The Most Beloved Snack in Each State That Leaves Residents Craving More
No matter what diet you’re following, junk food, whether sweet or salty, is always in style for many people. How does your favorite pick-me-up snack stack up to the most popular one in your state?
Measuring Snack Cravings
Zippia selected 45 popular snacks, analyzing their search volume by state on Google Trends. Potato chips, candy, and cookies were all fair game; gum and soda weren’t.
Alabama
Ruffles are Alabama’s favorite junk food. Founder Bernhardt Stahmer patented Ruffles in 1956, boasting that his chip tasted better than others on the market because its dimensions and shape gave it a cheesy flavor even though it didn’t contain cheese.
Alaska
Alaska’s favorite snack is granola bars. While that might sound healthy, Healthline points the finger at granola bars, saying some contain the sugar, carbohydrates, and calories equivalent to candy bars.
Arizona
Say cheese! Arizonians love their Cheez-Its. The original Cheez-It packaging was green and white. After a change in the 1930s that included red in its logo, the Cheez-It box underwent a final color change to red and yellow-orange, which are still apparently cherished on Arizona’s grocery store shelves today.
Arkansas
Doritos are Arkansas’ favorite junk food. The coating that Doritos put on consumers’ fingers may be fun to lick, but Doritos-loving Arkansans need to watch it; most Doritos contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), salt, and sugar, which can be a fast-track way to poor health.
California
California’s favorite junk food is Cheetos. Crunchy Cheetos were the only type of Cheeto available on the market from 1948 until the early 1970s. In 1971, the beloved Cheetos Puffs hit the markets.
Colorado
Cosmic Brownies are Colorado’s go-to unhealthy snack. The Little Debbie brand entices children with its colorful candy-coated chocolate pieces, and Little Debbie describes it as a dessert “that’s out of this world.”
Connecticut
Connecticut’s favorite junk food is Oreos. Their beloved cookie first touched consumers’ lips in 1912, along with two other cookies that were considered “high-class biscuits.” Over a century later, Oreos are the only cookie of the trio still sold today.
Delaware
Fritos are Delaware’s guilty pleasure. While many Delawareans may eat their fair share of the Frito pie, a pile of Fritos topped with cheese, chili, onions, and more, the Frito’s pie origin remains a mystery.
Florida
Florida’s favorite junk food is mini doughnuts. Some people theorize that doughnuts have a hole in them because a man named Hanson Gregory wanted a solution for doughnuts with raw centers.
Georgia
Lay’s chips are Georgia’s favorite junk snack. The salty potato snack has come a long way from founder Herman W. Lay selling it from the back of his car; over 200 Lay’s chip flavors have since been invented.
Hawaii
Hawaii is the second state to claim Oreo cookies as their favorite snack. If you’ve referred to multiple Oreo cookies as “Oreos” in the past, you may be mistaken. It appears the brand promotes the plural of Oreo as “Oreo cookies.”
Idaho
Clif Bars are Idaho’s favorite snack. While that might not sound too bad of a guilty pleasure junk food, Medical News Today advises people who aren’t very physically active to avoid them, given their high sugar and carbohydrate content.
Illinois
Illinoisans’ favorite snack is Skinny Pop, which is arguably among the healthiest “junk foods” on this list. That said, while the tasty popcorn is low in calories, it contains vegetable oils, which many doctors advise against consuming due to the negative health effects they can cause.
Indiana
Pringles are Indiana’s go-to junk food. If you ask Indianans, they might agree with Pringles’ original marketing, which called out Lay’s and other potato chip brands for creating a greasy and stale product.
Iowa
Pringles are also Iowa’s favorite chip. A lot of work went into making Pringles a desired food; its saddle shape, scientifically called a “hyperbolic paraboloid,” prevents Pringles from crumbling before reaching customers’ hands.
