Reese’s heir vs. chocolate skimpflation

Summary

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Planet Money – “Reese’s Heir vs. Chocolate Skimpflation”

NPR | April 4, 2026
Hosts: Greg Rosalski & Sarah Gonzalez
Guest: Brad Reese (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup heir), Judy Gaines (commodities consultant)

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates what’s really going into our beloved Reese’s products—and the drama sparked by Brad Reese, grandson of the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Brad alleges that Hershey’s has started using lower-quality ingredients in some products, resulting in “skimpflation.” NPR’s Planet Money team sets out to uncover how corporate decisions, commodity prices, and economic pressures affect the chocolate we love.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. The Mystery of the New Reese’s Formula

• [00:35] Brad Reese, a dyed-in-the-orange Reese’s fan (and heir), discovers that a new Reese’s product tastes off:
  • “There was no milk chocolate and there was no real peanut butter. So it wasn’t even—I don’t know what… I have no idea what I was eating or what I was tasting.” – Brad Reese [01:36]
• Brad investigates ingredient lists at candy aisles, noticing that some products now use the terms "chocolate candy" and "peanut butter cream" instead of "milk chocolate" and "peanut butter."
  • "They replaced Milk chocolate with chocolate candy. And they replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter cream." – Brad Reese [02:48]
• Expresses betrayal at the changes:
  • "It’s fake. It’s compound coating. It’s betrayal. I felt betrayed. I mean, it’s like somebody took a dagger and stabbed it in my heart." – Brad Reese [03:07]

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2. The Reese’s Legacy and Family Drama

• [09:41] Brad isn’t just any fan—he’s H.B. Reese’s grandson, and feels Hershey is degrading the brand his family built.
  • The family sold to Hershey’s in 1963 (“Technically, it’s a merger”—Brad didn’t even realize the family owned the company).
  • Brad’s activism: Posts an open letter on LinkedIn, accusing Hershey’s of abandoning the company’s “simple, enduring architecture: milk chocolate plus peanut butter.” [12:33]
  • Some other Reese’s descendants disagree, leading to a bit of “family drama.” [13:26]

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3. Planet Money’s Chocolate Investigation

• [06:12] The hosts buy $70-worth of Reese’s for a taste test:
  • Original peanut butter cups still use milk chocolate and peanut butter—formula unchanged. [07:04]
  • However, many holiday shapes (e.g., mini eggs, mini hearts) are labeled with "chocolate candy" and "peanut butter cream" instead. [07:12]
• Greg and Sarah taste the originals and the newer “skimped” versions:
  • “I can get on board with the peanut butter cream, but I give no allowances on the skimping of the chocolate.” – Sarah Gonzalez [15:16]
  • “Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like a mister—I mean, what is the cream? What does that mean?” – Greg Rosalski [15:29]

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4. What is Skimpflation?

• [08:23] Term coined by Planet Money: Companies reduce quality (not just raise prices or shrink size) in response to economic pressures—often subtly—so consumers may not notice.
  • “It’s a sneaky form of inflation where instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the quality of their goods and services.” – Greg Rosalski [08:45]
• Applies to the Hershey’s situation: Some Reese’s products may always have been “compound” chocolate, but others genuinely switched in response to cost pressures. [09:20]

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5. Chocolate Economics 101

• [18:05] Interview with Judy Gaines, soft commodities expert and self-described “soft commodity gal.”
• Breakdown of what “milk chocolate” means per FDA:
  • Must have at least 10% chocolate liqueur (cocoa solids + cocoa butter)
  • Must contain 100% cocoa butter (no vegetable or palm oil substitutes) [20:56, 21:15]
  • Anything below that or with substitutes must be labeled “chocolate candy,” “compound,” or similar.
• Hosts flip over product labels:
  • “First sugar, then vegetable oil—the smoking skinflation gun.” – Greg Rosalski [21:46]

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6. Why Are Companies Skimping? The Economics

• [23:15] The global cocoa supply chain relies heavily on the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which experienced severe weather and supply shocks, sending cocoa and cocoa butter prices “cuckoo.” [23:25]
  • Prices rose from $3,000/ton to $25,000/ton in 2024; tariffs from President Trump’s administration made it worse. [23:46]
• Chocolate companies had three choices:
  1. Raise prices (traditional inflation)
  2. Shrink packages (shrinkflation)
  3. Reduce quality or ingredient concentration (skimpflation)
  • Most companies did all three, says Judy Gaines: “They did raise prices, they did shrink the packaging, and they had to reformulate.” [25:23]
• Peanut butter changes: Not just cost; also about texture, stability, and compatibility with new “chocolate” formulas. “Peanut butter cream” has less than 90% peanuts, per FDA. [26:44]

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7. Is Skimpflation Here to Stay?

