10 Largest Chocolate Brands In The United States

Have you ever wondered if your favorite chocolate bar is truly the best? Of course, the taste is subjective, but which chocolate brand did most Americans reach for in 2020?

This list gives you an idea of which chocolate bars are the favorites and how your favorite chocolate brand rank.

1. Reese Products Jobs (Overview)

2. The Hershey Company Jobs (Overview)

3. M&M Associates Jobs (Overview)

4. Hershey’s Almond Jobs (Overview)

DETAILED LIST OF THE 10 LARGEST CHOCOLATE BRANDS IN THE UNITED STATES

1. Snickers. McLean, Virginia

   Number of consumers in millions: 48.06

   Snickers is a hand-down favorite if we’re looking at how many chocolate bars were sold. The brand currently uses the theme of “You’re not you when you’re hungry” and then follows it up with their longstanding slogan – Snickers satisfies.

   This confection features nougat, caramel, peanuts, and chocolate. But there are other Snickers that aren’t quite as popular, like Snickers Almond, Snickers White, Snickers Crisp, and many others.

   The Snickers brand is owned by Mars, Incorporated, a giant in the candy business. In 1930, the candy bar was first introduced; it was named after the Mars family’s favorite horse. In the U.K., it was sold under the name Marathon while in the United States, a Marathon bar was a different candy entirely.

   After the 1990s, the Marathon name was phased out in the U.K., and they are now called Snickers.

2. Reese Products. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 42.86

   One of the most noted brands of candy bars in the world, Reese’s, is marketed by The Hershey Company. These chocolate and peanut butter delights were first created in 1928 by H.B. Reese, who was a dairy farmer turned shipping foreman. Who did he work for? At the time, it was the noted chocolatier, Milton S. Hershey.

   Reese left that job and started his own candy business, but he had always used Hershey’s chocolates in his candy creations. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were such a leader that he decided to stop his other candies and focus solely on the cups.

   In 1963, the company merged with the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Interestingly, only six years after the companies merged, Reese’s again rose to the top and became Hershey’s top seller.

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3. The Hershey Company. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 42.58

   Obviously, the Hershey’s Kisses brand is owned by the Hershey’s Company. In fact, these little nuggets of chocolatey goodness have been around since 1907. Back then, many other chocolate companies made similar items, so Hershey’s added the plume or the little flag with their name printed on it to distinguish theirs from the rest.

   In 1942, during the war, the production of Hershey’s Kisses was halted due to the rationing of aluminum foil. So, the machines were re-purposed to make military chocolate D ration bars for the soldiers to boost their morale and to give them an instant energy boost.

   But these chocolate bars were not as delicious as the chocolate bars, you know. They were designed not to taste very well, so they’d only be used in emergencies. Today, there are many different flavors of Hershey’s Kisses, and luckily none of them is military D ration flavored.

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4. Kit Kat. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 41.45

   Across the globe, Kit Kat is produced by Nestle except in the United States, where it is made by the H.B. Reese Candy Company, the same company that makes Reese’s and is owned by The Hershey Company. Kit Kat first showed up in September 1935 as Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp.

   By 1937, it was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp, and after World War II, the name was shorted to simply Kit Kat.

   The candy bar was not introduced in the United States until 1970 when Rountree and Hershey’s made an agreement. Interestingly, when Nestle purchased Rountree, they had to honor the agreement.

   The candy’s iconic jingle, “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar,” didn’t show up until 1986, but the slogan in the U.K. since 1957 has been “Have a break, have a Kit Kat.” So the idea of a Kit Kats and a break have been around a long time.

5. M&M Associates. McLean, Virginia

   Number of consumers in millions: 40.36

   MMs are known around the world as little, colorful buttons. The plain candies were the first ones introduced in 1941. The inspiration for this candy came from chocolates given to soldiers in the Spanish Civil War. That chocolate also had a candy coating, so they wouldn’t melt in hot climates.

   Forrest Mars, Sr. son of the founder of the Mars Company, loved the idea and received a patent and began making the confection in a factory in New Jersey that was run by Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey Chocolate’s president.