Kansas
Kansas’ favorite junk food is Nutter Butter. The Nutter Butter’s history is a bit of a mystery. Nabisco isn’t even clear on who created the cookie’s recipe, though peanut butter cookies have been concocted in American kitchens since the 1910s.
Kentucky
Kentucky joins Delaware with the Frito being its residents’ favorite junk food. “Frito” is the Spanish word for “fried,” an accurate description of this greasy snack.
Louisiana
PayDay is Louisiana’s favorite junk food. Although PayDay was founded in 1932, Hersey didn’t acquire the peanut, nougat, and chocolate candy bar until 1996.
Maine
Maine strays from the nation, with Ritz Crackers being the Pine Tree State’s favorite snack. While Ritz Crackers are another food that may seem harmless, many countries ban them because of the harmful partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil they contain.
Maryland
Oreo cookies are making this list again, with Marylanders loving to gobble them up. It’s hard to be disappointed by the stuffed Oreo varieties; Double Stuf and Mega Stuf Oreo cookies contain 1.86 and 2.68 times the amount of cream as the regular variety, respectively.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts’ favorite junk food is the Crunch chocolate bar. It takes about 50 minutes to make a Crunch bar, and approximately 420 pieces of rice are embedded in the chocolate.
Michigan
Sour Patch Kids is Michigan’s unhealthy snack of choice. The chewy candy was founded in Canada in the 1970s and named Mars Men. But when the product hit American shelves in 1985, the company realized a name change was in order, playing off the popular Cabbage Patch Kids instead.
Minnesota
Minnesotans may walk around with little hunger if Snickers’ slogan holds true, given that the Snickers bar is The North Star State’s favorite junk food. Allegedly, the Snickers bar was named after a horse. The first Snickers bar cost only five cents.
Mississippi
Twinkies are Mississippi’s favorite guilty pleasure snack. The sweet cake was originally stuffed with a banana filling. But due to WWII food rationing, manufacturers switched the filling to vanilla.
Missouri
Missouri’s favorite junk food is Grandma’s Cookies. No, not your grandma’s cookies; Frito Lay’s version of grandma. Apparently, Missourians believe Grandma’s chocolate chip, peanut butter, and other cookie varieties are so good that they don’t need to head to their grandma’s house when their sweet tooth calls.
Montana
Rice Krispy Treats are the go-to snack for Montanans. It turns out the Treasure State is on to something; Rice Krispy Treats Day is an unofficial holiday on September 18th each year.
Nebraska
Fritos make the cut again as a favorite snack, this time for Nebraskans. The chip was born in 1932 when Charles Elmer Doolin sought a snack to accompany the ice cream his customers bought. He found a corn chip business for sale in the classified ads, which became Fritos.
Nevada
Nevada’s favorite junk food is the Kit Kat bar. The Kit Kat bar’s first slogan was “The biggest little meal in London.”
New Hampshire
Almond Joy is New Hampshire’s guilty pleasure snack of choice. But New Hampshirites might be disappointed to learn that Mounds bars were discovered first in 1946, with the Almond Joy not being invented until 26 years later.
New Jersey
New Jerseyites are in good company, for they’re the fourth state on this list that claim the Oreo cookie as its favorite. No one knows how the Oreo got its name, but some fans like to theorize that it represents the cookie’s shape.
New Mexico
It appears there aren’t tons of vegetarians in New Mexico, for beef jerky is the Land of Enchantment’s junk food of choice. While there are arguably unhealthier snacks on this list, beef jerky often contains high amounts of sodium.
New York
Chips Ahoy is New York’s junk food of choice. Perhaps the reason for this is that New York Jets coach Todd Bowles once said he enjoys celebrating wins with a pile of Chips Ahoy.
North Carolina
North Carolinians make Starburst the star of their snack show, according to Zippia’s findings. Starburst’s original flavors were lemon, strawberry, orange, and lime. Nowadays, customers can purchase unique flavors like guava and Disco Berry.
