When you hear the words “snacking” and “magic” in the same sentence these days, it's usually from celebrities talking about their sketchy off-label use of the diabetes drug Ozempic to help them “miraculously” lose weight. But let's take a moment to reflect back on simpler times, when the imagery struck by magic and snacks immediately conjured the image of Harry Potter and his potpourri of delectable wizarding treats.

Don't get hangry if you disagree with these 5 standouts. I'm not here to (honey)duke it out with anyone. Tastes are subjective. And I'm sure we can hammer out our differences over a butterbeer summit. Without further adieu (and without all other starting word guesses for Wordle as well)…

5. Chocolate Frogs –  Let's make one thing clear from the get-go. This list is based on imagined tastes of the best sounding snacks as described in the Harry Potter books, or most visually pleasing snacks in the movies. Many of us with the good fortune to live near a Universal Studios theme park can partake in the actual taste-testing of treats from the franchise at the studio's overpriced Honeydukes shop (at least until Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis picks a fight with that theme park too). But in the interest of making this fair to palates near and far from a Universal Studios, we must eliminate all tastebud memories of real-world Harry Potter snacks and focus on our sensory expectations of the snack when it was first described on the page or screen. With that disclaimer out of the way, I whole-heartedly endorse Chocolate Frogs as the fifth best snack in the Harry Potter series for inducing hunger. It's pure, dense chocolate that isn't seasonal like a bunny and is in the far more symmetric shape of an amphibian whose body is more conducive to breaking off a limb for a quick bite if you don't want to eat the whole thing at once and/or gnaw at the thing teeth-first like a common caveman. It's straight-up chocolate, what's not to love?

4. Fizzing Whizzbees – Now that we're whizzing through this list, might as well add Fizzing Whizzbees to the mix (who's got two wands and magical dad jokes, this guy!). The combination is simple yet poetic. The films describe the snack as chocolatey, fizzy fruits that actually buzz in your mouth. It's like if SodaStream and chocolate had a baby. Consider it noted though that not everyone is in favor of the union between chocolate and fruit, and further noted that not everyone wishes to think of their snacks as the lovechild of two other snacks. I'm putting Fizzing Whizzbees at #4 on the list however because if a parent or caretaker won't let you eat Chocolate Frogs as an after-school snack on the grounds that it's candy, you can simply offer the rebuttal, “But this isn't candy, it has fruit in it!” and you'll be satisfying that hunger in no time.

3. No Melt Ice Cream – I generally feel the term “game changer” is overused these days and don't like to perpetuate that, but there is no other way to describe this one. No Melt Ice Cream?! You're taking away the only frustrating feature of the most delicious snack on Earth – how can it not make this list?! Astronauts could have this in space (unless they're on one of Elon Musk's space ships – no way he'd splurge for no melt ice cream for his crew… too suitable of working conditions)! How many times has the only thing holding you back from ordering ice cream been the time-sensitive nature of its mandatory consumption? Nothing makes me as sad about the fleeting nature of our brief time on this planet as the speed with which ice cream melts on a summer day. Take away the melt, and the sky's the limit.

2. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans – This one might be divisive, but really what isn't in today's fractured society (I'm looking at you, Author-of-this-book-series-who-shall-not-be-named)? As Harry says to Ron on their first ride on the Hogwarts Express “They mean every flavor.” Sure, you might get earwax, vomit or sardine, but you also might get curry, or baked bean. Not sure I'm really helping my case here, but my point is thus — life is messy, and sure you don't always get what you want, but that's what makes the times you do manage to get something sweet all the sweeter. And nothing reflects this ambivalence like the mixed bag that is Every Flavor Beans, because even the bad ones offer a glimmer of hope for what's next to come.

1. Butterbeer – Which brings us to the most hunger-inducing of all Harry Potter snacks, the one that sounds so mouth-wateringly delicious I'm salivating right now over my keyboard thinking about it. Though when I bring this laptop to the Genius bar later for the inevitable fried motherboard, I'll deny any knowledge of a precipitating event. But alas, we're getting slightly off topic. But that's just what the sound of the word “butterbeer” will do to a person. The particulars of the ingredient list are slightly hazy, much like the texture of the drink itself. The book describes butterbeer's contents as “foamy tankards” which, granted, doesn't exactly wet the whistle. Hermione informs us that the drink does warm you up. One would hope the fact that Harry, Ron and Hermione are drinking it as kids means it's non-alcoholic, unless the underage drinking laws of the wizarding world are dangerously more lax than the muggle world. Regardless, it paints the image of something out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Something sublime. Something magical. It's butter. It's beer. It's #1 on the list. Wand drop.