Reese’s backs down, agrees to make candy people want to eat
After quietly swapping real chocolate for cheaper coatings in some products, Hershey is now reversing course and promising to bring back classic Reese’s recipes, a rare admission that customers can, in fact, tell when you cheap out on the good stuff.
“Hershey is committed to making products consumers love and that means continually reviewing our recipes to meet evolving tastes and preferences,” the company said in a statement.
Brad Reese, the grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, ignited the controversy in a public letter he sent to Hershey’s corporate brand manager on Valentine’s Day.
“How does The Hershey Co. 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?” Reese wrote in the letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.
Hershey acknowledged some recipe changes but said it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation.
Turns out there are limits to what you can “innovate” before people notice you’re just cutting corners. Reese’s wasn’t broken, and the backlash is a reminder that consumers will tolerate a lot, but messing with a beloved formula to save a few bucks isn’t one of them.
I doubt very much that any customer of Reese's "demand[ed]...innovation" and certainly not of the "please remove chocolate from the product" variety.
Whenever shenanigans like this go down, I try to imagine the meeting. Someone suggests saving a penny on each cup if they just replace the chocolate with something chocolatey, and everyone nodding along, the spreadsheet guy running the numbers... That's what hell will be like.
short of maintaining an at home chromatograph how do you tell there's no chocolate in your chocolates? weeell, supposely they *have* to indicate that in the ingredients list, however if there's no chocolate in your chocolate they can still use phrases like [1]:
> Labels that say "chocolate candy," "chocolatey," or "chocolate coating" don't meet that standard and typically contain vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter.
got that? "chocolate candy": no chocolate. "milk chocolate": some cocoa butter.
[1] https://www.foodandwine.com/hershey-products-no-longer-use-milk-chocolate-11911049