| Type | Candy |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company (H.B. Reese Candy Company) |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | 1928 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Tagline | Reese's ...perfect |
| Website | www.reeses.com |
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are a brand of candy filled with peanut butter and coated with chocolate, marketed by The Hershey Company. They were created in 1928 by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. Reese was inspired by Hershey, so he left the dairy farm to start his own candy business. The H. B. Reese Candy Co. was established in the basement of Reese's house in Hershey, Pennsylvania,[1] and used Hershey chocolate in his confections. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were his most popular candy, and Reese eventually discontinued his other lines. Several years after his death, Reese's company was sold to The Hershey Company, then known as Hershey Foods Corporation, in 1963 for $23.5 million. The H.B. Reese Company is maintained as a subsidiary of Hershey because the Reese plant workforce is not unionized, unlike the main Hershey plant.
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Hershey's produces "limited editions" of the candy that have included:[2]
Other candy products of the Reese's division of Hershey include:
In September 2007, Hershey's began producing a new Reese's bar called Reese's Whipps. Featuring peanut butter-flavored nougat with a chocolate coating, it has been likened to a peanut butter-flavored 3 Musketeers candy bar.
Hershey also produces several "pantry" items under the Reese's brand, such as Reese's peanut butter chips (analogous to chocolate chips for baking), Reese's premier baking pieces (tiny cup-shaped pieces of chocolate filled with peanut-butter, also for baking), Reese's jarred peanut butter (though without the chocolate, it tastes largely similar to regular peanut butter), and Reese's toppings (including peanut butter syrup, peanut butter and chocolate topping, and Reese's Magic Shell) and sprinkles for ice cream.
For the July 2008 release of the Batman feature film The Dark Knight, Reese's released two limited time products: blue and black Reese's Pieces with Batman's likeness on the packaging, and Reese's peanut butter-filled chocolate Batman logos which were sold individually and roughly the sized of two Reese's cups combined.
The fact that Reese Sticks digressed from the normal Reese's naming pattern was pointed out by Paul Lukas in his zine Beer Frame.[4] As Lukas noted, even though the official name was Reese Sticks, most people he casually surveyed pronounced it unknowingly as Reese's Sticks. In 2009, Hershey's changed the name officially to Reese's Sticks.
During the seasons when retailers offer holiday candies, Reese's Peanut Butter candies are available in various shapes that still offer the standard confection theme of the traditional Reese's cup (peanut butter contained in a chocolate shell). They are sold in a 6-pack packaging configuration, but are usually available as individual items as well. Recently, larger (roughly twice the size of the 6-pack item) versions of the various shapes are available at certain retailers. Exterior packaging is altered to reflect the theme of the representative holiday.[5]
Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts - Available mainly during January and February, these are heart-shaped confections representing Valentine's Day. At various retailers, an individually-packaged, larger heart is available as well. These are packaged in a red and white exterior packaging theme.
Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs - Available mainly during March and April, these are egg-shaped confections representing the holiday Easter. Exterior packaging is usually yellow and orange (milk chocolate), white and orange (white chocolate), or dark brown and orange (fudge-flavored chocolate). This is the only holiday-themed item available in three various chocolate varieties. A larger, individually-packaged Easter Bunny Reese's peanut butter item, known as Reester Bunny, is available as well.
Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins - Available mainly during September and October, these are pumpkin-shaped confections representing Halloween. The packaging is purple and orange.
Reese's Peanut Butter Trees - Available mainly during November and December, these are evergreen tree-shaped confections representing the holiday Christmas. At various retailers, these may be available in standard milk chocolate or white. The packaging was green, white, and orange, but has been changed to the traditional orange packaging with an evergreen tree on the cover.
In December 2005, it was noted that some of the holiday shaped Reese's candies (such as the Bells) contain gluten, unlike the standard peanut butter cups.[6]
Hershey licenses the Reese's brand (name, logo, etc.) to various companies for the production of other products beyond the traditional realm of candy. For example, General Mills produces Reese's Puffs, a brand of peanut butter and chocolate flavored breakfast cereal. Several companies, including Breyers, Baskin-Robbins, and Dairy Queen, produce various licensed Reese's ice cream products.
In the United States, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups typically come in two-, four-, and eight-packs in distinctive orange packaging, set on thin but rigid paperboard trays. The "Classic" two-pack is a .75 oz. cup, the "King Size" four-pack is a .70 oz. cup and the "Lunch" eight-pack is a .55 oz. cup. "Large Size" packs of three .70 oz. cups are also available. The "mini" cups come in various bag sizes and foil colors around seasonal themes like red, gold and green for the Christmas holiday season. In Canada, where they are packaged as Reese Peanut Butter Cups (except Reese's pieces), but still widely referred to by their American name, they come in a standard pack of three cups or the king-size variation with four cups. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, they were originally available only in two-packs, though are now only available in three-packs, imported from Canada. In 2007 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were made available in Denmark by Hydro Texaco and 7-Eleven. In Australia, Reese's products can be found in many specialty candy stores, as well as from American stores such as Costco.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a series of commercials were run for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups featuring situations in which two people, one eating peanut butter and one eating chocolate, collided. One person would exclaim, "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" and the other would exclaim, "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!".[7] They would then sample the mixture and remark on the great taste, tying in with the slogan "Two great tastes that taste great together." These commercials were parodied in an episode of Family Guy.
In the 1990s, the product's slogan was: "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's."[8] The current slogan, introduced in the mid-2000s, is: "Perfect."
Reese's was a sponsor of NASCAR driver, Kevin Harvick from 2007-2010.
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