I have a special place in my heart for sweet and chocolatey candy, but sometimes, you need something a little less rich and a bit brighter to sate your sweets craving. That's when sour candies come into play. They make your mouth pucker and your nose wrinkle in all of the best ways. But with so many different sour candies on the market, how do you know which ones are worth your time — and the havoc they're bound to wreak on your taste buds — and which are better left on the store shelf?

I've tasted 12 popular sour candies and ranked them from worst to best to give you a starting point on your next sour candy shopping experience. You've likely tried some of these candies before (or at least seen them at the store), so chances are, you'll have your own opinions. You don't have to agree with me on every point, but hopefully, this list will give you some guidance about what to try next. The criteria for this ranking boiled down to overall flavor and texture, and I paid special attention to just how sour each candy really was. So, prepare your tongue for some serious sourness, and let's take a closer look at these 12 popular sour candies.

No hate to Mike and Ike, but it's indisputably one of the worst candies on the market, and the sour version is no better. These plasticky pellets look less like food and more like something you'd find inside a child's toy, so eating one feels wrong before you even get to the taste at all. Once you do finally go in for a bite, you'll be met with a chewy, sticky mess that clings to your teeth, seemingly negating all the brushing you've done for the past week. Chewing one of these candies makes me feel like I need to immediately seek out some floss.