It’s time to honor the year’s top candy, cookies, soda and fast food

Welcome to Snackology’s Best of 2025 Awards. This is the first full calendar year of Snackology, and over that time, I’ve published almost 100 reviews. With that much writing under my belt — thousands of words conveying my thoughts on fast food, candy, soda and more — it felt like the proper way to cap off all the work was by shining the spotlight on some of my favorite snacks from 2025.

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Best New Candy

Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters

When it came time to pick my Best New Candy of 2025, was it ever going to not be Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters? I’ve eaten more bags of Nerds Gummy Clusters than I can count over this past year, but the handful of bags containing these brilliant candy breakthroughs exist on a higher level. I never realized that Nerds Gummy Clusters needed to have what amounts to a Gusher shoved inside them, but Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters made that perfectly clear.

Honorable mention

• M&M’s POP’d Caramel: I loved the Whoppers-esque taste of M&M’s POP’d Caramel.
• Oreo Reese’s Cup: The addition of Oreo cookie bits to what’s basically just a Werewolf Tracks Reese’s Cup took that version of the candy from meh to gotta buy another bag.
• Hershey’s Dubai-Inspired Chocolate Bar: Hershey’s Dubai-Inspired Chocolate Bar brought the trendy genre of candy to the classic American chocolate bar.
• Sweet Stash Jams: Once I opened a bag of Sweet Stash Jams, there was zero chance I wouldn’t finish that bag.

Best New Soda

Coke Zero Holiday Creamy Vanilla

I was genuinely bummed when I realized that my window to buy Coke Zero Holiday Creamy Vanilla had quickly come to an end. My Harris Teeter had a few cases of the non-Zero variety left, which didn’t help me in my quest to add more of this new release to my stash. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what sets Coke Zero Holiday Creamy Vanilla apart from normal Coke Zero Vanilla, but I love it. It’s a soda that perfectly balances the vanilla taste with a cola foundation.

Honorable mention

• Olipop Pineapple Paradise: I wasn’t a fan of prebiotic sodas until I found Olipop Pineapple Paradise — best known as the Olipop with SpongeBob SquarePants on the can — and realized that the non-cola varieties are actually the way to go.
• Pepsi Prebiotic Cola: That is, until Pepsi Prebiotic Cola proved that you can get a prebiotic cola right when it’s a cola that also just happens to be a prebiotic soda.
• Mountain Dew Zero Sugar x Trolli Cherry Lemon: The Mountain Dew Zero Sugar x Trolli Cherry Lemon collab might’ve looked like a joke, but I’m still treasuring the cases I have in my soda stash.

Best New Fast Food Item

Flamin’ Hot Grilled Cheese Burrito

The Flamin’ Hot Grilled Cheese Burrito was an afterthought when it was released in October. The highlight that day was the Frank’s RedHot Diablo Sauce menu, which featured a different burrito, a soft taco and a batch of Nacho Fries. But the Flamin’ Hot Grilled Cheese Burrito is the one fast food item this year that I’ve repeatedly gone back to, ordering it at Taco Bell several times since its debut. My only regret is that I failed to order one with the fast-food chain’s fries wrapped inside.

Honorable mention

• Frosty Fusions: It turns out I really enjoy whatever rare dessert a fast-food chain is offering. Wendy’s took its Frosty lineup to new heights this year, with Frosty Fusions offering McFlurry-esque mix-ins. (While the Pop-Tarts Crunch Poppers option appears to have fallen off the menu, I was still able to get one while traveling over Thanksgiving.)
• Confetti Cookie Freeze: The Confetti Cookie Freeze at Taco Bell was a surprise hit for me to close out the year.
• Special Edition Gold Sauce: It’s not a dessert, but McDonald’s Special Edition Gold Sauce was so good, I didn’t even mind when at one point I accidentally got a McCrispy sandwich with the sauce instead of Buffalo Ranch.

Best New or Returning Cookie

Oreo Reese’s Cookie

The Oreo/Reese’s partnership was one of the biggest bits of snacking news we got in 2025, with the two iconic brands finally teaming up for the ultimate collaboration. Is the Oreo Reese’s Cookie basically just a peanut butter Oreo? Absolutely. But it’s such a good peanut butter Oreo. I don’t know if it’s the type of peanut butter in the cookie or the addition of some chocolate crumbs in that peanut butter, but the Oreo Reese’s Cookie is incredibly snackable.

Honorable mention

• Oreo S’mOreos: Do they make cookies that aren’t Oreos? There’s always a box or three of the cookie in our kitchen, and I loved seeing (and eating) S’mOreos again this year.
• Oreo Cakesters Confetti Cake: Whoops. It’s another Oreo. I had somehow never had an Oreo Cakester, but the Confetti Cake flavor was the perfect introduction.

Wildest New Item

Mountain Dew Baja Blast Pie

I still have some Mountain Dew Baja Blast Pie in our basement freezer, and every time I open it to take something out, I think, I would love another piece of that pie. Mountain Dew Baja Blast Pie should have been a joke. People don’t take Baja Blast seriously, and people definitely weren’t going to take a Baja Blast-flavored pie — sold by Taco Bell! — seriously. But some real care when into crafting this one. It was worth picking up on release day, even if I was pretty sure the person running the Taco Bell drive-through was messing with me by asking again what it was I was trying to order.

Honorable mention

• Kraft Mac & Cheese Apple Pie Flavor: I don’t think I would buy Kraft Mac & Cheese Apple Pie Flavor again, but the one box I did cook up was pretty good. Last year’s Everything Bagel flavor was disgusting, but it turns out apple pie (kind of?) goes with macaroni and cheese.