North Dakota
Get ready for a major snack shift: North Dakota’s favorite food is sunflower seeds. And given that about 75% of sunflowers cultivated in the US come from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, this food of choice makes sense.
Ohio
Starbursts are at it again, with these chewy candies being Ohio’s favorite junk food. The original name for Starburst was Opal Fruits, and it didn’t undergo a name change until arriving in the US from Britain.
Oklahoma
Oklahoman residents may be sweet, but they appear to love sour snacks, with the Sour Patch Kids ranking as their favorite treat. For the best-textured candy, purchase Sour Patch Kids in high-traffic places like movie theaters and avoid bulk purchases where they’re more likely to be stale.
Oregon
Kettle chips are Oregon’s favorite junk food. Kettle Foods sells many different varieties of air-fried chips, ranging from classic to jalapeรฑo. Some chips even have 30% less fat, making Oregonians feel like they’re getting a healthier deal.
Pennsylvania
It likely comes as no surprise that Hershey’s is Pennsylvania’s junk food of choice. However, given that Pennsylvania is home to Hersheypark, it’s reasonable to assume there are many tourists in Pennsylvania Googling how to get their hands on some Hershey’s chocolate.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island joins Maine in having the Ritz Cracker be its favorite snack. A retired sea captain invented the first biscuit recipe in 1801, which underwent several changes to make the Ritz Cracker the taste and texture we know it to be today.
South Carolina
The Palmetto State’s favorite junk food is salt and vinegar chips. It appears South Carolinians are in good company; 48 million Americans say that salt and vinegar is their go-to chip flavor.
South Dakota
Milky Way bars are South Dakota’s favorite junk food. The founders of the Milky Way bar created it to mimic the taste of malted milkshakes, and the Milky Way continues to be the oldest Mars chocolate bar still selling on store shelves.
Tennessee
Tennessee’s favorite guilty pleasure snack is the Baby Ruth bar. The Baby Ruth’s name was inspired by President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth Cleveland.
Texas
Funyuns are Texas’ favorite junk food. Funyuns first touched American tastebuds in 1969, when Frito-Lay engineer George Binger created what came to be the beloved onion ring product. The Funyuns recipe hasn’t changed an ounce since its initial release.
Utah
Utah’s favorite snack is the 3 Musketeers bar. The candy brand says they’re proud to still be the “fluffiest treat on the shelves.”
Vermont
Ready for an oddball? Vermont’s favorite snack is muffins. While muffins are plentiful at cafes in the Green Mountain State, there isn’t a national muffin chain in the US.
Virginia
Virginians join several states in loving their Oreo cookies. The Oreo’s first slogan was “Oh! Oh! Oreo.”
Washington
Washingtonians love Cheez-Its as their favorite snack. The Cheez-It is over 100 years old and has a shelf life of 11 months.
West Virginia
Lay’s are West Virginia’s favorite junk food. If you want to try all of Lays’ chip flavors, you’ll need to embark on a road trip; the company makes different flavored chips targeting separate regions of the US. Cajun Spice Lay’s chips, anyone?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s favorite unhealthy snack is the Twix bar. Two perfectionist brothers invented the chocolate caramel candy. They eventually decided to split the Twix bar into two, which some suggest represents their falling out before they made amends.
Wyoming
Wyoming’s favorite snack is a bit anticlimatic: The Equality State is a fan of sunflower seeds. It takes anywhere from just under two months to four full months for sunflowers to produce ready-to-harvest seeds.
America’s Favorite Junk Food
Oreos take the cake (ahem, cookie) as the most popular junk food in the US. According to The Washington Post, nearly one out of every five dollars Americans spend on cookies goes to buying Oreos.
Give Me Those Cavities
Twenty-nine states prefer sweet junk food over salty ones. It’s safe to say that many dentists aren’t worrying about job security.
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The #1 Food Each State Is Known For
Before embarking on your next road trip, discover the most famous food each state is known for (and the foods that MUST go on your “to eat” list). Warning: You might regret reading this on an empty stomach.
