Beat the Heat: The Best Candy Bars to Eat Frozen

It’s summer, and it’s hot. Like, melt-your-candy-in-the-glovebox hot. And while we’d never disrespect a classic room temperature candy bar, we’re here to let you in on one of the coolest (literally) summertime secrets: toss that candy bar in the freezer and prepare for a whole new level of delicious! Some get chewier, some get crunchier, but all of them get way more chill.

Let’s be real: summertime turns your chocolate candy bar into a sad puddle, and no one wants to be licking the goopy remnants of your Snickers bar from the wrapper. It’s a mess! Sure, it still tastes good, but there’s got to be a better way! This is where your freezer becomes a magical cryogenic chamber for candy bars, transforming them into frosty, crunchy delights that’ll make the current heatwave we’re all experiencing feel like a distant nightmare.

This isn’t just some hipster freezer hack, it’s a time-honored tradition celebrated by kids for decades, right up there with using popsicle sticks as miniature swords. But not all candy bars will survive the deep freeze with dignity. Some emerge heroically crisp, others become tragically chalky, and a few (bless their hearts) sadly end up just tasting like regret and frostbite.

So, we did the hard work for you! We froze an irresponsible amount of candy, sacrificed a few fillings in the name of science, and now we’re here to preach the gospel of which bars deserve a polar vacation to the nearest freezer. Whether you’re a candy store owner looking to upsell "summer survival kits" or just a frozen treats enthusiast who likes their sweets cold enough to numb the unrelenting existential dread, we’ve got the perfect recipe for you to chill out this summer!

The Frozen Candy Hall of Fame: Which Sweet Treats Level-Up in the Freezer?

Freezing candy isn’t a science, it’s just vibes. Well, there’s probably a scientific explanation to all of this, but I am not qualified to lead that discussion. Instead of a Ted Talk, we’re just going to tackle what we feel and taste with our mouths. It’s all candy, so it’s all delicious, but does freezing candy actually make it better?

Mint Candies: The Most Refreshing Sweets to Hit Your Taste Buds with an Arctic Blast!

What’s cooler than being cool? If you said “Ice Cold!” you’d only be partially right. Frozen mint candies are made for being frozen. Take that cool, refreshing breeze of peppermint or spearmint, lock it in a subzero vault, and suddenly you’re not eating candy, you’re surviving an actual Arctic polar vortex that has swarmed your entire being!

Junior Mints

These tiny chocolate mint candies have always been offered to me in frozen form at movie theaters by the concession stand employees. Now, Junior Mints have always been synonymous with moviegoing for me, and I always liked them just the way they were – soft, a little creamy, and totally delicious!

One particularly hot summer afternoon, I took my little brother to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and thought: “why not try them frozen? Maybe it’ll help me eat them slower!” The first pop was an unforgettable experience. This crispy dark chocolate coating crumbled perfectly once I bit into them, and the minty goo inside was not frozen solid, but cool and a little on the chewy side. Pair that with the minty fresh taste and a sweet lightsaber battle on the big screen (RIP Anakin’s sanity), and you’ve got the perfect combination for a cool, refreshing sweet on a hot summer’s day!

York Peppermint Patties

I don’t even know why these are ever consumed at room temperature. I mean they’re still delicious and minty fresh, but there’s a whole new density and more purposeful consistency to them when they’re frozen. You might think you’re biting into a hockey puck that would chip your teeth, but the York Peppermint Patties are way more refreshing when frozen! One bite and you’ll be transported to a frozen lake in the Alaskan wilderness!

Andes Crème de Menthe Snap Bar

When one Andes mint just isn’t enough, try a snap bar, which is four pieces in one! As with all things minty fresh, frozen Andes Crème de Menthe mints are exceptional when frozen! The chocolate holds its shape and each bite produces a cool milk chocolate explosion with a blast of minty freshness that isn’t just for after dinner anymore. Move over mint chocolate chip ice cream, I think I found my new favorite frozen creamy, minty goodness!

Classic Candy Bars That Benefit From the Frozen Treatment

While mint candies are the freezer’s MVPs, there are plenty of classic candies that greatly benefit from reaching icy-cold temps. Spoiler alert: Snickers are the undisputed champion! Why not try a cool new take on some of these icons of the candy world?

Snickers Bar

The freezer takes Snickers from "great" to "transcendent." The nougat firms up, the caramel hardens just enough to avoid dental disaster, and the peanuts? They turn into tiny, salty crunch-bombs that make every bite sound like a Nutcracker Suite. It’s probably the best candy bar to try frozen in our entire inventory!