   The Mars and Murrie partnership was called MM Limited, and their first big customer was the U.S. Army. In fact, during WWII, their only customer was the Army. Since then, the MMs brand is carried by Mars Incorporated.

   After WWII, the candy exploded, and the tagline “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand” was born in 1949. By 1954, the first Peanut MMs were introduced. These MMs originally were the only tan, but more colors were added. And the Peanut MM took off, inspiring many other variations.

   But it’s the Peanut MM that people truly love. They outsell all other types of MMs (even the original) by quite a lot.

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6. The Hershey Company. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 29.02

   Obviously, the flagship of The Hershey Company, the Hershey’s bar goes by the nickname, “The Great American Chocolate Bar.” Milton Hershey had a successful candy business back in 1886, but it wasn’t until seeing German chocolate manufacturing at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago that he decided chocolate making was for him.

   In 1894, the Hershey Chocolate Company was created, and in 1900 the first Hershey chocolate bars were on the market.

   There are obviously a number of variations of the Hershey’s bar, but the iconic classic is their leader still. The Hershey Process used to create their milk chocolate using fresh milk that is delivered daily from local farms, but the actual process is a trade secret, and it’s not known exactly how it’s done.

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7. Almond Joy. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 27.48

   Almond Joy is a Hershey’s candy, like Peanut MMs. It wasn’t the original but has surpassed its inspiration candy in popularity and sales. Mounds bar was the original and feature sweetened, shredded coconut covered in dark chocolate.

   The Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company acquired the Mounds bar from a candy maker named Vincent Nitido, and Mounds became a big hit with the U.S. military during World War II, who at the height of their relationship purchased 80% of the Mounds production in 1944.

   It wasn’t until 1946 that Almond Joy was introduced as a replacement for the Dreams Bar, a candy that featured chopped almonds and coconut covered in dark chocolate. The Almond Joy keeps the sweetened coconut of the Mounds bar, tops each of the two offerings in a serving with one almond, and then they’re all drenched in milk chocolate.

   The two candies, Almond Joy and Mounds, were often advertised together with the slogan, “Sometimes you feel like a nut / Sometimes you don’t.”

8. Butterfinger. Chicago, Illinois

   Number of consumers in millions: 25.82

   Butterfingers are manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero. This sweet treat features a layered, crispy peanut butter center that is covered in milk chocolate. They were invented in 1923 by Otto Schnering, the founder of the Curtiss Candy Company.

   The candy bar has been owned by several different companies over the years, and it wasn’t until 2018 that it fell under the umbrella of the Ferrara Candy Company.

   Marketing for Butterfinger has often been a bit edgy. The Simpson’s cartoon characters have been associated with the brand, on and off, for a long time, and Bart Simpson’s “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger” is a long-standing slogan.

9. Hershey’s Almond. Derry Township, Pennsylvania

   Number of consumers in millions: 25.51

   Obviously, the history of the Hershey’s Almond bar is closely tied to that of the Hershey’s bar. While the Hershey bar was first introduced to the market in November 1900, it wasn’t until 1908 that they started putting almonds in the bar to add a little variety.

   They kept rolling with that successful candy bar for 108 years until they decided that they would chop the almonds so they could claim there was an almond in every bite. The problem – the public hated it. For about two years, they made the chopped almond version before switching back to the original whole almonds.

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10. 3 Musketeers. McLean, Virginia

    Number of consumers in millions: 22

    The 3 Musketeers candy bar features a whipped mousse center with milk chocolate covering. It’s similar to a Milky Way but without the caramel. The original 3 Musketeers was actually quite a bit different than today’s version.

    Introduced to the market by Mars, Incorporated, who still owns the brand, the candy originally featured three pieces with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla centers, rather like a candy bar version of Neopolitan ice cream. The three candies and the Alexandre Dumas book were inspirations for the name 3 Musketeers.

    Eventually, the vanilla and strawberry pieces were phased out, and they stuck with the more popular chocolate bar. After that, the company held fast to this flavor until their 75th anniversary, when they decided to start trying some variations again, beginning with mint. They now have several different variations on the market, and they come in many different sizes as well.

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.