By Gwynedd Stuart |
The best peppermint bark is an absolutely essential holiday treat. It doesn’t really feel like the holidays until you’re in possession of a tin of chocolate covered in peppermint candy someone pulverized with a hammer. So, who makes the best peppermint bark? Well, that depends.
Whether you like dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate, there’s a peppermint bark gift for pretty much every taste. But cocoa content aside, the thing that makes the various brands of peppermint bark different from one another the most is thickness. Some peppermint bark is thin and delicate, some is so damn thick you’ll need to borrow that peppermint hammer to even get through (looking at you, Trader Joe’s). Here’s our ranking of the best peppermint bark candy, so you can have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny F*cking Kaye. Enjoy!
- Tate’s Dark Chocolate with Peppermint Cookie Bark
Okay, this is not peppermint bark in the traditional sense. It’s basically bits of Tate’s chocolate chip cookies (our favorite chocolate chip cookies) slathered in a fudgy chocolate topping and then sprinkled with peppermint shards. It’s like cookies coated in peppermint bark. Anyway, if you are up for something a little different, this cookie bark deserves a spot on our list of the best peppermint bark. It’s unreal! The cookies are so light and buttery and crisp, and the dark chocolate topping is so rich and delicious. All in all, this cookie bark isn’t super pepperminty—you could say this bark doesn’t have much bite—but this is a great variation on the peppermint bark you know and love. And, don’t worry, you do definitely get little bursts of peppermint flavor and chill as you chew. Crumble this onto a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Or, better yet, crumble this onto a bowl of peppermint ice cream and really get a blast of minty goodness.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Ghirardelli Squares Peppermint Bark
I always buy an extra bag of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares so I can keep enjoying them when they disappear from shelves come January. These are just so melty, so snappy, and the white chocolate layer is full of little peppermint crystals that are extremely fun to eat. I also like to pretend that I won’t eat as much of this peppermint bark in one sitting because they’re individually wrapped and I can easily see the evidence of my gluttony. Even if that’s not true, the wrappers make them the best peppermint bark candy to throw in a bowl and keep on the coffee table or on your desk. Ghirardelli also makes a dark chocolate version, but we all preferred the flavor balance of the milk chocolate. You kind of can’t go wrong with either, though.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Choceur White Chocolate Style Peppermint Bark
If you love white chocolate, this is the best peppermint bark, hands down. It’s so thin. The peppermint shards are plentiful but not stabby or unpleasant to eat. We really liked Choceur’s dark chocolate peppermint bark as well, but the white chocolate version stood out as a must-buy product. It’s creamy and melts in your mouth. It doesn’t just taste like sugar; it tastes like good white chocolate. If you were blindfolded, you might actually think it was a very milky milk chocolate. I know that people who prefer white chocolate to milk chocolate or dark chocolate are few and far between, but this is a peppermint bark candy even regular chocolate lovers will like. It’s such a good holiday treat. And it’s Aldi chocolate, so it’s cheap!
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Red Bird Peppermint Bark Original Recipe
You know those puffy peppermint candies that melt in your mouth like butter? That’s what this bark is covered in rather than sharp shards of candy canes or starlite mints. Red Bird peppermint bark is sweet, yes, but it’s also super buttery and just absolutely melts in your mouth. This peppermint bark candy ranks high for me, but I gave it the third-place spot because it’s a bit of a deviation from what people think of when they think of peppermint bark. That said, it’s the best peppermint bark if you don’t mind something a little different.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Kirkland Peppermint Bark
If you like your peppermint bark thin and delicate, Kirkland makes the best peppermint bark candy you can buy. Because the foundation layer is a bold, rich dark chocolate, the flavor of the white chocolate layer doesn’t make as much of an impression. But if you’re like my colleague, Jordan Myrick, who said, “I don’t care about that,” then you might just love it. This peppermint bark also has a lot of candy cane bits on top. They’re crunchy and well distributed. Shards, I’d call them. One taste tester joked that we should name this one “Best Sharp.” It’s dangerous (and dangerously good).
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Williams Sonoma the Original Peppermint Bark
When it comes to thickness, this peppermint bark from Williams Sonoma is, to borrow a phrase, just right. It’s not too thick, but it’s not thin and snappy either. The chocolate is dark but not so dark that it overpowers the creamy flavor of the white chocolate layer. And this peppermint bark has BIG chunks of peppermint candy on the top; the distribution is a little uneven—like, you’ll definitely get bites without peppermint candy—but the quality is so high overall that you won’t mind. This is a Christmas staple in Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling’s household and I can see why. It’s the best peppermint bark brand you can buy.
Credit: Liv Averett / Williams Sonoma
Best Variation
Rating:
8.5/10
Sporks
Best Individually Wrapped
Rating:
8.5/10
Sporks
Best White Chocolate
Rating:
9/10
Sporks
Best Sweet
Rating:
9.5/10
Sporks
Best Thin
Rating:
9.5/10
Sporks
Best of the Best
Rating:
10/10
Sporks
Other products we tried: Cost Plus World Market White and Dark Chocolate Bark, Ghiradelli Squares Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark, Ghiradelli Snowmen, Trader Joe’s Peppermint Bark, Choceur Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark
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About the Author
Gwynedd Stuart
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