3 Musketeers

Room temp, it’s a fluffy pillow of chocolatey heaven. Frozen? It’s a nougaty iceberg with a texture similar to ice cream! The chocolate shell cracks like thin ice, revealing a dense, frostbitten chewy nougat that melts weirdly slow. It’s hypnotically good on a hot summer’s day!

Butterfinger

When I was a kid in the early 90’s, my two favorite things were Butterfinger (or Twix – it was a complete toss-up!) and the iconic animated sitcom: The Simpsons. When they recruited Bart Simpson for the “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger” commercials, it felt like they made them just for me.

The only thing I didn’t like about them was how much peanut butter crunch got stuck in my teeth afterwards. Oddly, when Butterfingers are consumed frozen, they don’t stick to your teeth as much, and the cold really makes the butter-flavor come to the forefront. Totally worth a try frozen!

Charleston Chew

The wrapper literally says: “Try Frozen!” like it’s a dare. And it’s right. The strawberry nougat turns chewy-cold, like a retro popsicle in bar form, and the chocolate coating? Snappier than an angry turtle! We used to freeze Charleston Chews and smash them in the wrapper, then open it and eat all the little pieces, this was a blissful childhood memory of mine.

Zero

The Zero Bar never quite got the mainstream love it deserved, but it absolutely belongs in the candy hall of fame. With caramel, peanuts, nougat, and a coating of white fudge, it’s a salty-sweet sleeper hit. Freezing this bar turns it into a delectable cryo bomb. The white chocolate fudge is like an edible igloo, and the peanuts, caramel and nougat create a next-level crunch!

Reese’s Nutrageous

We tried Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups first, and they were good, especially the pointy edges at the top had a super-interesting mouthfeel. But the peanut butter just seemed too hard, and it became somewhat dry and chalky. Some people love them frozen, but they just weren’t as good as they are at room temperature.

Then we dared try again with the Reese’s Nutrageous bar and this one was the perfect frozen peanut buttery treat! Like Snickers’ rebellious cousin, the peanuts and caramel here turn magically crunchy when frozen. And something about the caramel-peanut butter combo is just divine!

Skittles

We’ve been pretty chocolate-centric with this list, because, well… Chocolate gets melty quick in the hot summer sun! But the beloved rainbow candy certainly deserves its own shelf in your freezer! They shatter like stained glass on first bite, then melt back into their signature chew like a fruity phoenix rising from the icy ashes. It’s a textural rollercoaster – crunchy, then gummy, then explosively tangy. Definitely worth sticking your next bag in the freezer!

Heath Bar

This is a popular treat to add to ice cream sundaes, and it’s no wonder why! Eat one frozen and it’s a caramelized brick of utter chaos! Almond flecks add extra crunch, and the chocolate coating turns into a crisp armor. The English toffee tastes like a frozen stick of butter. Ideal for stress-eating during heatwaves.

Skor

Though many people can’t tell the difference between a Heath bar and Skor, the subtle differences are perhaps more noticeable when frozen. Freezing amplifies the melt-in-your-mouth appeal, and again, the buttery flavor really shines when it’s cold. Not as brittle and crunchy as the Heath bar, but delicious all the same!

Almond Joy

Last but not least, Almond Joy is another bar that was destined for icy greatness! It’s like taking an ice-cold vacation to a warm tropical island. The chocolate shell? Snappier than a palm tree in a hurricane. The almond on top? A crunchy exclamation point on this tropical daydream. It’s like eating a blizzard on a beach – unexpected, but oh-so-right!

Not every candy can survive the ice age. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups turn chalky, Milky Way goes from fluffy to flat, and gummy bears? Congrats, you’ve made edible rubber bullets. But hey, experimentation is half the fun!

Some notable close calls were the Oasis Treasures Dubai Chocolate bars, where the crispy kataifi was extra crunchy, but the flavor wasn’t enhanced like we hoped it would be. (Anyone else love pistachio ice cream?) KitKat was good, but not any better in frozen form. And one super popular TikTok candy these days is frozen wax bottle candy like Nik-L-Nips. The wax freezes, but the liquid doesn’t. Since I never chewed the wax anyway, it was just cold liquid candy – and that was nothing worth writing home about.

At Redstone Foods, we’re willing to try just about anything (within reason), and this experiment was about as fun as we’ve had here in the office for quite some time! Many people know us as America’s favorite candy distributor, so sign up for an account with us today or give us a call! We can help you make all your candy dreams become a reality!

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