Reese's Family Heir Says Hershey Is Ruining the Brand

The grandson of the inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is calling out Hershey. He says the candy company is ruining the Reese's brand by switching to cheaper ingredients.

Hershey acknowledges some recipe changes. They said Wednesday it's trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices also led Hershey to experiment with using less chocolate.

Brad Reese, 70, wrote a letter February 14 to Hershey's corporate brand manager. He said for multiple Reese's products, the company replaced milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut crème.

"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?"

He posted the letter on LinkedIn. He's the grandson of H.B. Reese, who invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in 1928. His family sold the company to Hershey in 1963.

Hershey Says the Classic Cups Didn't Change

Hershey said Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been. Milk chocolate and peanut butter made from roasted peanuts, sugar, salt. But some Reese's ingredients vary.

"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."

So, the classic cups are unchanged. Everything else is fair game, apparently.

Brad Reese Threw Out the Valentine's Hearts

Brad Reese thinks Hershey went too far. He recently threw out a bag of Reese's Mini Hearts released for Valentine's Day. The packaging says the candies are made from "chocolate candy and peanut butter crème." Not milk chocolate and peanut butter.

"It was not edible," Reese told The Associated Press. "You have to understand. I used to eat a Reese's product every day. This is very devastating for me."

The man whose grandfather invented the product used to eat it daily. Now he's throwing it out because it's not edible. That says something.

How Companies Get Around FDA Rules

The FDA has strict requirements for chocolate. To be milk chocolate, products must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor—paste made from ground cocoa beans. Also, it must contain at least 12% milk solids and 3.39% milk fat.

Companies get around this by using other wording. Hershey's Mr. Goodbar wrapper says "chocolate candy" instead of "milk chocolate."

So if you see "chocolate candy" instead of "milk chocolate" on the wrapper, that's code for "this doesn't meet FDA standards for actual chocolate."

What Actually Changed

Reese said Hershey changed recipes for multiple Reese's products in recent years. Reese's Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate. Now they aren't. Early 2000s White Reese's were made with white chocolate. Now they're made with white crème.

Reese's sold in Europe, UK, and Ireland are different than U.S. versions. British online supermarket Ocado describes the candy as "milk chocolate-flavored coating and peanut butter crème."

Hershey disputed that. They said Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the EU and UK use the same recipe as U.S. versions. Labels vary because EU and UK require milk chocolate products to have higher percentages of cocoa, milk solids, and milk fats.

What Hershey's CFO Said

In a conference call with investors last year, Hershey's CFO said the company made some formula changes but didn't say which products, but that they were very careful to maintain the "taste profile and specialness of our iconic brands."

"I would say in all the changes that we've made thus far, there has been no consumer impact whatsoever. As you can imagine, even on the smallest brand in the portfolio, if we were to make a change, there's extensive consumer testing."

No consumer impact whatsoever. Except the inventor's grandson now finds the products inedible and throws them out.

People Notice

Brad Reese said people constantly tell him Reese's products don't taste as good as they used to. He said Hershey should remember a 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."

So, one side says no consumer impact. The other side says it's not edible.

Bottom line: check the label next time. If it says "chocolate candy" instead of "milk chocolate" or "peanut butter crème" instead of "peanut butter," you're getting the cheaper version.

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