candy makers are phasing out real cocoa in chocolate

Just before Valentine’s Day, Brad Reese purchased a package of Reese’s Unwrapped Peanut Butter Cream Mini Hearts at his local grocery store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand new product released specifically for the holidays, and its slogan was: “We will never break your heart.”

Reese is a Reese enthusiast who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This is not a coincidence: It is the Reeses is the grandson of former Hershey dairy farmer HB Reese, who invented the peanut butter cup in 1928. Although he never worked for Reese’s or Hershey, which acquired the peanut butter cup company in 1963, Reese sees himself as the guardian of HB’s legacy. He also has a keen interest in the Hershey company and its leadership.

The Unwrapped Peanut Butter Cream Mini Hearts were a disappointment. “I took two bites and had to spit it out,” Reese says. “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my 70 years. It had no taste. It was inedible.”

Reese took a closer look at the packaging, especially the ingredients. He noticed that instead of milk chocolate, the mini hearts were covered in a chocolate-flavored coating consisting mostly of sugar and vegetable oil; The ingredients list included a disclaimer that the sugar contained less than 2% cocoa. To investigate further, she visited the candy aisle of a nearby supermarket and found that many other Reese’s and Hershey products, including Take 5, Mr Goodbar and Heath bars, also lacked milk chocolate.

Cocoa is, of course, the main ingredient in chocolate. It is a complex food that tastes almost bitter on its own. Since humans started eating it, they have combined it with other ingredients, such as cinnamon and cayenne pepper, to make it more palatable. Hershey, Reese’s and other commercial chocolate companies use sugar, milk and oil. For Reese, the extras had finally eclipsed the bittersweetness of the cocoa.

Angry and also a little depressed, Reese took to LinkedIn and wrote a letter. open letter To Todd Scott, corporate brand and editorial manager at Hershey, for the complaint. “How does the Hershey Company continue to position REESE’S as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly changing the ingredients that make REESE’S trustworthy (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter)?” wrote.

Hershey blames cocoa bean variability

Scott did not respond directly, but because of Reese’s lineage, the press took notice. Mr. Monster invited Reese took to her YouTube channel to try her own Feastables brand peanut butter cup. The Hershey company did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment, but released a pair of statements about Reese’s statements; one from the Reese family, that most of HB Reese’s descendants do not share Brad’s criticisms, and the other defending the integrity of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which are still made with milk chocolate and peanut butter as always, while acknowledging a certain amount of experimentation with other shapes and products.

“Hershey blames the variability of the cocoa bean,” says Reese. “They are squeezing every last penny possible.”

The volatile cocoa market is actually an important factor in chocolate pricing. Since 2020, the climate crisis has led to a cycle of drought and floods in Ghana and Ivory Coast, which produce 70% of the world’s chocolate. This leads to diseases that devastate cocoa fields and decimate the cocoa supply, says Alexis Villacis, an economist at Ohio State University who studies the chocolate industry. (Like Reese, Villacis comes from a chocolate family: her grandparents were cocoa farmers in Ecuador.)

However, the demand for chocolate has increased even more. As Villacis points out, our society is built on chocolate. It has become a staple at holiday celebrations such as Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day. It’s marketed as the ultimate cheap luxury, something to brighten gloomy times, and seasonal sales continue to soar despite the rise of GLP-1s and healthier lifestyles. Limited supply and increased demand led to higher prices: by 2024, cocoa rose from $2,000-3,000 to $12,000 per tonne. “In all my years in this industry, I have never witnessed a cocoa market like the one we experience today,” said Mark Taylor, Hershey’s senior director of strategic sourcing. wrote on the company’s website in April 2025.

This posed a conundrum at Hershey. The company, like its British counterparts Cadbury and Rowntree’s, was founded to produce cheap chocolate for the masses: the original Reese’s Cup sold for a penny (also now extinct). To keep prices low, major chocolate producers have resorted to what Villacis calls “creative” strategies: contractionor sell smaller candy bars for the same price. This is particularly popular in the UK and Europe: tobleron It has come under scrutiny from fans, especially those who watch the shape and size of the sticks. But the most creative solution was reformulation.

“They’re now replacing the cocoa with other types of things, like more milk, more almonds, or other types of coatings,” says Villacis.

A German brand, Choco Crossies, owned by Nestlé recently announced was eliminating cocoa entirely in its new Snack Vibes line and replacing it with ChoViva, a lab-grown “chocolate alternative” made from fermented sunflower and grape seeds.

These companies will look for any solution that will maximize profits

There are government regulations in the US, UK and EU about how much or how little cocoa a product can contain and still be considered “chocolate”, but these regulations are much stricter in Europe. In the UK, for example, after Pladis reduced the amount of cocoa bean-derived ingredients in McVitie’s Penguin and Club bars to less than 20%, both treats were officially downgraded from “chocolate” to “chocolate flavour.” in the USA, threshold It’s 15%, and low-cocoa products like Unwrapped Mini Hearts can still be described as “chocolate candy.”

At the end of 2025, cocoa prices fell for the first time in five years. West African cocoa fields have recovered from the weather shocks of the early 2020s and are back in production. But this doesn’t herald the return of cheaper chocolate. Most chocolate companies have previously purchased their cocoa at higher prices and are still working on it. They also need to restructure their margins; Villacis says they “absorbed most of the shock” last year. Also, when it comes to inflation, it is much more difficult to lower prices than to raise them.

Cocoa supplies still remain limited. The UK and EU introduced stricter regulations against buying cocoa from deforested areas, and chocolate companies around the world began to realize the weaknesses of working with growers who used enslaved children as unpaid labour. Villacis says many young cocoa farmers are leaving the fields to look for work in cities. Ecuador and Indonesia are poised to replace West Africa as the world’s largest source of cocoa, but they too are vulnerable to climate disruption.

So what can the average consumer do? Brad Reese vowed to never buy Reese’s product again. “Well, as HB Reese’s grandson, can I say this?” he says. “Swear!”

It’s possible Hershey could respond if enough people join him. “These big companies are testing how consumers respond,” says Villacis. “And they will adapt accordingly.”

Consumers are also becoming more savvy about reading packaging. Many have figured out and know the difference between “milk chocolate” and “chocolate candy” contents Listed in order from largest to first. A quick scan of Reese’s new Easter line reveals that the Snack Size Peanut Butter Eggs contain real milk chocolate, while the Mini Eggs, whose main ingredient is sugar, just have a chocolate-like coating.

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Someone who’s truly serious about chocolate might be willing to pay more for a brand that makes a point of using ethically sourced ingredients, like Tony’s Chocolonely, or a premium chocolate bar like Pacari (Villacis’s personal favorite), which contains more than 50% cocoa and costs more than $10. But the real appeal of mass-market chocolate like Hershey’s has always been its cheapness.

“These companies will look for any solution that will maximize profits,” says Villacis. “If it means changing the entire amount of chocolate in the products, they’ll be fine with that as long as consumers continue to buy it.”

Reese sees things a little differently. “I can’t see how Hershey’s is going to be successful long-term with Reese’s consumers,” he says. “Their trust was betrayed. They realized they had to be vigilant to make sure they weren’t fooled.”