• Chocolate prices are beginning to fall (cocoa tariffs exempted, West Africa producing again, cocoa down 60% from its peak). [29:28]
• Will candy companies go back to the old formulas?
  • Judy Gaines is skeptical, citing how soda switched to corn syrup in the ’80s and never changed back:
    • “It really depends on the economics and what their sales are. And if consumers are buying it.” – Judy Gaines [30:30]

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8. Brad’s Skimp-Shaming & Breaking News

• Brad has gone on a skimp-shaming crusade: open letters, media, ingredient-tracking, “putting Hershey’s on notice.” [31:05]
• [32:12] BREAKING: Hershey’s announces it will return to classic milk and dark chocolate in all products by 2027, phasing out chocolate compound.
  • Brad is skeptical about the timeline: “They’re giving themselves two years. The very end will be ruined by that.” [33:41]
  • Hershey’s states this decision had already been made before Brad’s campaign—though the timing is… notable.
  • “When I go to the store, I do look at the ingredients now. Brad’s been writing these open letters… He’s hoping his skimp shaming tour can end soon so he can go back and enjoy retired life.” – Greg Rosalski [31:05]

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Notable Quotes

• “It’s fake. It’s compound coating. It’s betrayal. I felt betrayed.”
  - Brad Reese, on tasting Hershey’s new ‘chocolate candy,’ [03:07]

• “It’s a sneaky form of inflation where instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the quality of their goods and services.”
  - Greg Rosalski, defining ‘skimpflation’ [08:45]

• “The price of cocoa butter…went to $25,000 a ton.”
  - Judy Gaines, on the global cocoa crisis [23:46]

• “They did raise prices, they did shrink the packaging, and they had to reformulate.”
  - Judy Gaines, on how chocolate companies responded [25:23]

• “When I go to the store, I do look at the ingredients now…He’s hoping his skimp shaming tour can end soon so he can go back and enjoy retired life.”
  - Greg Rosalski, about Brad’s efforts [31:05]

• “The nightlife, it’s not a good life, but it’s my life.”
  - Brad Reese, singing Willie Nelson as he gets the Hershey’s news [34:58]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:21 Brad Reese’s discovery and investigation
• 03:07 Brad’s sense of betrayal & family history
• 06:12 Planet Money’s chocolate taste test
• 08:23 Definition and discussion of skimpflation
• 18:05 Cocoa commodity economics with Judy Gaines
• 23:25 Global cocoa crisis and the supply chain
• 25:28 Companies’ responses: inflation, shrinkflation, skimpflation
• 26:44 Why peanuts changed (not just price but recipe compatibility)
• 29:28 Falling cocoa prices—will companies revert?
• 32:12 Hershey’s announces return to classic chocolate in all products
• 33:41 Brad and Hershey’s two-year timeline
• 34:58 Brad’s karaoke serenade as the skimpflation story comes full circle

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Final Insights

The episode reveals the economic forces—rising ingredient costs, global supply shocks, and regulatory definitions—that quietly reshape the treats in our candy aisles. "Skimpflation" is real, and passionate consumers like Brad Reese are holding companies accountable. While Hershey’s claims it was going to restore classic ingredients anyway, it's clear that consumer scrutiny—amplified by media—can have real impact. Whether or not the original Reese’s formula fully returns, the episode urges all listeners: check your labels and don’t settle for less chocolate than you deserve.

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Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Sarah Gonzalez]

This is Planet Money from NPR.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad would rather be spending his time singing karaoke right now.

[Brad Reese]

I do Rolling Stone. Rolling Stones. I do Depeche Mode.

[Greg Rosalski]

I just.

[Brad Reese]

I just have fun.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad is 70, retired in West Palm Beach, Florida.

[Greg Rosalski]

And when we first talked to him, he showed up wearing a bright orange, I guess, Hawaiian shirt, but with a bunch of Reese's Peanut butter cups all over it. Honestly, pretty snazzy.

[Brad Reese]

I mean, I guess you could call me a big Reese's fan.

[Greg Rosalski]

And it's his love of Reese's that is keeping him from his beloved karaoke right now.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Yeah, because a little while ago, he heard that the Hershey company had released a new Reese's Chocolate.

[Brad Reese]

It was Reese's Peanut Butter Mini Hearts unwrapped. Okay. And of course, then I went out and bought one. Bought a pouch.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad opens the bag and pops some mini hearts in his mouth.

[Brad Reese]

And I took two bites, and it was not recognizable. It was just nasty. It was. It was not edible.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad spits out the mini hearts and then he dumps them in the trash. But then he's like, wait, what was so off about those chocolate hearts?

