Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are an American candy.
The candy consisting of a chocolate cup filled with peanut cream.
The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is considered the “finest creation” of Harry Burnett “H. B.” Reese, a former employee of Hershey’s.
Harry Burnett “H. B.” Reese was born in York County, Pennsylvania. He was of Welsh ancestry. He married Blanche Edna Reese (née Hyson) on August 1, 1900. Together they had 16 children, 8 daughters and 8 sons.
In 1923, The H.B. Reese Candy Company was established in the basement of Reese’s home in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Reese was soon able to quit his job at the Hershey factory to concentrate on his own business.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were his most popular candy, and Reese eventually discontinued his other lines.
Reese’s makes so many peanut butter cups each year that it could feed one cup to every person in the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, China, Africa, and India with its annual production.
Unfortunately, as his cups were growing rapidly in popularity, Reese died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1956, just a few days before his 77th birthday. Seven years later, six of Reese’s sons decided to sell the family business.
The Hershey’s Chocolate Company, that had inspired Reese, purchased the H.B. Reese Candy Company for $23.5 million in 1963 with H.B. Reese’s children getting roughly a five percent share in the Hershey Company.
In 1969, only 6 years after the Reese/Hershey merger, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups became The Hershey Company’s top seller.
Past many years Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the No. 1 selling candy brand in the United States.
Today, the Reese brothers’ original shares of Hershey common stock represented 16 million Hershey shares valued at over $2.5 billion that paid annual cash dividends of $51.4 million.
In the United States, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups typically come in packs of 2, 4, 5, 10 or 20 in distinctive orange packaging, set on thin but rigid paperboard trays.
The “Classic” two-pack is a 0.75 oz. (21.3 grams) cup since 2001 – originally a 0.9 oz. (25.5 grams) size, reduced to 0.8 oz. (22.7 grams) in 1991.
In Canada, where they are packaged as Reese Peanut Butter Cups, but still widely referred to by their American name, they come in a standard pack of three 0.55 oz. (15.6 grams) cups or the king-size variation with four cups. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, they were originally available only in two-packs, though are now only available in three-packs, imported from Canada.
The World’s Largest Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are sure to make lovers of Hershey’s milk chocolate and creamy peanut butter ecstatic as each of these mammoth pieces of candy weigh eight, yes eight, ounces (227 grams) and there are two to a package! To put this into perspective, each package weighs 1 pound (450 grams) and measures approximately 10 inches (25 cm) long and is 5 inches (12.5 cm) wide, and the beloved peanut butter cups are 4 inches (10 cm) on top and 3 inches (7.5 cm) at the bottom.
During the seasons when retailers offer holiday-themed candies, Reese’s Peanut Butter candies are available in various shapes that still offer the standard confection theme of the traditional Reese’s cup including hearts, eggs, bunny, pumpkins, ghosts, Christmas trees, bells, snowman.
Reese’s (like most other chocolate and peanut butter cups) mixes their finely ground peanut paste with powdered sugar before piping it into cups. This absorbs the peanut oils and changes the viscosity, while the extra sugar helps the candy to melt in your mouth in a different way than normal peanut butter.
There are 175 calories in 2 individual Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
The famous slogans, “Two great tastes that taste great together” and “How do you eat a Reese’s?” originated in marketing campaigns for this candy.
The most popular slogan is “There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s.”
May 18 is the official “I Love Reese’s” Day. It was established after nearly 40,000 fans joined a campaign page on Facebook asking for their favourite candy to have its own special day.
Reese’s was an associate sponsor of NASCAR Cup Series drivers Mark Martin (1994), and Kevin Harvick (2007–2010).