12 Hershey's Kiss Flavors, Ranked Worst To Best

What could be more fun than many different flavors of Kisses? Not much in my estimation. Like Oreo, which has an exceptional number of flavors, there are an enormous variety with Hershey's Kisses — ranging from the expected, like dark chocolate, to more limited, such as the illustrious Butterbeer ... and sometimes offering different types of chocolate.

In Hershey, Pennsylvania, Kisses are something of a celebrity. The city even celebrates this sweet treat in its street lights, with the top part of the lamp looking like a little Kiss. These chocolate candies have been part of the Hershey company for more than a century, and there are no signs for slowing down production — not with 80 million Kisses made each day.

With the help of Hershey, I assembled a tasting of as many Hershey Kisses I could find and tried each flavor. From there, I ranked them on how enjoyable the Kiss was. Most of the time, this was purely a taste test, but sometimes, texture played a part too. My tasting took me on quite the flavor journey, beginning with the most basic of all Kisses and ending with ones that are becoming increasingly difficult to find. While many of the offerings I tried are near permanent fixtures on the Hershey Kisses line, some of them are holiday fixtures. So, depending on the time of year you're shopping and the closest holidays, you may find that your selection varies.

I loved Olive Garden as a kid. After a hearty meal of soup, salad, breadsticks, with seemingly endless refills of minestrone soup, I looked forward to the Andes candy mint inevitably left on our check. The combination of mint and chocolate will forever remind me of these little treats as we wrapped up our meal — and I hoped that's what the mint truffle Kisses would be reminiscent of. Unfortunately, the combination of mint and chocolate that Hershey's has come to in this rendition misses the mark in a strange way.

Since I purchased many of the more rare flavors over Amazon, some of them ended up in a little worse shape than others. The mint truffle Kisses, for instance, seem to take quite the beating, and they're a little messier than some of the other flavors. Like some of the other Kisses I tried, these were a little smooshed in spots, and quite a struggle to get into one piece, likely owing to the minty truffle nestled within the dark chocolate Kiss coating.

Initially, I thought the flavor was enjoyable, but the longer the mint and chocolate flavors lingered on my tongue, I discovered something very off. I anticipated a brightened chocolate flavor with that hint of mint layered over the top, but what I ended up with was something of a bitter taste. Although the initial few bites didn't quite reveal this as the outcome, the lingering flavor left behind was anything but enjoyable. 

If there's Kisses, there must be hugs, right? Well, that surely must have been what the innovators over at Hershey must have been thinking when, in 1993, Hugs showed up. This little treat is a small amount of chocolate wrapped mostly in white cream that tastes something like white chocolate with a few stripes through it. The concept is endearing, but the execution isn't quite there.

The white cream overpowered the milk chocolate flavor, even though there was actually milk chocolate in the middle. I took a bite of a second one into the middle just to check. It tasted almost entirely like the white cream flavor. This white chocolate-adjacent taste shows up in several other flavors of Kisses, but it never delivers like other chocolate flavors, such as milk or dark. While super great for coating pretzels, I don't want it as the primary flavor of my candy. In the end, I love the concept of the Hug, but the execution needs to be a little different. I imagine that if Hershey's chose to do a Hug with chocolate and caramel, that would make a much better flavor combination.

I always thought Kisses had such a sweet name, but it turns out it's a reference to the type of sound the machine makes when it's producing the Kiss. These little sweets have been produced by Hershey since 1907 –but the wrapping, an essential part of that Kiss-making process, wouldn't have an automated process until 1921.

While the milk chocolate Kiss is the original flavor of its kind, there are many Kiss flavors that are an improvement upon this first flavor. Now, it's enjoyable enough as a quick chocolate treat, but compared to some of the others, it was a bit on the boring side.

There's obviously comfort in the knowing, and since these were the original, people generally know what to expect, even though it's probably not going to be something you'll crave. That said, if it's sprinkled across the table at a wedding or an engagement party, you'll nibble at it, but you're probably not going to seek it out.

