking like a spotted cow, and its bottom like another pebble-lined path I'd love to walk a thousand miles on.

The only real drawback is its own decadence. It's almost too much of an amazing thing, and it's a challenge to eat a lot of it. Doing so tends to make one feel oversaturated with sweetness, but I look at this as one of the best problems to have. Now can we bring back the Krackel as a full bar, and make a white chocolate version of it too?

For a bar to be included in this ranking, it had to have Hershey's as a part of its name and be sold in a regular bar form. Since that didn't apply to minis, sadly, Krackel was not eligible for inclusion. The fine folks at The Hershey Company provided samples for this ranking; bars provided were ones the company sold as of September 2026.

I enlisted a group of taste testers, ages six to 49, for the initial round of taste testing. I later conducted several rounds of tastings on my own to draw conclusions and finalize the rankings. This ranking is a summation of my own personal tastes and thoughts. While I had tried several of these Hershey's bars before, I tried my best to embark on this taste test and ranking with an open mind. The criteria considered for this ranking were flavor, presentation, texture, familiarity, originality, uniqueness, packaging and design — and, ultimately, which bar was better than another, and which was the best of the bunch.