Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Heir Breaks Silence—And Puts Hershey on Blast in Bizarre Showdown

Reese's has been an iconic brand for so long, it's easy to forget that Mr. Reese himself was actually a real person. But it's true. H.B. Reese created his iconic confection, the peanut butter cup, in his basement in 1928. Since then, it's been a staple in every grocery checkout aisle and every kid's Halloween bag.

But now, just a few years shy of the peanut butter cup's hundredth birthday, H.B. Reese's grandson is putting the brand's corporate overlord, The Hershey Company, on blast. He's not happy, and he's calling on one particular company exec to make some big changes.

Reese's Heir Slams Hershey Over Low-Quality Ingredients

In a long post on LinkedIn, Brad Reese wrote an open letter to The Hershey Company, accusing the corporate chocolate giant of cheaping out on ingredients and messing with the original product's quality. "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 crémes across multiple Reese's products."

Reese addressed the letter to Todd Scott, Hershey's manager of corporate brand and editorial, urging him to be transparent with customers about the ingredients they're actually consuming.

He asked, "How does The Hershey Company continue to position Reese's as its flagship brand ... while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built Reese's trust in the first place?"

He added, "Right now, the Reese's story is diverging from what's inside Reese's products. And that divergence puts Reese's and the legacy behind it at risk."

The Internet Agrees with Reese — Quality Has Gone Down

Comments on the post applauded Reese for speaking up. "As a 61 year old consumer who has eaten Reese's as long as I can remember ... I knew it wasn't the same," one wrote. "I'm all about the texture, feel and taste, and it just isn't as good as it used to be."

People on Reddit voiced their preference for Trader Joe's peanut butter cups, which are made with real chocolate and real peanut butter. "The peanut butter is so smooth," one person wrote. "Reese’s are dry and grainy."