As a general rule of thumb, sugar cookie-flavored items are some of my favorites. It normally features sweet frosting and even sweeter decorations. While I love a sugar cookie latte from Starbucks during the winter months, the sugar cookie-flavored Kisses were only okay.

Wrapped in a festive foil, these Kisses are sugar cookie-flavored white cream with little sprinkle bites within. I have found that in general, I do not like the white cream Kisses, though I did enjoy that there was some sugar cookie flavoring too. The sprinkles within the cookie added something else: A crunchy bite, and this had a nice cookie crunch which reminded me of something like a fun fetti-type cookie. For being a winter holiday-themed cookie (based on the wrapper design), the flavor wasn't overly holiday to me. Like sometimes happens with FunFetti boxed cake mixes with sprinkles, the bitterness did come through, especially on the aftertaste, and I think that Hershey's can do better than the white cream for these types of kisses.

The white cream strikes again. While I've found that cookies and cream candies have a very richly creamy, nearly sweetened condensed milk flavor, the white cream surrounding the cookie pieces in this Kiss just missed that most hoped-for flavor.

The design of the wrapper on these is really cute with the little silver cookies on the teal background. I enjoyed the crunch of the little bits of cookie, and though there was a generous amount of cookies, the flavor beyond the cookie bits tasted like that white baking chocolate, which was just not the flavor I wanted in candy. So, while it wasn't heavily flavored, it was a really nice texture and, visually, these cookies and cream-flavored Kisses certainly look the part. If you're going mostly for aesthetics in, say, a larger recipe, and you want that cookies and cream type look, these are perfect.

I was impressed with the innovative idea behind this variety, taking marshmallow and enclosing it in a chocolate shell. Unfortunately, that chocolate shell didn't like the heat (during delivery), and I ended up with a melty mess — interesting, because many of the Kisses did not end up like this. 

Even still, I could salvage a Kiss to try the flavor, and as tasty as it was, I found myself disappointed that I couldn't enjoy a Kiss in the texture it was intended. The coating of the chocolate was just so narrow, it collapsed and melted into the already soft marshmallow inside the candy. In the end, between the marshmallow and chocolate, these Kisses were halfway to melted by the time they got to me. If it were closer to winter, I may have even had some hot cocoa on hand with which to melt them into. Even still, these might be the ideal flavor to level up your Nespresso drinks. Without a careful shipping process in place to avoid smashing and melting, I can imagine stores struggling to keep this flavor in one piece while on the shelf. That said, I enjoyed the concept of the marshmallow, enclosed in the chocolate.

There are some snacks that just belong in school lunches. Little Debbie packaged snacks like Hohos, Ding Dongs, Twinkies, and Cosmic Brownies were some of the favorites around my school lunch table growing up. The rainbow brownie variety of Kisses felt every bit the homage to this classic lunch treat.

Just as you might expect from the Kiss, it didn't taste like homemade brownie, but it did taste like those classic Cosmic brownies covered in rainbow sprinkles. It also has something of a melting, molten sort of interior, which was kind of a cool change from some of the other Kisses. For an added texture, there were hard bites with colorful sprinkles. I didn't expect that these sprinkles would make such a fun difference in the texture, but it was enjoyable. As with many other fun flavors, the wrappers on these were extra special. Magenta foil-colored background with rainbows would make for the perfect accompanying Kisses for a unicorn birthday celebration.

Not a fan of milk chocolate and opting for something a little more rich? There's a Kiss for you in the special dark flavor. This specialty variety tastes very similar to other dark chocolate varieties I've tasted, and there's a richness to it that was more substantial than other Kisses I tried.

A closer look at the ingredients revealed more questions than answers. I found that there was one more gram of included sugars in the dark chocolate compared to the regular milk chocolate, even if the total sugar in the milk chocolate is still one gram higher. Also noteworthy, the ingredient listing for the dark chocolate begins with sweet chocolate, while the milk chocolate offering begins with, predictably, milk chocolate.