[Brad Reese]

I retrieved the pouch wrapper and looked carefully at the front and the back, and there was no milk chocolate and there was no real peanut butter. So it wasn't even. I don't know what I. Greg, I have no idea what I was eating or what I was tasting.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad is like, what is even in here? No milk chocolate. No peanut butter in a chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter cup like product.

[Brad Reese]

I went to the store and just investigated everything I could.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad starts scanning the candy aisles, looking at the wrappers of other Reese's and Hershey's products.

[Brad Reese]

Are you familiar with the Reese's Fast Break?

[Greg Rosalski]

I am.

[Brad Reese]

Okay. One of my favorites no longer milk chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Wow.

[Brad Reese]

The Reese's Sticks. Have you had those?

[Greg Rosalski]

I have not had the Reese.

[Brad Reese]

They're similar to a KitKat, but peanut butter. And those came out in 1998. Very good. I love them. And it came out as the crisp you can't resist. That used to be milk chocolate. Again, taken off. No milk chocolate.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah. The wrappers on these Reese's candies have changed. They used to say milk chocolate. And on some other Reese's candies, they used to say peanut butter. Now they say something else.

[Brad Reese]

Chocolate candy. They replaced Milk chocolate with chocolate candy. And they replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter cream.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

And these words, chocolate candy, peanut butter, cream, they may sound like the real deal milk chocolate and peanut butter, but they are not.

[Brad Reese]

It's fake. It's compound coding. It's betrayal. I felt betrayed. I mean, it's like somebody took a dagger and stabbed it in my heart.

[Greg Rosalski]

It'd be one thing if Brad were just like some random Reese's superfan, but Brad, he's the grandson of HB Reese, the inventor of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad's name is Brad Reese.

[Brad Reese]

And then I just said, wait a second, I can do something about this.

[Greg Rosalski]

Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Greg Rosalski.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

And I'm Sarah Gonzalez. The Hershey Company is using ingredients in their candies that legally they cannot label milk chocolate or peanut butter.

[Greg Rosalski]

And an heir to a chocolate and peanut butter dynasty is now going after the brand that bears his family name.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Today on the show, why chocolate makers might be skimping on the chocolate and the peanut butter.

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[Greg Rosalski]

All right. Obviously, we reached out to the Hershey company to weigh in on the chocolate allegations made by Brad Reese, angry grandson of the Reese's peanut butter cup inventor. Hershey's did not give us an interview, but they did tell us via email that their quote Iconic Reese's peanut butter cups are, quote, made the same way they always have been, which prompted a

[Sarah Gonzalez]

thorough investigation by Planet Money at various stores.

[Greg Rosalski]

Incredibly thorough. Wow.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We have purchased $70 worth of Reese's products.

[Greg Rosalski]

Oh, look at that. CVS receipt.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Geez, you can just hear it from a mile away.

[Greg Rosalski]

Honestly, Reese's peanut butter cups, my number one since. Since maybe I was like four or five years old, I'm like, I don't even think there's like, I can't even think of my number two.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Number one. Chocolate. Reese's. Reese's.

[Greg Rosalski]

It's Reese's.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Reese's.

[Greg Rosalski]

This would, like rock my world if it were not pronounced Reese's.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

You're giving me Brad vibes, Greg.

[Greg Rosalski]

It would be devastating.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

All right, when we go through this assortment of chocolate that we have assembled here, here's what we found. The original Reese's peanut butter cups, as Hershey said, do still say that they are made with real milk chocolate and real peanut butter. That formula has not changed.

[Greg Rosalski]

Same with the mini cups and even some of the Easter related egg shaped ones. They also still say milk chocolate and peanut butter.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

But on some of the other products that we have here, Brad is right. Those do say chocolate candy or peanut butter cream or both.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah. For example, on these mini eggs that are unwrapped, also a more normal size egg, one that is wrapped, some flat

[Sarah Gonzalez]

eggs, some chocolate bunnies. On those, it is chocolate candy or peanut butter cream.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad thinks Hershey's is skimping on their ingredients so much that they can't even call their stuff milk chocolate or peanut butter anymore. So they use workaround words.

[Brad Reese]

Keywords are chocolate, candy, chocolatey, covered in chocolate, made with chocolate. If you don't see the words milk chocolate, then it's fake.

[Greg Rosalski]

Fake is kind of a mean way of saying. These candies are using what's known as a chocolate compound. Chocolate compound uses some chocolate ingredients, but not enough to legally be called milk chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Similar story with the peanut cream. Not enough peanuts to be called peanut butter. And for Brad Reese, using fewer peanuts, using fewer chocolate ingredients, this is in poor taste.

