Brad Reese, grandson of Reese’s creator H.B. Reese, takes on Hershey over changed candy ingredients. They dig into milk chocolate vs. chocolate candy, peanut butter vs. peanut butter cream, and why soaring cocoa costs may be driving cheaper formulas. There’s family drama, a taste test, market segmentation, and a public pressure campaign pushing for classic recipes to return.
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Brad Reese Sparked The Fight Over Skimpy Reese’s
Brad Reese bought Reese’s mini hearts, took two bites, spat them out, and discovered the wrapper no longer said milk chocolate or peanut butter.
He then scanned store shelves and found labels like chocolate candy and peanut butter cream on multiple Reese’s products.
When ingredient costs skyrocket, companies have three basic options: They can raise their prices (a sort of product-specific inflation), shrink the size of the products (often called “shrinkflation”), or, sometimes, find more creative ways to reduce costs by degrading the quality of their products - which our very own Greg Rosalsky has dubbed as “skimpflation.” The latest alleged culprit? Hershey’s.
The Hershey Company is using ingredients in some of their Reese’s candies that — legally — they cannot call milk chocolate or peanut butter. This has infuriated Brad Reese, a grandson of H.B. Reese, the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
On today’s show, why chocolate makers might be skimping on chocolate and peanut butter, what else might explain these ingredients, and how Brad Reese has launched a skimp-shaming campaign to get Hershey’s to go back to using classic Reese’s ingredients.
And – EXCLUSIVE – you’ll hear Planet Money break some big news to third-generation peanut butter cup scion Brad Reese.
This episode was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Kenny Malone, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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