Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
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Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are peanut butter-filled chocolate cups. They were created ca. 1928 by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. The H. B. Reese Candy Co., established in the basement of Reese's house in Hershey, Pennsylvania, went on to merge with The Hershey Company in 1963 due to the popularity of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, (now produced by The Hershey Company, Reese's division), are the most popular and most widely recognized brand of peanut butter cups in the world. In the United States, they come in one-, two-, three-, four-, and six-packs in distinctive orange packaging. In Canada, where they are known as Reese Peanut Butter Cups, the cups come in a standard pack-size of two cups, three cups or the king-size variation with four cups. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, they were originally available only in two-packs, and are now only available in three-packs.
The cups also come in miniature sizes, in a brown paper cup and gold foil wrapper, that are usually sold in bags of 12 ounces or more, or individually. Hershey's currently puts out "limited edition" variants of the original version, such as one for "peanut butter lovers" (peanut-butter filling in a peanut butter cup), for "chocolate lovers" (peanut-butter-flavoured chocolate filling and chocolate coating), white chocolate coated, and the "Inside Out" with peanut-butter-flavored chocolate on the outside, and chocolate on the inside. There have also been "BigCups", larger versions of the original cups with more peanut butter than the regular sizes.
They are well-known for their ad campaign stating, "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's," accompanied by some creative way of consuming it. In the 1970s television commercials, the usual scenario involves one person eating chocolate colliding with another person eating out of a peanut butter jar with the famous lines,
You got chocolate in my peanut butter!
You got peanut butter on my chocolate!
The slogan for this advertising campaign was: "Two great tastes that taste great together."
In 2006, a commercial for a new Reese's Caramel was similar to the '70s commercial. In this Reese's commercial, Indy Racing League driver Tony Kanaan was eating caramel and NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick was eating an ordinary Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. When they ran into each other, Harvick's Reese's dipped into Kannan's jar of caramel. Harvick then says, "Hey, you got caramel on my Reese's!" Harvick and Kannan are both sponsored by Reese's and Hershey's in their respective racing series, thus the commercial is frequently seen during NASCAR and Indy Racing League broadcasts.
Other products of the Reese's division of Hershey include: Reese's Fast Break, Reese's Pieces, Reese's Pieces with Nuts, Reese's NutRageous, and ReeseSticks.
Reese's peanut butter is also sold separately in jars.
[edit] Pop Culture References
- In Family Guy episode "PTV", the main character Peter Griffin notices that some inventions just happen by accident. A flashback comes up that is a parody on Reese's ad campaigns, involving two guys in a car accident of which one is eating chocolate, and the other one peanut butter. After the collision they quote the lines from the original advertising, followed by the arrival of an Officer named Reese, who tastes the chocolate and peanut butter combination, then murders the two men and takes the idea for himself, seemingly leading to the invention of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
- At the beginning of A Pinky and the Brain Halloween special, Pinky, who has been eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, falls onto Brain's transmitter and gets pieces of the chocolate on it, causing Brain to yell, "No! Pinky, you got chocolate on my Jacko-lantronic transmitter!" Pinky replies, "You got Jacko-lantronic transmitter on my chocolate! Yummy!"
- Amy Ray mentions "Reese's Peanut Butter cups in her song "Driver Education."
[edit] The Ride
There is now a ride in Hersheypark named after this candy. It is called the "Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge," and it is a form of mounted laser tag with participants riding an indoor dark ride while firing upon targets throughout the ride.
[edit] External links
| Confectionery products of The Hershey Company |
|---|
| Chocolate-based |
| 5th Avenue | Almond Joy | Bar None (discontinued) | Cherry Blossom | Fast Break | Glosette (Canada only) | Heath bar | Hershey bar | Hershey's Kiss | Hershey's Kissables | Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme | Hershey's Pops | Hershey's S'mores | Kit Kat (U.S. only) | Krackel | Milk Duds | Mounds | Mr. Goodbar | Oh Henry! (Canada only) | PayDay Chocolate (Limited Edition) | Rolo (U.S. only) | Reese's Peanut Butter Cup | Reese's Pieces | ReeseSticks | Skor | Take 5 (Also known as Max 5) | Whoppers | York Peppermint Pattie |
| Non-Chocolate |
| Bubble Yum | Ice Breakers | Jolly Rancher | Koolerz | PayDay | ZAGNUT |
| Other |
| Good & Plenty | Snack Barz | Swoops | Twizzlers | Whatchamacallit |
| Hershey also manufactures Cadbury-branded products in the U.S. and military chocolate for the U.S. armed forces |
