Reese’s chocolate heir accuses Hershey of altering recipes: ‘It wasn’t real peanut butter’ | Chocolate
The grandson of HB Reese, the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, has accused chocolate giant Hershey of promising investors to revert the recipes of its popular products, including KitKat, to the original milk and dark chocolate.
A confectionery-focused feud between Brad Reese and the $42 billion Pennsylvania-based company began in February, when Reese, 70, accused the company of “quietly replacing” the ingredients, or “architecture,” of his grandfather’s invention with cheaper “composite coatings” and “peanut butter-style creams.”
At a recent Hershey investor conference, the company said it would replace about 3% of selected products with original recipes but maintained that it had never replaced its famous Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Stacy Taffet, the company’s chief growth officer, said Hershey’s is “transforming our dessert portfolio to colors derived from natural sources and ensuring that the branding of all Hershey and Reese’s products is consistent with classic milk and dark chocolate recipes.” The changes are planned to come into force from next year.
But Reese accused The company experienced “content drift across its flagship brands” and described the move as “a board-level accountability issue” that caused shareholders to sell shares. “Your consumers are revolting,” he added.
Reese also told the New York Times that he was not satisfied and that the changes were not coming fast enough. “This is just a PR stunt; there is no victory here,” he said in an interview with the outlet. “If they were serious they would do it right away.”
The company said the changes were already underway but not in response to Reese’s criticism, having previously decided to return to classic recipes after seeing a 25% increase in research and development to fund talent, technology and nutritional science.
The issue has become a crusade of sorts for Reese, who claims that Hershey changed after purchasing the Reese’s brand in the 1960s.
In his first complaint to the company, Released on Valentine’s Day Reese said on social media platform LinkedIn that the recipes were “rewritten not by storytellers but by formulation decisions that replace Milk Chocolate with compound coatings and Peanut Butter with peanut butter-style spreads.”
Reese said she noticed the difference in flavor when she tried Reese’s Unwrapped Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Mini Hearts.
“I opened it and there were about two and I had to spit them out,” he said. “I emptied the entire contents into the kitchen trash can and hid the bag. I checked and it wasn’t milk chocolate or real peanut butter.”
“I’ve never spit out a Reese’s product in my life.”
But Reese’s family does not support her complaints. In Hershey’s statement to USA Today, they said his “statements and opinions are entirely his own and do not reflect the views and stance of our family.”
“We continue to respect the Hershey Company, its leadership and its long-standing role in our society,” they added. “We believe HB Reese would be very proud of the products produced under its name today and the integrity with which the brand continues to be managed.”
Brad Reese disagreed and accused the company of trying to “shoot the messenger.”
“Hershey can make all the statements it wants,” he said on LinkedIn. “They changed REESE’s product. They got caught. Now they are trying to manage perception instead of solving the problem. The chain of evidence does not disappear.”
