Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, one unwrapped and split. Photo Evan-Amos, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
What it took directly
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup took from a Harrisburg store owner who told H.B. Reese he couldn't keep peanut butter cups in stock, and asked if Reese could make something similar (1928)"Then one day in 1928, everything changed. While on a sales trip in nearby Harrisburg, Reese chatted with a store owner who told him that he couldn’t keep peanut butter cups in stock. He asked Reese if he could make something similar." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
- statedThe H.B. Reese Candy Company took from the scale of Milton Hershey's chocolate trade, which H.B. Reese saw while working on Hershey's dairy farms"If Hershey can sell a trainload of chocolate every day" H.B. Reese, as quoted by the Hershey Community Archives
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup took from Hershey's chocolate, which supplied all of Reese's coating from the start"Since the beginning, the company enjoyed a close relationship with Hershey Chocolate and Hershey supplied all of Reese’s chocolate coating." Hershey Community Archives
- documentedThe Reese's cup sold on its own took from a Reese salesman, Mr. Houston, whose customers thought the cup was the best piece in the assortment"Then in 1933, one of Reese’s salesman, Mr. Houston, urged Reese to sell peanut butter cups individually because his customers thought they were the best piece in the assortment." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016), which dates this to 1933; the Hershey Community Archives dates individual packaging to about 1935
- documentedReese's as a one-product company took from the Second World War, when the cost of sugar rose"During World War II, H.B. decided to focus on his most popular candy, the Peanut Butter Cup, because of the rising cost of sugar." Candy Hall of Fame (NCSA), H.B. Reese inductee page
What it learned to do
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup learned from the women who coated each piece by hand on marble slabs, four to a table"The candy was coated by hand on marble slabs, four ladies at each table." Hershey Community Archives
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup learned from H.B. Reese's own peanut butter, from peanuts roasted until almost burnt"began making his own peanut butter, roasting the peanuts so they were almost burnt. According to family lore, it’s this roasted taste that makes a Reese’s a Reese’s." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016), reporting Reese family lore
- documentedH.B. Reese, as a candy maker learned from his mother, who made and sold chocolate-covered almonds and raisins"Reese’s first venture involved the candies his mother had made and sold: chocolate-covered almonds and raisins." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
The tradition it sits in
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup comes from the boxed candy assortment: the cup began as one piece among coconut creams, nougats and raisin clusters"He began making his famed Peanut Butter Cups as part of a large candy assortment about 1928." Hershey Community Archives
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup comes from chocolate-covered peanut butter cups, sold commercially two decades before Reese made his"Chocolate-covered peanut-butter cups were sold commercially as early as 1907." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
- inferredThe penny Reese's cup comes from the turn from bulk candy to the individually wrapped bar after the First World War"Bulk candy began losing popularity after World War I, supplanted by the individually wrapped candy bar, which had been a part of soldiers’ rations." inferred — Atlas Obscura describes the post-war shift away from bulk candy, and the Hershey archives record Reese moving the cup out of five-pound boxes into 1, 2 and 5 cent packs; neither source ties Reese's move to the shift directly
- documentedThe Reese's Peanut Butter Cup comes from the town of Hershey itself: every package said "Made in Chocolate Town""Each Peanut Butter Cup package carried the banner: “Made in Chocolate Town –So They Must Be Good.”" Hershey Community Archives
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedThe peanut butter cup comes from plain peanut-butter cups in America's cookbooks around 1900, with no chocolate at all"Within a year, recipes for peanut-butter cups entered America’s cookbooks. These early cups were simply solid peanut butter, without chocolate." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
- documentedThe chocolate peanut butter cup comes from an unknown confectioner, once Milton Hershey's five-cent bar put chocolate within everyone's reach"It wasn’t until chocolate became available to the masses a few years later, thanks in part to Milton Hershey and his five-cent milk chocolate bar, that some unknown genius came up with the idea to cover peanut-butter cups in chocolate." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
- documentedThe peanut butter cup comes from peanut butter, which began in the mid-1890s as a health food"peanut butter began its life in the mid-1890s as a health food, promoted as a nutrient-rich protein source." Atlas Obscura (Hallie Lieberman, 2016)
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