A member of the HB Reese family has accused chocolate maker The Hershey Company of quietly changing the recipe for some products sold under the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups brand.
“Cost-saving recipe changed”
“My grandfather built Reese’s on a simple, enduring architecture: milk chocolate + peanut butter,” wrote Brad Reese, grandson of HB Reese, 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 mixed coatings and peanut butter with peanut butter-style creams across many Reese’s products,” said the letter, which Reese also posted on LinkedIn.
“How does The Hershey Co. continue to position Reese’s as its flagship, 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.
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Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were created by HB Reese in 1928, nine years after he was laid off from his job at Hershey.
Reese founded the HB Reese Candy Company in 1923, which found success with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
However, after 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 Hershey’s most popular products ever since.
“Throw the Pack”
However, according to Brad Reese, Hershey is now cutting back and using cheaper ingredients, which is affecting the quality and brand reputation of the product his grandfather created.
Reese, 70, claimed in a Feb. 14 letter to a Hershey brand corporate executive that the company replaced milk chocolate with mixed toppings and peanut butter with peanut butter in several Reese’s products.
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Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey has gone too far. He said he recently threw away a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, which was a new product released on Valentine’s Day. The packaging says the heart-shaped candies are made with “chocolate candy and peanut butter,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.
Reese said Hershey has changed the recipes for several Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated in milk chocolate, he said, but now aren’t. In the early 2000s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. They are now made with white cream, he said.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland also differ from the U.S. versions, Reese said. On Wednesday, a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado described the candy as “milk chocolate flavored frosting and peanut butter cream.”
“It was not edible,” Reese told The Associated Press. “You have to understand. I used to eat Reese’s every day. This is very devastating to me.”
Reese said people often tell him Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should keep in mind founder Milton Hershey’s famous quote: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertisement.”
“I absolutely believe in innovation, but I prefer innovation with quality,” Reese said.
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What did Hershey say
In response to the criticism, Hershey acknowledged some of the 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 in-house from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some Reese’s ingredients are different, Hershey said.
“As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we’ve been making product formula adjustments that allow us to create new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans love and demand, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.