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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Edward Helmore

Reese’s chocolate heir accuses Hershey of altering recipes: ‘It wasn’t real peanut butter’

smiling chocolate mascots
The Hershey's Chocolate World sign outside the Hershey Park Entertainment Complex on 21 December 2025 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

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 confectionery-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”.

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