A family member of HB Reese has accused chocolate maker The Hershey Company of quietly changing the recipe of some of the products sold under Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups brand.
‘Changed recipe to save cost’
“My grandfather built Reese’s on a simple, enduring architecture: milk chocolate + peanut butter,” Brad Reese, the grandson of HB Reese, wrote in a letter to The Hershey Company.
“But today, Reese’s identity is being rewritten, not by storytellers, but by formulation decisions that replace milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut‑butter‑style crèmes across multiple Reese’s products,” the letter, which was also posted on LinkedIn by Reese, stated.
“How does The Hershey Co. continue to position Reese’s as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Rees asked further.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were created by HB Reese in 1928, nine years after he was let go from his job with Hershey.
Reese founded the HB Reese Candy Company in 1923, which found success with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
However, following Reese’s death in 1956, his six sons, who inherited the company, sold the HB Reese Candy Company to the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in 1963.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have remained one of the most popular products of Hershey’s ever since.
‘Throw out a packet’
However, according to Brad Reese, Hershey is now cutting corners and using cheaper ingredients, which is affecting the quality and brand reputation of the product his grandfather created.
70-year-old Reese, in a letter to Hershey’s corporate brand manager on February 14, alleged that for multiple Reese’s products, the company replaced milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut crème.
Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey went too far. He said he recently threw out a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, which were a new product released for Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made from “chocolate candy and peanut butter crème,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.
Reese said Hershey changed the recipes for multiple Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate, he said, but now they aren’t. In the early 2000’s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they’re made with a white creme, he said.
Reese said Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland are also different than US versions. On Wednesday, a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado described the candy as “milk chocolate-flavored coating and peanut butter crème.”
“It was not edible,” Reese told. The Associated Press in an interview. “You have to understand. I used to eat a Reese’s product every day. This is very devastating for me.”
Reese said he often has people tell him that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should keep in mind a famous quote from its founder, Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertising.”
“I absolutely believe in innovation, but my preference is innovation with quality,” Reese said.
What Hershey said
Responding to the criticism, Hershey acknowledged some recipe changes but said Wednesday that it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices have also led Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years.
Hershey said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been, with milk chocolate and peanut butter that the company makes itself from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some Reese’s ingredients vary, Hershey said.
“As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans have come to love and ask for, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.
