Reese’s grandson criticises Hershey over alleged recipe changes to iconic brand
Brad Reese claims Hershey altered Reese’s recipes, replacing milk chocolate and peanut butter in some product
The grandson of Reese’s inventor H.B. Reese has publicly criticised The Hershey Company, alleging that recipe changes to certain products are undermining the brand’s legacy.
Brad Reese, whose grandfather founded the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup business before it merged with Hershey in the 1960s, published an open letter claiming the company has replaced traditional ingredients in parts of the product line.
“My grandfather built Reese’s on a simple, enduring architecture: milk chocolate + peanut butter,” Brad Reese wrote.
“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.”
Speaking to FOX Business, he said he recently purchased Reese’s Unwrapped Chocolate Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts and noticed an immediate difference.
“I went and bought a bag, and I took a couple bites, and I had to throw the bag in the garbage,” Reese said. “I couldn’t eat it. It was not edible, and I looked at the packaging … and there was no milk chocolate, there was no peanut butter — it was all vegetable oils and fats.”
He further alleged that products including Reese’s Take 5 and Fast Break are no longer coated in milk chocolate, and claimed that in parts of Europe, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups do not contain milk chocolate.
“I can’t go on representing being the grandson of Reese’s when the product is total bunk,” he said. “You have no idea how devastating it is.”
Hershey rejected the criticism, stating, “Our iconic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been; starting with roasting fresh peanuts to make our unique, one-of-a-kind peanut butter that is then combined with milk chocolate.”
The company added that recipe adjustments have been made for new shapes and variations while maintaining the brand’s core identity.
The dispute comes amid wider industry pressures after cocoa prices surged to record highs in late 2024, prompting cost-driven changes and price increases across the chocolate sector.
