This $5 Trader Joe's Find Is Perfect for Trick-or-Treaters

I can be a bit of a chocolate snob, ordering craft chocolate bars from small batch makers and eating one precious square at a time. But Trader Joe’s is my exception. I love their candy section, from the giant Pound Plus bars (perfect for baking) to their undeniably delicious dark chocolate peanut butter cups.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, Trader Joe’s added Wicked Good Mini Chocolate Bars. Why is this new item such an upgrade? TJ’s has never carried individually wrapped mini chocolates like this. In other words, Halloween candy! At long last!

What’s in the Bag?

Each bag contains four different flavors and 24 individually-wrapped bars. They are all milk chocolate-based, making them extra kid-friendly. The four different bars are:

1. Nougat & Caramel: Their version of a Milky Way
2. Peanut & Caramel: TJ’s does Snickers
3. Caramel & Wafer: If a KitKat and 100 Grand Bar had a baby
4. Nougat: Their take on a 3 Musketeers

I Compared Prices: TJ's vs. Name-Brand Candy

While Trader Joe’s tends to have great prices, I often lean on their products for quality. But since Halloween candy can be a hot commodity—and really add up if your house is popular to trick-or-treaters—I did a quick price comparison.

The Wicked Good Mini Chocolate Bars are $4.99 for 24 bars and weigh in at 14.7 ounces. An 80-count mixed bag of name-brand mini chocolate bars costs $11.49 at Target but only weighs 32.1 ounces. This brings into stark contrast the ever-shrinking size of name-brand candy and Trader Joe’s version. 

While you get many more individually wrapped bars in the name-brand bag per dollar spent, you get less weight. It’s a real comparison of quality over quantity.

I’m curious to see how trick-or-treaters react to this new candy. I wonder if kids will just gravitate to the candies they know, or if they’ll recognize the heft and quality of these new TJ’s bars. I know several kids who are Trader Joe’s fiends that will absolutely love them.

Why I Like Trader Joe’s Halloween Candy

I’m not a big milk chocolate person, but all of that goes out of the window on Halloween. The sacred holiday is about amping up the sugar—it’s no place for sophisticated dark chocolate. If you’re not nauseous at the end of the night, you’re doing it wrong.

My husband (a bigger milk chocolate fan) and I tasted each of the little chocolate bars side-by-side. My favorite was the Caramel & Wafer (in the black wrapper). The center is similar to the interior of a KitKat, with crispy wafers stacked on top of each other. Surrounding the wafers is a caramel and crispy rice mixture, and the whole thing is shrouded in milk chocolate. It’s such a fun combination of textures and the caramel is delicious. It also feels generous for a mini bar.

I also really like the Nougat & Caramel—TJ’s makes a richer, more flavorful nougat than you typically find in a candy bar. My husband devoured them all, but as a Snickers fan he really enjoyed the Peanut & Caramel.

A big bonus: While these bars are mini, they are decidedly bigger than most Halloween candy. The Peanut & Caramel, for example, is fully twice the size of those tiny little mini Snickers.