Hershey says Reese’s products will be consistent with classic recipes

The Hershey Co. says it’s aligning all of its Hershey and Reese’s chocolate products with classic recipes.

“We’re … ensuring that all Hershey’s and Reese’s offerings are consistent with their brands’ classic milk and dark chocolate recipes,” Hershey Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Stacy Taffet said at an event for investors Tuesday, according to the financial news site Seeking Alpha.

About 3% of Reese’s products and a small portion of Hershey’s products will have their recipes changed to use pure chocolate by the end of 2027, according to Bloomberg.

The Reese’s peanut butter cup was invented by H.B. Reese in 1928. He was a Hershey employee before founding his own company, which his sons ultimately sold to Hershey in 1963.

One of his grandsons, Brad Reese, published an open letter in February claiming that Hershey had changed the recipe for Reese’s candy.

“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?” Mr. Reese wrote, according to The Associated Press.

Specifically, Mr. Reese alleged that peanut butter had been replaced with peanut creme in some Reese’s candy and that milk chocolate had been replaced with compound coatings, according to AP.

Mr. Reese wrote Wednesday on LinkedIn that the announced changes were “a direct response to the concerns raised even if the company refuses to credit the source.”

Todd Scott, the Hershey corporate brand manager to whom Mr. Reese addressed his open letter, told Yahoo Finance that “all I have to say is our iconic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been; starting with roasting fresh peanuts to make our unique, one-of-a-kind peanut butter that is then combined with milk chocolate.”

In addition to the remarks on Hershey’s and Reese’s brand candy, Ms. Taffet said the company’s KitKats would be creamier and that Hershey would be using natural coloration for its products, according to Seeking Alpha.

Nestle owns the global KitKat brand, but Hershey has produced and distributed the U.S. version of the product since 1970, according to The New York Times.