The candy company has announced that it will return to using \u201cclassic milk and dark chocolate recipes\u201d in all its Reese\u2019s and Hershey\u2019s products by 2027.<\/p>\n
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“If this is true, the people who deserve the credit are the loyal fans who were alarmed by what Hershey was doing,” Brad Reese told NBC News on Wednesday. “But I am seeing a lot of red flags here. I think what Hershey is trying to do here is change with PR narrative.” <\/p>\n
Reese, whose demands that Hershey stop skimping on chocolate went viral in February, said he trusts his taste buds more than he trusts the company that produces iconic candies that bear his family name.<\/p>\n
“If something like the Valentine\u2019s Day Reese\u2019s Mini Heart still doesn’t taste like real milk chocolate next year, I’ll know they’re lying,” he said.<\/p>\n
Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner made the announcement on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to make some small investments to really align the portfolio to what the brand stands for,\u201d Tanner said. \u201cThat consistency is important across the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have been made with the same ingredients since 1928 \u2014 milk chocolate and peanut butter. <\/p>\n
Starting next year, Tanner said candies inspired by the originals \u2014 like the “mini Reese’s cups and shapes,” as well as the Reese’s Fast Break candy bar \u2014 will also be made with real milk chocolate instead of a chocolate compound coating.<\/p>\n
In addition, all the classic Hershey’s chocolate bars will also be made with “pure milk and dark chocolate,” he said. And Hershey is “enhancing” the Kit Kat candy bar “for a creamier taste and texture.”<\/p>\n
In all, the company said the shift from chocolate compound coatings to the real thing will affect less than 3% of the Reese’s products and a tiny portion of Hershey\u2019s products. <\/p>\n
And Hershey is “on track” to remove all artificial colors from its products by the end of next year, the company said. <\/p>\n
Tanner, in the Bloomberg interview, also insisted that the switch back to real chocolate was in the works long before Reese went public with his complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight when I started with the company, we did a deep dive across our portfolio,\u201d said Tanner, who joined the firm in August 2025.<\/p>\n
Reese scoffed at that claim from Tanner. <\/p>\n
“You know when this became an issue?” he asked. “Valentine’s Day. This has been going on since Valentine’s Day.”<\/p>\n
Reese began taking Hershey to task after discovering that the company had replaced the milk chocolate with a chocolate-flavored coating on some of its Reese’s-inspired products, like the Valentine\u2019s Day Reese\u2019s Mini Hearts.<\/p>\n
Infuriated, Reese posted a link to a letter of complaint he wrote to Todd Scott, who does the corporate branding for Hershey, on his LinkedIn page. <\/p>\n
Reese invoked the name of his grandfather H.B. Reese, who created the iconic peanut butter cup in 1928 and started a candy company that produced them until 1963. Hershey has been making them ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather,\u201d Reese wrote, \u201cbuilt REESE\u2019S on a simple, enduring architecture: Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Hershey, he wrote, has replaced the original formula “with compound coatings and Peanut Butter with peanut-butter style cremes across multiple REESE\u2019S products.\u201d<\/p>\n
That letter went viral.<\/p>\n