The One Fruit Snack Brand We'll Never Stop Buying

It's hard to imagine a more ubiquitous childhood experience than opening up your lunchbox to find a package of fruit snacks beside a perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Perhaps the biggest difference from one person to the next is simply which brand of fruit snacks their parents chose to include. The love of a gummy, colorful treat stays with many people throughout their lives, which is probably why the market for these classic snacks remains so vast (and why we took the time to rank 13 fruit snack brands from worst to first).

Some nostalgic treats are devastatingly lost to the ether, and live only in the far reaches of our memories. But one fruit snack brand is very much still around, and we'll continue to vote with our wallets to make sure it stays in rotation as long as possible: Mott's. These treats are tasty, heart-warmingly familiar, and have a burst of natural fruity flavor that isn't overwhelmed by sugar or artificial sweeteners. Their chew factor is unparalleled, and even their bright and enticing colors can be credited to fruit and vegetable juice. Plus, their affordable price means you won't feel like you're sacrificing a thing when you reach for them.

There are many factors that make Mott's the best bang for the fruit snack-lover's buck. Chief among them are the ingredients. It's easy to dismiss chewy treats like this as purely junk food, but this brand makes a case that they're actually good for you. That's thanks to the fact that they're created using not only real fruit juice, but vegetable, too.

For label-reading parents, seeing entries like apple juice, strawberry puree, carrot juice, and pear juice in the ingredient list puts the mind at ease about popping a pack of these in a child's lunchbox — or even snacking on some themselves. Regardless of age, consumers of these chewy beauties can count on natural flavors and colors, not to mention a boost of Vitamin C (54 grams of it, making up more than half your recommended daily value). They're ideal snacks for a gluten-free diet as well, and because Mott's doesn't use gelatin (an ingredient in some competitor's snacks), these treats are even vegan friendly.

The Mott's company, which was established in 1842, has some real history to lean on when it comes to fruit. At the time, the family business focused on growing and selling apples and developing new packaging methods. It continued to evolve its offerings from apples to applesauce to apple juice over the next 150 years or so, and even worked to give back to communities by giving away free snacks and books nationwide in a mobile library). Those bona fides gave Mott's real street cred when it entered the fruit snack game in 2010.

Whether inspired by happy customers or by cues from the marketplace, the company has since branched out when it comes to fruit snack variants. You can find Mott's fruit snacks in assorted fruit packs, as well as a berries-only version (in the ever-popular shades of red and purple) and an Apple Orchard package, which leans into Mott's long apple-centric history. For those who favor treats with a little more personality, adorably animal-shaped snacks are available too.

Whatever shape and flavor you prefer, you can easily find boxes of these fruit snacks at your local grocery store. Some retailers even offer a 90-count box for around $20.00, making stocking up on this nostalgic treat a steal.