Hershey To Bring Back Real Chocolate In Some Of Its Recipes Following Backlash

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups have a long and successful history dating back to 1928, when a Hershey employee named H.B. Reese invented the candy in his basement, a recipe that Hershey bought 35 years later. But with corporate ownership can come changes, and not just new products carrying the brand name. 

After the grandson of Reese's founder, Brad Reese, accused Hershey of changing the peanut butter cup recipe, Hershey recently announced that all Reese's spin-off products will be made with real milk chocolate, like the original candy. This change will go into effect in 2027 and is expected to affect less than 3% of the Reese's product lineup.

Prior to this recipe change, Reese's spin-off products like Fast Break bars and Reese's Pieces often used chocolate compound coatings instead of actual chocolate. This return to the basics also covers a small portion of Hershey-brand products that use similar chocolate compounds. Hershey claimed this change has been coming since 2025, but it's hard to reconcile that with the virality of Reese's criticisms, which went public in February 2026.

Recipe changes can invite controversy, especially when it comes to people's favorite sweet treats. Fans of international chocolate might remember the time Cadbury Creme Eggs changed recipes. Consumers denounced the alteration with sometimes overwrought condemnations, but time has shown that the eggs — made for the US market by Hershey — remain popular despite not being the same as they used to.

This mirrors another example of foods (and drinks) that some say don't taste good anymore: Twix candy bars. In the year 2000, parent company Mars reformulated Twix bars to have a crunchier yet less dense biscuit. 25 years later, "New" Twix remains globally popular, and the original formula is a fading memory, much like the boxes it used to come in.

Recipe changes don't happen on a dime, though, even if the product is said to be reverting to basics, as the Reese's lineup is. That's why Hershey has a secret chocolate laboratory to test out new recipes for flavor, consistency, visual appeal, structural integrity, and anything else that could go wrong before their debut. It's likely that 2027's new Reese's products are churning their way through this lab right now, making sure that the real chocolate translates to real success.