Reese’s chocolate heir accuses Hershey of altering recipes: ‘It wasn’t real peanut butter’
The grandson of HB Reese, the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, has accused the chocolate giant Hershey of faking a pledge to investors to switch back the recipes of its popular products – including KitKat – to the original milk and dark chocolate ones.A confectionary-focused dust-up between Brad Reese and the $42bn Pennsylvania-based company began in February when Reese, 70, accused the company of “quietly replacing” the ingredients – or “architecture” – in his grandfather’s invention with cheaper “compound coatings” and “peanut-butter-style crèmes”.At a recent Hershey investor conference, the company said it would change about 3% of select products to the original recipes but maintained it had never altered the renowned Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.The company’s chief growth officer, Stacy Taffet, said Hershey was “transitioning our sweets portfolio to colors from natural sources, and ensuring that all Hershey’s and Reese’s offerings are consistent with their brand’s classic milk and dark chocolate recipes”.The changes are planned to come into effect by next year.
But Reese accused the company of “ingredient drift across flagship brands” and described the move “as a board level accountability problem” that caused shareholders to sell stock.“Your consumers are revolting,” he added.Reese further told the New York Times he is not satisfied and the changes were not coming quickly enough.“This is just a PR stunt; there’s no victory here,” he said in an interview with outlet.“If they were serious, they would do it right away.
”The company has said the changes were already under way but not in response to Reese’s criticism, saying it had previously decided to revert to classic recipes after seeing a 25% increase in research and development to fund talent, technology and nutrition science.The issue has become something of a crusade for Reese, who alleges Hershey changed sometime after buying the Reese’s brand in the 1960s.In his original complaint to the company, issued on Valentine’s Day on the LinkedIn social media platform, Reese railed that recipes were “being rewritten, not by storytellers, but by formulation decisions that replace Milk Chocolate with compound coatings and Peanut Butter with peanut‑butter‑style crèmes”.Reese said he’d noticed the difference in taste when he tried Reese’s Unwrapped Chocolate Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts.“I opened it up, and I had about two of them, and I had to spit them out,” he said.
“I dumped the entire contents into my kitchen garbage can, and I kept the pouch.I checked it and it wasn’t milk chocolate, it wasn’t real peanut butter.“I’ve never in my entire life spit out a Reese’s product.”But Reese’s family members do not support his complaints.They said in a statement provided to USA Today by Hershey that “his statements and opinions are entirely his own and do not reflect the view or position of our family”.
“We continue to respect The Hershey Company, its leadership, and its longstanding role in our community,” they added.“We believe HB Reese would take great pride in the products produced under his name today and in the integrity with which the brand continues to be managed.”Brad Reese didn’t accept that and accused the company of trying to “shoot the messenger”.“Hershey can issue all the statements it wants,” he fumed on LinkedIn.“They changed the REESE’S product.
They got caught.And now they’re trying to manage perception instead of fixing the problem.The evidence chain isn’t going away.”
Henry Arundell inspires Bath to come-from-behind win over Saracens
Henry Arundell’s two tries helped Bath to a tight victory over Saracens as they squeezed their way into the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The English champions trailed 10-0 at the break against a Sarries side unrecognisable from the one crushed here in the Prem, but the introduction of their heavyweight bench, with Thomas du Toit to the fore and man of the match, turned the contest.The game, in which the referee, Nika Amashukeli, was replaced at half-time for Ben Connor after coming off second-best in a collision with the Bath back-row Josh Bayliss, went down to the wire and a late try from Noah Caluori set up a nervy finish. But Arundell’s second with the final play settled the outcome for a relieved Bath and booked a last-eight tie at home to Northampton on Friday night.“Sometimes in knockout rugby, you just need to get the job done
The Boat Races 2026: Cambridge men cruise to victory, Oxford women end losing streak – as it happened
With Luke McLaughlin’s report in, that’s all from me. Thanks for tuning in.Jamie Laing offers his commiserations to Cambridge’s men before realising his mistake. The crew get up on the platform and Noam Mouelle – now a four-time winner of the race – leads the celebrations.Time for the presentation: Oxford’s women are up on the stage
Oxford women and Cambridge men seal Boat Race triumphs in choppy waters
Oxford’s women ended eight years of Cambridge dominance in their Boat Race with a sensational performance led by the Olympic medallist Heidi Long, while Cambridge overpowered their dark-blue rivals in the men’s race for a fourth consecutive win.On a windy and largely overcast day in London, Oxford’s women forged a lead as soon as the first race of the day sped away from Putney and led by about six seconds at Hammersmith Bridge. Tens of thousands of fans cheered the boats on from the riverside, lining the 6.8km course all the way.The water was exceptionally rough in the later part of the course and Matt Moran, the Cambridge cox, steered into calmer waters at the Surrey bend, taking the inside line and forcing Oxford to respond
Rising star ‘Wreck-It Will’ Sherman has roots in US rugby’s past and eyes on its future
Will Sherman may be the future of US rugby, but his roots are in the game’s American past. The 22-year-old standout second-row forward for Anthem Rugby Carolina in Major League Rugby is the son of Wade Sherman, a member of a champion Cal Berkeley team that included Mark Bingham, who on 11 September 2001 was one of the Flight 93 passengers who fought their hijackers and kept it from reaching Washington.“There was a super old photo that my dad pulled up, and the first time I heard that story was from him,” Sherman said. “He was like, ‘That guy standing to my left is an American hero.’”Sherman “loves telling the story” of how his dad found rugby – which after all is the reason he found it too
NCAA women’s Final Four: UCLA 51-44 Texas; South Carolina 62-48 UConn – as it happened
On paper, South Carolina would be favored in the final. They beat an unbeaten and nearly unbeatable team convincingly. But as we’ve seen tonight, when you get the very best teams together in a competitive cauldron, what bubbles to the surface remains to be seen.Until then …Last bit on Auriemma – in the postgame interviews, Auriemma said he doesn’t regret what he said in his in-game interview about the officials, noting that he had a player change her jersey after it was ripped. But that player, Sarah Strong, ripped her own shirt
Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley have tense postgame exchange after South Carolina shock UConn in Final Four
UConn coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a heated exchange on the sideline after the Gamecocks beat the undefeated Huskies 62-48 in Friday night’s semi-final of the women’s NCAA Tournament.South Carolina ended UConn’s winning streak at 54 games and secured a return trip to the national championship game.As the two met in front of the scorer’s table with 0.1 seconds left, Auriemma appeared to go to shake Staley’s hand and began yelling in her direction. Staley responded with words of her own
How Trump’s Iran war could make the world more reliant on coal
Higher energy costs from Iran war could threaten fragile economics of AI boom | Heather Stewart
UK’s leading AI research institute told to make ‘significant’ changes
Google to tap into gas plant for AI datacenter in sharp turn from climate goals
Tradition, trepidation and that Augusta ‘thing’ – why the Masters remains golf’s greatest prize
County cricket day two: Anderson rolls back the years with five-fer for Lancashire