Brad Reese, grandson of H.B. Reese, the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928, accuses The Hershey Company of altering the candy’s recipe in a way that makes it “inedible.” The 70-year-old Florida resident says he recently purchased a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Chocolate Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts and could not finish them.

Reese claimed in a Feb. 14 LinkedIn letter that Hershey swapped milk chocolate for “compound coatings” and replaced peanut butter with “peanut-butter-style crèmes.” “I went and bought a bag, and I took a couple of bites, and I had to throw the bag in the garbage,” he told Fox Business. “I couldn’t eat it. It was not edible, it was all vegetable oils and fats.”

The family sold the company to Hershey in 1963, but Reese said he spent decades as an unofficial brand ambassador and felt compelled to speak out. “I understand the whole history of it, so I feel like I really do own Reese’s. I know I don’t have control, but I have a voice,” he said.

Hershey responded to the allegations, acknowledging that it occasionally makes “product recipe adjustments” but maintaining that “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been.” The company said adjustments allow for new shapes, sizes, and innovations while “always protecting the essence” of the candy.

During a 2025 investors’ call, Hershey CFO Steven Voskuil said formula changes had “no consumer impact whatsoever,” though Reese disagreed, noting fans often tell him the candy no longer tastes the same.

According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards, products labeled as “milk chocolate” must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, 12% milk solids, and 3.39% milk fat. Some companies avoid these standards by using labels such as “chocolate candy.”

Reese also emphasized the iconic candy’s importance to Hershey, calling it the company’s flagship product, and expressed disappointment over what he sees as a decline in quality.