Reese's Pieces Archives

May 16, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Big Cup with Pieces – A Very Tasty Combo

Candy Bars

Though Reese cramming their Peanut Butter Cups with stuff has become old hat at this point, I’m pretty sure that Reese’s Big Cup with Pieces was the first time they did this. So basically, it’s the Neil Armstrong of putting stuff into a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Unless I’m wrong about it being first, in which case I guess it’s the Buzz Aldrin of putting stuff into a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

It’s easy enough to see why this thing kickstarted a trend — it’s delicious. The Big Cup itself is quite good, with a much more peanut buttery flavour than a standard Reese Peanut Butter Cup, and a very satisfying balance of sweet and salty.

The Reese’s Pieces bring a nice bit of crispiness that compliments the creamy cups really well. And they aren’t just there for texture; they add a decent amount of their very distinctive flavour. It all adds up to something that seems like it should just be a novelty, but is actually quite tasty.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 cups, 79 grams): 390 calories, 22 grams of fat (10 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 230 mg of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 3 gram of fibre, 41 grams of sugar, 8 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, lactose, lecithin (soy), polyglycerol polyricinoleate), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, partially defatted peanuts, modified and hydrogenated palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup, salt, colour, corn starch, confectioner’s glaze, lecithin (soy) modified corn starch, corn syrup, THBQ, carnauba wax, artificial flavour.

April 14, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Pieces Peanut – A Big Downgrade from the Original

Candy Bars

Cramming a peanut into Reese’s Pieces seems like it should be a match made in heaven — Reese’s Pieces are one of my favourite candies, and Peanut M&M’s are objectively the best M&M’s. So combining the two must be the greatest thing ever, right?

You’d think.

In practice, these things just aren’t that great. It’s weird; adding a peanut seems like it could only enhance an already delicious candy, but it throws off the balance. It muddles that distinctive Reese’s Pieces flavour. It does add a nice roasted nuttiness, but it turns out Reese’s Pieces doesn’t need that. It was already perfect on its own; the presence of a whole nut waters down what was already great about it.

It doesn’t help that the candy shell is slightly thicker than a standard Reese’s Piece (what, isn’t a single one of these a Reese’s Piece? Or does this always have to be plural?), which gives it an unpleasantly assertive crunchiness that’s a bit over-the-top. It’s not a big deal, but again, the balance is thrown off. The addictive, “just one more piece” quality of the original is diminished.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (13 pieces, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 30 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, dextrose, corn syrup), peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, confectioners glaze, corn starch, modified corn starch, salt, lecithin (soy), carnauba wax, artificial flavour, titanium dioxide, tartrazine, sunset yellow FCF, allura red, brilliant blue FCF, milk ingredients.

July 22, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s: Milk Chocolate, Peanuts & Reese’s Pieces – Candy Crammed into Middling Chocolate

Chocolate

Hershey sure loves to cram things into a Reese product, or cram Reese products into things. I’ve already reviewed Reese Outrageous! Stuffed with Pieces and Reese’s Stuffed with Crunchy Cookie, and now here’s a Hershey chocolate bar stuffed with Reese’s Pieces.

Hershey’s chocolate has a pretty unmistakable flavour. It’s quite sweet, and it has a mild but distinctive sour tang that may or not share chemical properties with vomit (no, really). It’s certainly not my favourite, but if it’s the only chocolate around, yeah, sure, I’ll eat it.

The problem here is the addition of Reese’s Pieces. That sounds delightful (Reese’s Pieces are delicious, after all), but in practice it’s a bit much. Hershey chocolate is very, very sweet; so are Reese’s Pieces. Combine the two with nothing to balance them out (the tiny peanut bits are barely even noticeable and definitely do not perform this function) and you’ve got a recipe for sweetness overload.

The texture wasn’t great either. I don’t know if it was the addition of the chunks or if Hershey chocolate is always like that (it’s been a while), but the chocolate wasn’t particularly creamy. It’s actually pretty grainy.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43 g): 220 calories, 12 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0 g of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 27 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 25 g of sugar, 3 g of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lecithin (soy), salt, natural flavor), sugar, peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, soybean oil), contains 2% or less of corn syrup solids, dextrose, palm kernel oil, corn syrup, artificial color (yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, red 40 lake, blue 1 lake), cornstarch, salt; confectioner’s glaze, lecithin (soy), modified cornstarch, carnauba wax, vanillin, artificial flavor.

May 3, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese Outrageous! Stuffed with Pieces – Sweetness Overload

Candy Bars

I’ll admit that Reese Nutrageous isn’t one of my favourite candy bars. Reese’s Pieces, on the other hand, is one of my favourites. So what do you get when you cram a great candy into a mediocre one?

Uh… nothing great, that’s for sure.

Reese Outrageous (sorry, Reese Outrageous!) is basically a Nutrageous, but with the peanuts replaced with Reese’s Pieces.

The problem here is that it’s just way, way too sweet. With a standard Reese Peanut Butter cup you get a very strong peanut butter flavour along with a nice hit of salt to balance things out. There’s no such balance here; just an in-your-face level of chewy sweetness that’s a bit exhausting to eat.

There’s a tiny bit of peanut butter in the middle of this thing, but it’s completely overwhelmed by the dense caramel and the generous layer of very sweet milk chocolate. The Reese’s Pieces add some nice crunch and more peanut butter flavour, but those candies are basically perfect on their own; they’re very sweet, but the sweetness feels finely tuned. Once you add on caramel and chocolate, it throws things off. It’s too much.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (41 g bar): 200 calories, 10 g of fat (6 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 60 mg of sodium, 28 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 24 g of sugar, 3 g of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, lactose, lecithin (soy), polyglycerol polyricinoleate), sugar, peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dextrose, sorbitol, modified palm kernel oil, modified milk ingredients, salt, colour, corn starch, high maltose corn syrup, corn syrup, artificial flavour, carnauba wax, mono and diclycerides, TBHQ, citric acid.

November 10, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Pieces – Loved by Humans (and Aliens) Worldwide

Candy Bars

I don’t think there’s any other candy out there that can thank its success so thoroughly to a movie; I think it goes without saying that the movie I’m referring to is E.T.. If Reese’s Pieces hadn’t been so prominently featured in that film and subsequently found success because of it, who knows if we’d still be eating them today (and of course, there is the infamous story of the people at Mars refusing to allow M&Ms – Steven Spielberg’s first choice of candy – to be used in the movie. That’s one of those colossal blunders that you have to imagine still stings a little bit).

The question of “favourite candy ever” is one that, for me at least, probably changes on a daily basis depending on my mood. However, ask me that question, and more times than not I’ll probably say Reese’s Pieces. I mentioned in my review of Reese Peanut Butter Cups that it took me a while to warm up to their distinctive, crumbly peanut butter. I never had that problem with Reese’s Pieces; it’s always been one of my favourites.

There’s just something about the sweet, creamy peanut butter filling combined with the crunchy shell that hits all the right notes for me. The smooth peanut butter centre is sweeter than the average PB, and contrasts very nicely with the crunchy shell. They also happen to be highly addictive; once you start eating them, it’s pretty hard to stop until you’re scraping the bottom of the bag and wishing there could be just one or two more left.

I do have a small quibble with the packaging – I’m of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought, and so I kind of miss the box. I guess it doesn’t make a difference, but I miss it nonetheless.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (51 g bag): 250