September 14, 2016
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
The practice of putting food inside of other food dates back to the Stoner Age.
Every time I’m at an upscale, high-class candy cocktail party, someone always corners me and asks, “Hey, aren’t you that smug snack-food hamjob?” Then they always want to tell me some candy trivia they think will blow my mind: “Did you know that in the Reese’s Pieces scene in ‘E.T.,’ the filmmakers originally wanted to use M&M’s but Mars turned it down?”
That’s when I look at them all smug-like and say, “Adoyyy! They LITERALLY teach you that on your first day of class at Hershey U.”
My fellow partier usually responds by throwing a drink in my face and informing me that I look like a “plain bagel with hair.”
The point, somehow, is that Reese’s Pieces are the best. I’ve always wanted to swim in a giant pool of them but my efforts heretofore have been messy and very expensive (and not nearly as erotic as you’d expect).
In a previous Bad For You , I described the “Stoner Age,” when food companies tried to outdo each other by brutishly mixing ingredients, and shoving food into other food. Today’s subject, Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cups, is the übermensch of this idea.
It’s a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup that has Reese’s Pieces inside. It’s like if a Reese’s Cup was a pregnant dog and it was carrying Reese’s Pieces puppies inside and you were a hungry giant monster.
A cross-sectional view of Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Big Cups reveals only a few colorful flecks of candy shell.
Surprisingly, the idea was thought up by a team of business people making six figures and not by a very high 19-year-old. I’m even more shocked that they don’t just hire high 19-year-olds instead of hiring business people to think like high 19-year-olds. They could pay them in Reese’s Cups.
The Pieces-filled Cups come in the regular variety or in a King Size Big Cup version, which is just a bigger cup. They were scheduled for release in June, but there seems to be a staggered rollout with the company picking and choosing where to release them.
I first bought the Reese’s Pieces Cups at a Connecticut gas station in early August. It’s now mid-September and I had to look all over Philly to track them down — including multiple chain stores. I finally found them at the Lukoil on Spring Garden. Perhaps gas stations are the ideal launching spot for a new candy bar? Perhaps high 19-year-olds are in charge of distribution?
But how’s it taste?
The main thing is it doesn’t taste that much different from its component products. Reese’s Pieces are designed to taste like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, so putting the one inside the other is redundant.
Months ago, I found a bag of Reese’s Pieces that had peanuts inside of them in the clearance section of Walgreens for around 30 cents and they had a similar problem: It didn’t taste all that different since peanut butter is made from peanuts.
With the Reese’s Pieces Big Cups, you get a significantly crunchier cup because of the Pieces, so that’s nice. However, Reese’s also sells a Crunchy Cup — same thing but stuffed with peanuts — so that niche is presumably already filled.
What you do get with this new model is a slightly more sugary snack because of the Piece’s thin chocolate. It’s a sweeter type of chocolate than the regular Reese’s Cup, an added bonus. By “added bonus,” I mean there’s a few more carbs and a more sugary taste. It’s almost too sweet.
Verdict: The Reese’s Pieces Big Cups are solid, but just aren’t different enough to get me to buy them over the pretty much perfect original. Perhaps one day they will make Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cup-flavored Reese’s Pieces, because let’s see how far we can take this thing, right?
Our photographer did a lot of crumbling in his search for whole Reese's Pieces inside the cup. No luck.
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
