Reese’s heir vs. chocolate skimpflation

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:01)
This is Planet Money, from NPR.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:06)
Brad would rather be spending his time singing karaoke right now.

**Brad Reese** (0:11)
I do Rolling Stones, I do Depeche Mode. I just have fun.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:19)
Brad is 70, retired in West Palm Beach, Florida.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:24)
And when we first talked to him, he showed up wearing a bright orange, I guess, Hawaiian shirt, but with a bunch of Reese's Peanut Butter cups all over it. Honestly, pretty snazzy.

**Brad Reese** (0:34)
I mean, I guess you could call me a big Reese's fan.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:37)
And it's his love of Reese's that is keeping him from his beloved karaoke right now.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:43)
Yeah, because a little while ago, he heard that The Hershey Company had released a new Reese's chocolate.

**Brad Reese** (0:50)
It was Reese's Peanut Butter Mini Hearts Unwrapped. Okay. And of course, then I went out and bought one, bought a pouch.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:59)
Brad opens the bag and pops some mini hearts in his mouth.

**Brad Reese** (1:02)
And I took two bites and it was not recognizable. It was just nasty. It was, it was, it was not edible.

**Greg Rosalsky** (1:12)
Brad spits out the mini hearts and then he dumps them in the trash. But then he's like, wait, what was so off about those chocolate hearts?

**Brad Reese** (1:21)
I retrieved the pouch wrapper and looked carefully at the front and the back. And there was no milk chocolate and there was no real peanut butter. So it wasn't even, I don't know what I, Greg, I have no idea what I was eating or what I was tasting.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:36)
Brad is like, what is even in here? No milk chocolate, no peanut butter in a chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Copelight product?

**Brad Reese** (1:45)
I went to the store and just investigated everything I could.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:50)
Brad starts scanning the candy aisles, looking at the wrappers of other Reese's and Hershey's products.

**Brad Reese** (1:56)
Are you familiar with the Reese's Fast Break?

**Greg Rosalsky** (1:59)
I am.

**Brad Reese** (1:59)
Okay. One of my favorites, no longer milk chocolate. Wow. The Reese's Sticks, have you had those?

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:07)
I have not had the Reese's Sticks.

**Brad Reese** (2:08)
They're similar to a Kit Kat, but peanut butter. And those came out in 1998, very good. I love them. It came out as the Crisp You Can't Resist. That used to be milk chocolate. Again, taken off, no milk chocolate.

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:21)
Yeah. The wrappers on these Reese's candies have changed. They used to say milk chocolate. And on some other Reese's candies, they used to say peanut butter. Now they say something else.

**Brad Reese** (2:32)
Chocolate candy. They replaced milk chocolate with chocolate candy. And they replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter cream.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:41)
And these words, chocolate candy, peanut butter cream, they may sound like the real deal milk chocolate and peanut butter, but they are not.

**Brad Reese** (2:51)
It's fake. It's compound coding.
It's betrayal. I felt betrayed. I mean, it's like somebody took a dagger and stabbed it in my heart.

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:01)
It'd be one thing if Brad were just like some random Reese's super fan, but Brad, he's the grandson of HB. Reese, the inventor of the Reese's peanut butter cup.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:13)
Brad's name is Brad Reese.

**Brad Reese** (3:16)
And then I just said, wait a second, I can do something about this.

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:22)
Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Greg Rosalsky.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:25)
And I'm Sarah Gonzalez. The Hershey Company is using ingredients in their candies that legally they cannot label milk chocolate or peanut butter.

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:34)
And an heir to a chocolate and peanut butter dynasty is now going after the brand that bears his family name.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:43)
Today on the show, why chocolate makers might be skimping on the chocolate and the peanut butter.

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:57)
All right, obviously we reached out to the Hershey Company to weigh in on the chocolate allegations made by Brad Reese, angry grandson of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup inventor. Hershey's did not give us an interview, but they did tell us via email that their quote, iconic Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are quote, made the same way they always have been.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (4:20)
Which prompted a thorough investigation by Planet Money at various stores.

**Greg Rosalsky** (4:25)
Incredibly thorough.

**Judy Gaines** (4:30)
Wow.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (4:31)
We have purchased $70 worth of Reese's products.

**Greg Rosalsky** (4:36)
Oh, look at that CVS receipt. Geez.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (4:39)