Discontinued Reese's Candies You'll Never Eat Again
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A surprising number of Reese's candy products still show up on shelves on a regular basis, but there are many discontinued ones you'll never eat again. While some people will always prefer original Reese's cups and Reese's Pieces, there are plenty of Reese's fans who like to try new flavors. That being said, certain creations by Reese's simply weren't special enough, didn't have the right flavor balance, or didn't get sufficient repeat purchases to stand the test of time.
According to Gregory Ziegler, a food scientist from Penn State University, the scientific reason Reese's taste really good is that chocolate and peanut butter combined create a "dynamic sensory contrast" of flavor and texture (via Mic). If you tamper with that magical duo, you can end up with a product that doesn't quite thrill consumers.
Reese's has experimented with everything from selling an inside-out cup (with peanut butter on the outside and chocolate on the inside) to trying to capture Elvis Presley's favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich flavor within a Reese's cup. You'll find petitions to bring some favorites back, but that doesn't mean Reese's is listening. Chances are, you'll never eat any of these sweets again, but we'll let you dream and salivate as you read about all the Reese's candies that once existed.
Reese's Elvis Peanut Butter & Banana Creme
In 2007, 30 years after Elvis Presley's death, Reese's released a collector edition peanut butter and banana creme flavor. Reese's chose to pair the two because it was supposedly Elvis' favorite sandwich combination (along with bacon). Since it was a limited edition item, some big Elvis fans bought them by the case and even saved some in the freezer for later, as Videobob Moseley demonstrates in a YouTube video.
Reese's did a good job making the two ingredients work well together. Banana and peanut butter were the stars of this candy, and the chocolate flavor barely registered. Tasters enjoyed how the thick texture of peanut butter contrasted with the smoothness of the banana creme (via Taquitos.net).
Nearly 1,500 fans have signed a petition asking Reese's to bring the flavor back. Unfortunately, fans who were hoping for a return of the peanut butter and banana creme flavor for the 40th anniversary of Presley's death were disappointed in 2017 when the product didn't return on shelves. Since it didn't show up on this iconic date, the peanut butter and banana creme flavor continues to be a discontinued Reese's candy you'll never eat again.
Reese's Flavor of Georgia Honey Roasted
Georgia residents were thrilled to have their own Reese's flavor in 2017. However, James from The Impulsive Buy was perplexed about why Reese's chose to use honey-roasted peanuts, saying, "In all my 30-something years in Georgia, not ONCE have I ever seen anyone at a roadside stand hawking honey-roasted peanuts." He comments that boiled peanuts would have been the most culturally-accurate choice, adding that he would have enjoyed them more than the taste of faintly honey-roasted nuts.
Atlanta Magazine says the honey roasted Reese's was "Georgia sweet tea-levels of sweet." While honey-roasted Reese's were okay for a one-time indulgence, they weren't a popular flavor. The candy would have tasted better if the manufacturers had decided to use honey as a co-sweetener rather than as an added sweetener on top of already sugary candy. The only difference between a regular Reese's and the Georgia honey roasted variety was that the latter was sweeter and had a hint of a honey aftertaste (via Taquitos.net). Even Georgians were less than excited about the product, so it's fair to say that honey roasted Reese's is likely a product you'll never see again.
Reese's Spreads Snacksters
If you tried Reese's Spreads Snacksters back when they hit the snack aisles around 2015, you may have been disappointed to find that the tub of Reese's dipping spread was smaller than the tub of graham dipping sticks. Still, getting less spread than expected didn't seem to dissuade customers from buying them since there was still plenty for all nine graham sticks.
However, the peanut butter and chocolate spread didn't really taste like the familiar duo from a Reese's cup either (via Taquitos.net). One fan says the spread tasted more like the chocolate from a Hershey's chocolate bar mixed with the peanut butter from a Reese's cup (via Influenster). Unfortunately, this flavor inconsistency was a disappointment and a deal breaker for some customers (via Influenster). With a flavor unlike Reese's cups, perhaps they would have been more successful if they had been marketed as a Hershey's chocolate with Reese's spread. And since they haven't been around for a while, Spreads Snacksters are likely one other Reese's product you'll never see again.