Scouring the package, I found no indication of the amount of cacao in the kiss, and when people choose dark chocolate over other options, this is normally something they look for. It's an odd bit of information to leave out. The purple wrapping is a nice change, and while I enjoyed the flavor, it felt like more of a marketing label than an actual representation of dark chocolate, even if the richness was nice.

Where many of the different types of Kiss flavors that have a nugget inside, little pieces integrated in the chocolate — or even a different flavored chocolate altogether — the almond Kisses have an almond tucked right in the center. Though I liked this flavor, aside from the almond within the middle of the Kiss, there's just not much interesting happening here. I would like to see more almond flavor throughout the piece of candy, with something like almond extract or similar. Other than that, you really end up with a majority of the candy tasting like milk chocolate. In any case, that crunch from the almond is substantial enough that if you eat the Kiss in one or two bites, you may get almond in every bite, even if a majority of the Kiss is milk chocolate.

This variety of Kiss is most ideal for those chocolate fans who enjoy chocolate-covered almonds and treats with a lot of nuts. That almond is big and present.

In a pack of three holiday flavors, the candy cane Kisses were easily my favorite. To my mind, they were also the flavor that was the most on-theme. When I opened the candy cane Kisses bag, there was absolutely no question as to how the Kisses would taste; I could smell the peppermint immediately. The scent was appealing and smelled just like Christmas.

Flavorwise, it had all the tastiness of a Christmas candy cane, and there were even delightful candy cane bits throughout. This crunchiness was a nice difference from the typical Kiss texture, and I thoroughly enjoyed the variance. Of the three holiday offerings, this was the best. With the festive white and red look, I can imagine these being quite enjoyable offered as a treat in a holiday candy dish, and between the two minty holiday flavors, the candy cane won 100%.

Some cereals are so good, they transcend the breakfast table. They may be a tasty part of your complete breakfast, but these flavors can also bring nostalgia and comfort. Having been a one-time fan of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I was ready to be disappointed, but these Kisses delivered.

Not to mention, there was a really fun and colorful wrapper encasing the Kiss in the colors of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch logo. With all of these colors, it easily stands out among the other flavors, especially the more basic varieties. Like the cookies and cream flavor, there was some crunch in this one, and although the initial two bites didn't necessarily remind me of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, the flavor definitely came through after. It's hard to capture the experience of eating cereal as a candy, but the lingering flavor of this one achieved something close and it was definitely enjoyable.

The very first thing I noticed about the butterbeer package is that it came in a package from Amazon that has clearly been repackaged from a much larger bag. I was skeptical, but upon opening this bag, I knew I was in good hands. The way the waft of butterscotch emanated from the bag, I felt like I was stepping foot into a most delicious and magical world of The Three Broomsticks (one of the best themed restaurants you should put on your travel bucket list).

Initially, I thought it might be something like maple syrup, but upon closer inspection, it's definitely butterscotch. The flavor of the Kisses was like that of butterscotch chips, but the wrapping of the Kisses couldn't have been cuter. The little paper that accents the top has the word "cheers" on it, and the actual decoration on the wrappers had various symbols from the "Harry Potter" franchise, including three broomsticks and butterbeer pints. As a long-time "Harry Potter" fan, I knew this flavor was going to be hard to beat, and no single Kisses offering was more enjoyable. I could imagine these being the most ideal treat for a late-night movie viewing or road trip to Universal Studios to enjoy butterbeer and "Harry Potter" magic.

With the help of Hershey, I pulled together as many different kinds of Kisses as I could. Hershey supplied many of the more commonly available flavors, but I was able to track down even more limited-edition ones on Amazon.

On a recent visit to my mom's house, I brought along my collection of Hershey Kisses flavors. We tasted each and ranked them according to our preferences. We considered how enjoyable the Kisses were compared to one another. In most instances, this was strictly a flavor comparison — but every now and then, we compared texture too. There were only a few Kisses that had a texture element, so it didn't seem necessary to include that as an entire category on its own.