A LinkedIn Post From the Grandson of Reese’s Inventor Just Prompted Major Change at Hershey

The chocolate giant says it will restore classic recipes, starting with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

BY LEILA SHERIDAN, NEWS WRITER

The grandson of the man who invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups publicly accused The Hershey Company of tampering with one of its most iconic products, fundamentally changing the candy’s taste and identity. Now, the chocolate giant is reversing course. 

H.B. Reese, who spent two years working at Hershey before founding his own candy company in 1919, invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928. His six sons later sold the business to Hershey in 1963, cementing the brand as a cornerstone of the company’s portfolio. Now, his grandson, Brad Reese, is fighting to protect the brand’s integrity. And he’s winning. 

Hershey Changes Course

On Wednesday, Hershey said it will revert to the classic recipe for all Reese’s products starting next year, according to AP News. The company acknowledged it had made changes in recent years, citing shifting consumer preferences and rising cocoa costs, which led it to experiment with using less chocolate in some products.

Traditionally, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made with real milk or dark chocolate and peanut butter. More recently, however, certain seasonal items, like mini Easter eggs, have used coatings containing less chocolate. Hershey said that by 2027, those products will return to “their classic milk chocolate and dark chocolate recipes,” according to AP News.

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The successful reversal comes after the chocolate giant faced mounting pressure from Reese, who took his concerns public in a LinkedIn open letter addressed to Todd Scott, Manager of Corporate Brand & Editorial at Hershey. “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 crèmes across multiple REESE’S products,” he wrote.

He added, “How does The Hershey Company continue to position REESE’S as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built REESE’S trust in the first place?”

For Reese, the issue goes beyond supply chain pressures. “It’s about whether The Hershey Company’s corporate narrative is allowed to drift away from REESE’S product reality,” he wrote. “It’s about whether consumers are being asked to believe a story that no longer matches what’s inside the REESE’S orange wrapper.”

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