Reese Swoops
If you ever run across a list of nostalgic foods from other decades, you'll often find Swoops listed as a discontinued item people wish would come back. Hershey's made Swoops to taste like a Reese's cup while fitting perfectly on your tongue like a Pringles chip. Swoops weren't limited to Reese's. Back in 2003, you could find them in a variety of flavors, including York peppermint patties, Hershey's chocolate, and Almond Joy (via YouTube). Later, a white chocolate version of Reese's Swoops was even available.
Each container of Swoops contained six chocolate candy "chips" with a peanut butter squiggle across the top. Reese's mixed the peanut butter and chocolate flavors together rather than separating them as in a classic Reese's cup, yet it tasted surprisingly like a classic Reese's. The Swoops were slightly smaller than a Pringle and the back side had a diamond cross-hatch pattern, so it's fair to say that the mouthfeel was different than eating a Pringle (via Taquitos.net).
Reese's Go for Gold!
You're never going to find Reese's Go for Gold! again. Reese's released them as part of a 2016 Summer Olympics promotion, when the world competed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite long jumper Brittney Reese participating in the summer Olympics in 2016 with such a noteworthy last name, it was alpine skier Lindsey Vonn who teamed up with Reese's to advertise a new candy product that year (via Business Wire). And she didn't even compete in the 2016 Olympics.
Oddly enough, none of Reese's social media accounts from the summer of 2016 mentioned anything about the special Go for Gold! candy. Perhaps the brand wasn't so proud of the candy's sad design. If you were lucky enough to track down Reese's Go for Gold! in the summer of 2016, you would have found the original Reese's cup imprinted with one of six different track-and-field-themed designs. The designs were lackluster stick-figure drawings of Olympians competing in sports like pole vaulting, relay running, and jumping hurdles, and ultimately didn't make it into the long-term collection (via Taquitos.net).
Reese's Inside Out
In the original 1972 commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, a man and boy respectively eating chocolate and peanut butter trip and their snacks get mixed together (via YouTube). "You got peanut butter in my chocolate," the man exclaims. "You got chocolate in my peanut butter," the boy laments. However, both enjoy the results, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups come to be. In the early 2000s, Reese's decided to try putting the chocolate inside the peanut butter rather than the reverse, effectively turning the candy inside out.
Luckily, the peanut butter layer's texture is more like the traditional chocolate cup, so it wasn't a messy experiment. However, changing the texture of the peanut butter to make an outer shell for the chocolate also altered its taste to be more like the flavor of Reese's Pieces. The result was a cup that tasted far more like peanuts instead of chocolate (via Taquitos.net). Many fans liked it, but it wasn't the Reese's cups they'd grown to love. In the end, this novelty item disappeared from shelves and is among the discontinued treats you'll never see again.
Reese's Double Chocolate
Another experiment Reese's tried in 2006 was to make a Reese's cup without the peanut butter. Reese's Double Chocolate had the same chocolatey cup as usual but it was simply filled with creamy chocolate instead of peanut butter. This version might have been a peanut butter hater's dream except that the chocolate inside was peanut butter flavored. If you've never heard of such a combination, you have now.
Despite doubling down on the chocolate, the first bite tasted much like a regular Reese's cup. However, the flavor was indeed more chocolate-heavy overall (via Taquitos.net). Chocolate has never been the star of Reese's cups, so it just didn't work. People who want chocolate candy aren't going to be as interested in one that tastes like peanut butter. Even if the chocolate hadn't been peanut butter flavored, Reese's chocolate isn't good enough on its own to warrant an entire candy made from it. This candy was entirely forgettable and so it disappeared.
Whoppers Reese's Malted Milk Balls
Hershey's has tried making various flavors of its Whoppers malted milk candy from time to time, one of which was a mix with Reese's in 2008. Instead of the malted milk ball with an ordinary chocolate coating, the Reese's variety had a smooth peanut butter coating. Eating the balls was like tasting the normal malted-milk innards paired with a bit of sweet peanut butter (via Taquitos.net). The exterior peanut butter coating was waxier than anything you would normally experience in the Reese's candy universe, but it was good nonetheless. The peanut butter and malted milk candy combo were fine together, but the malted milk portion was still the star.
