Tens List with Alissa Grosso

10. Hershey’s Moose Tracks Ice Cream – Hershey’s (no relation to the candy maker) makes some of the best ice cream, and it’s a shame that it isn’t more widely available. Their moose tracks flavor is a perfect blend of fudge and chocolate peanut butter cup goodness.

9. 100 Grand Bars – They really should change the name of these candy bars to Millionaire Bars, because they are so good. For those who have never tried these little logs of caramel covered in chocolate and crisped rice cereal, you are definitely missing out.

8. Tortilla Chips – So simple, yet so tasty. Also they are sort of healthy for you. After all, their made out of corn, which is a vegetable. The best ones, of course, are the homemade ones served fresh at nice Mexican restaurants. And whether they are fresh or from the bag all tortilla chips go great with my favorite condiment, Tabasco Green.

7. Hummus – Here’s another snack that almost doesn’t qualify due to it’s healthy nature. I especially like hummus with a Wheat Thin type of cracker and the best varieties of hummus are those that include roasted red peppers or artichokes. 

6. Utz Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips – Salt and vinegar flavored potato chips remind me of fresh French fries from the boardwalk or a fair that are doused with malt vinegar. I’ll eat pretty much any variety of salt and vinegar chips, but Utz’s version is probably my favorite.

5. Apricot Fruit Roll or Fruit Leather – Another healthy snack. See, I’m practically a health food nut! I’ve tried other flavors of fruit leather, and they’re all right, but they can’t hold a candle to the apricot ones. I don’t know what it is about this fruit that lends itself so well fruit leather creation, but whatever it is these snacks have just the right amount of sweetness.

4. Milky Way Midnight – Milky Way candy bars are pretty good, but do you know what makes them even better? Dark chocolate. Milky Way Midnight bars taste like some sort of decadent, elegant dessert. It’s hard to believe these are candy bars you can buy at your local drug store alongside something as pedestrian as a Kit Kat Bar.

3. Gruyere Cheese and Crackers – Speaking of elegant, gruyere cheese is a pretty hoity toity as snack foods go, but it’s so delicious I had to include it on this list. Truth be told, I don’t even need the crackers, but I guess it’s traditional to eat cheese with crackers. Gruyere, for those who have never had the pleasure of sampling it is somewhere between parmesan and Swiss cheese in both taste and texture, and it is entirely addictive. So, watch out!

2. Homemade Sugar Cookies – I saved these for my number two spot partly for sentimental reasons and partly because they are so yummy. Sugar cookies were something we used to make with Mom around the holidays when I was a kid and I can recall spending a long time picking out the perfect cookie cutter. I still have a great time making sugar cookies, and well, let’s face it, eating them is pretty fun too!

1. Cadbury Cream Eggs – Scarcity, made me choose Cadbury Cream Eggs as my top snack food. No, there isn’t a shortage of these egg-shaped candies, but as fans know, they are only available during the Easter season. Of course, the Easter season as retailers define it usually begins shortly after Christmas, but that still leaves about 8 months of the year when Cadbury Cream Eggs cannot be found. The milk chocolate shell with the gooey fondant center may not make for the neatest food to eat, but you can’t pick your snack foods based on whether or not they will be messy. Besides, this candy is seriously scrumptious.