Reese’s Fans Rejoice as Hershey Promises a Return to Real Chocolate

If your Reese’s Mini Hearts tasted a little off this Valentine’s Day, you weren’t imagining things. Hershey announced in early April 2026 that it would bring all Reese’s products back in line with the brand’s classic milk chocolate and dark chocolate recipes by 2027. The decision comes after weeks of public pressure, sparked by a very vocal family member with a personal stake in the candy’s legacy.

• Hershey will use classic recipes for all Reese’s products starting next year, following criticism from the grandson of Reese’s founder for shifting to cheaper ingredients.
• The chocolate maker will phase out compound coatings and transition to traditional milk or dark chocolate by 2027, with the change expected to affect less than 3% of Reese’s items.
• Hershey is also transitioning to natural colors across its sweets portfolio and updating KitKat’s recipe to make it creamier.

How the Controversy Got Started

Brad Reese, the grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, sparked controversy with a public letter he sent to Hershey’s corporate brand manager on Valentine’s Day. In his LinkedIn post, he called out the company for quietly swapping milk chocolate with compound coatings and real peanut butter with “peanut butter creme” across several products.

Reese said Hershey changed the recipes for multiple Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate, he said, but now they aren’t. In the early 2000s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they’re made with a white creme, he said. Whether you’re picking up a bag of Reese’s Mini Eggs in Indianapolis or grabbing a Fast Break from a gas station in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Brad Reese wanted consumers to know these products had quietly changed.

Brad Reese noted that it can be difficult for consumers to determine whether they are getting the real, USDA-defined peanut butter. He said they have to look carefully to notice when terms like “peanut butter creme” and “chocolatey” are used instead of peanut butter and milk chocolate.

What Hershey Is Actually Changing

Most Hershey’s products, including its flagship chocolate bars and standard Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, already use traditional chocolate. The classic cup you know and love hasn’t been reformulated. The updates will apply to select items, including the Reese’s Fast Break bar, some Mini Reese’s, and certain foil-wrapped products.

The snacking giant said it plans to incorporate the classic milk-and-dark chocolate recipes into the remaining 3% of Reese’s products that don’t use them. That may sound like a small number, but those are exactly the products that created the most confusion for shoppers. You’d see the Reese’s name on the package and assume you were getting the same quality you’d always trusted.

Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner said the decision to adjust ingredients was made shortly after he took on the role last summer. The company said it plans to increase its research and development funding by 25% next year.

Rising Cocoa Costs Played a Big Role

High cocoa prices have led Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years. The global cocoa market has been a wild ride. Cocoa beans traded at over $12,000 a ton at their all-time high in 2024. Today, they’re about $3,300 a ton.

That massive spike pushed candy makers across the board to find cost savings. Hershey had switched from milk chocolate to cheaper compound coatings for a range of Reese’s products and other candies in recent years. Compound coatings use vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, allowing manufacturers to avoid the worst of cocoa price swings. The tradeoff? A product that tastes noticeably different.

Candy prices are up 11.6% in the last year, according to February’s Consumer Price Index. Even with cocoa prices coming down, shoppers are still paying more at the register. Cocoa prices have recently rebounded from record highs over the past few years, triggered by poor weather and crop diseases affecting harvests in West Africa, which produces about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.

The Reese Family Isn’t Entirely on Brad’s Side

One interesting wrinkle in this story is that Brad Reese doesn’t speak for the entire family. Hershey pushed back, noting that Reese has no official connection to the company or brand. The company also cited a statement from other members of the Reese family distancing themselves from his remarks.

The Reese’s story began with H.B. Reese, who came to Hershey in 1917 as a dairy farmer working for Milton S. Hershey. Inspired by Mr. Hershey’s business, he began making peanut butter coated in chocolate. H.B. Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928; his six sons eventually sold his company to Hershey in 1963.

Brad Reese isn’t totally satisfied with the outcome, either. Reese dismissed the company’s latest announcement, calling it “a PR move” and “total bunk.” He told FOX Business, “I don’t look at this as a win.” He also questioned the timeline, suggesting the company is delaying action. He said they’re hoping this will die down and it’ll be business as usual by 2027.

Will Reese’s Actually Taste Better by 2027?

Hershey seems committed to making changes across its entire candy lineup. The chocolate maker is also revising the Kit Kat recipe to create a creamier chocolate taste and plans to eliminate artificial colors from its products by the end of 2027. Those are moves that go beyond a simple response to one person’s LinkedIn post.

For fans of the brand, the picture is clear. The standard Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup hasn’t changed. But for the seasonal shapes, mini versions, and some candy bars carrying the Reese’s name, real milk chocolate is on its way back. Whether this is a genuine commitment to quality or a savvy PR play will be determined by what actually ends up on store shelves next year.