Most people thought the Whoppers Reese's malted milk balls tasted just okay, while others declared them "waxy," "gross," or didn't even want to try them because of their unappealing color (via Candy Blog). Ultimately, they were no substitute for the original Whoppers, and the two candies haven't paired up again. While you're likely to see other Whoppers flavors in the future, we're betting you won't see them together with Reese's again.
Reese's Whipps
In 2007, Reese's invented Whipps, and fans have been petitioning to get them back since they were discontinued around 2010 (via Change). Whipps seems like an obvious invention if you've ever imagined what Reese's cups would be like as a candy bar. Since Whipps haven't been around for a while, you will probably have to continue imagining the blend. To give you an idea, Whipps was similar to a 3 Musketeers bar. While 3 Musketeers has chocolate outside and nougat inside, Whipps had chocolate on the exterior and peanut butter nougat on the interior.
The nougat tasted like the innards of Reese's peanut butter cups but was "light and fluffy," per a review on Influenster. That being said, the candy bar was still dense. However, compared to the peanut butter inside of Reese's cups, the nougat in the candy bar version was indeed airier. Whipps consumers also said the candy bar wasn't as sweet as the cups, making them feel a little less evil on cheat days from their diet (via Influenster).
Reese's Pieces With Nuts!
Reese's Pieces With Nuts! sounds like an obvious choice since peanut M&M's are so popular. Indeed, Reese's seems to have modeled its version after M&M's, with a peanut in the center, a creamy peanut butter layer, and hard candy outside. The peanut butter layer was the same yummy peanut-flavored creamy filling you find inside original Reese's Pieces.
Reese's Pieces contain partially defatted peanuts. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, defatted peanut flour (made from defatted peanuts) is described as "practically tasteless." With such a light peanut flavor, even people who aren't big fans of peanut butter tend to like Reese's Pieces because the peanut flavor profile is very subtle. Adding whole peanuts to Reese's Pieces gave them a more intense peanut taste, which was appealing to peanut lovers but less so to others.
For a while, you could find Reese's Pieces Peanuts online from Canada. However, even the last few remaining bags on Amazon are hard to come by.
Reese's White Creme Stuffed With Pieces
You may have never even seen White Reese's stuffed with pieces if you don't shop at the Dollar General, since they were an exclusive product. If you like novel flavors though, chances are you probably gave them a try.
In 2019, consumers sued Hershey's for calling its white candy coating "white chocolate" or even simply "white." They argued that calling Reese's "white" gave the impression that Reese's had replaced the milk chocolate with white chocolate. However, since Reese's white candy didn't contain cocoa butter, it wasn't technically chocolate. As a result of the lawsuit, white Reese's candies now have different labels like "white creme" (via Confectionary News).
Since white creme has a subtle flavor, the taste of peanut butter and Reese's Pieces inside the cups were most noticeable. However, if you were hoping for whole Reese's Pieces inside the cups, you're likely to have only encountered a single one per cup if you were lucky (via The Impulsive Buy).
While these cups were interesting enough to try once, they weren't really special enough for customers to make a lot of repeat buys. Perhaps if there had been more full-sized Reese's Pieces inside, they might have been more tempting ... but probably not.
Reese's Cups with caramel
Caramel and chocolate are a popular flavor combination for candy, and they go well with peanuts too. In fact, the most popular candy bar in the U.S., Snickers, contains chocolate, caramel, and peanuts. Considering the popularity of Snickers bars, it's surprising Reese's doesn't have more caramel, peanut, and chocolate combinations. You can still find Reese's Pieces with caramel, but Reese's cups with caramel are oddly no longer available.
Reese's with caramel first arrived on candy shelves in 2006. Most people don't remember them, but a handful of fans have signed a petition to try to get them back. Taquitos.net gives a little insight as to why this seemingly genius flavor combination wasn't a winner, explaining that the candy had less of a peanut butter flavor than usual and the caramel was barely detectable.
With such a disappointing taste, it's likely that the product crashed and burned because the food chemists at Hershey's didn't quite get the flavor balance right. A reboot would need to use a different recipe. However, we're betting Reese's cups with caramel are another discontinued Reese's candy you'll never eat again.