[Greg Rosalski]

That is a bit of an understatement. Brad is basically accusing Hershey's of chocolate skinflation. Skimpflation. This is a term that we at Planet Money coined a few years ago.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Greg, you. You are fantastic newsletter writer. You coined this. And now like the Federal Reserve is saying skinflation.

[Greg Rosalski]

Npr, you cannot ever let me go. This is like, I'm the skinflation guy. I'm the skinflation on this skinflation guy. You can't skimp on me anyway. Yeah. So skinflation, it's a business practice in which companies degrade their goods and services, you know, like skimp on their quality, often in response to inflationary pressures, like higher ingredient costs or, you know, higher labor costs. It's a sneaky form of inflation where instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the quality of their goods and services.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

On the quality. Now, for the record, some Reese's products may have always been made with chocolate compound and were never made with real milk chocolate or real peanut butter. But other products do seem to have actually switched ingredients, or some might say skimped on the ingredients. They skimplate it.

[Greg Rosalski]

And Brad Reese, he's not happy with any of this. He says Hershey's is degrading his family legacy.

[Brad Reese]

Yes. So to understand where I fit in, okay. My grandfather, H.B. reese, was born in 1879, and my father was the youngest of his 16 children.

[Greg Rosalski]

Sixteen?

[Brad Reese]

Yes.

[Greg Rosalski]

So, yeah, H.B. reese, he had a lot of mouths to feed. In 1916, probably amidst the screams of a ton of crying babies, HB Reese read in the newspaper that Milton Hershey, the founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, needed more help on his dairy farms, which, you know, supplied milk for his. His milk chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad's grandpa, HB Got the job. It was the start of a long term business relationship and friendship between Grandpa Reese and Mr. Hershey. And then in 1923, HB formed his own company, the H.B. reese Candy Company.

[Brad Reese]

He had peanut clusters, he had caramel, he had coconut.

[Greg Rosalski]

And at the time, there was this chocolate peanut butter product on the market in Pennsylvania. It was a ball, peanut butter ball wrapped in chocolate. And HB Reese, he has an idea.

[Brad Reese]

So what my grandfather did is he put it in a cup.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

It's in a cup now, guys, in the van.

[Greg Rosalski]

All right. It was also something else. It was one part of the innovation.

[Brad Reese]

My grandfather's genius was to perfect the peanut butter. The key has always been the peanut butter.

[Greg Rosalski]

He builds a chocolate and peanut butter empire in the 50s. He hands control over to his six sons. And in 1963, those sons, they sell to Hershey. Okay, Technically, it's a merger. Brad's dad and the other siblings, they get stock and a big payday.

[Brad Reese]

I was only seven years old. I didn't even know my family owned a candy company. I thought he worked there like everybody else. So I had no say, you know, didn't know what that was. That transaction was all about other than we moved from a normal house into a big mansion.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad wishes his family never sold the company and I guess stayed in a normal house, didn't move to a mansion.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, he wishes he had some control over the Reese's brand, especially right now. After he tasted those Reese's Peanut butter mini hearts unwrapped back in February and hated them.

[Brad Reese]

I just had to spit it out. I mean, slap me in the face, wake me up.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

After first tasting those mini hearts, Brad did what any third generation chocolate royal with no power over the family company because it was sold over a half century ago could do. He wrote an open letter on LinkedIn.

[Brad Reese]

That's why I'm writing to you publicly today.

[Greg Rosalski]

This is Brad reading his open letter.

[Brad Reese]

My grandfather, H.B. reese, who invented Reese's, built Reese's on a simple, enduring architecture. Milk chocolate plus peanut butter.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad's basic thing is you're damaging the Reese's brand. But, you know, written with the seriousness of the Declaration of Independence.

[Brad Reese]

Not a flavor idea, not a marketing construct. A real tangible product identity that consumers have trusted for a century.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

But honestly, can anyone but Brad Reese even really taste the difference between milk chocolate and chocolate candy or peanut butter versus peanut butter cream? Because in response to Brad's open letter, other Reese's descendants wrote their own letter or statement or whatever, being like, the products are fine. Grandpa Reese would be fine with the current Reese's products.

[Greg Rosalski]

I mean, Sarah, it wouldn't be a great American candy company without, you know, some family drama.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

A little family drama, totally.

[Greg Rosalski]

So, yeah, like in our continued thorough investigation, hello, Pulitzer committee. We moved to this, you know, taste test phase. Should we start with the OG to set our palette? Here we go.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We begin with the classic Reese's Peanut Butter cup that is still labeled milk chocolate and peanut butter.

[Greg Rosalski]

Oh, my God, how iconic. I love how they have the little wrap around it too. Like, you open it and there's that little film. To me, it's like unwrapping a gift. Fantastic. I'm sorry. Like, it doesn't get better.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

So I sometimes nibble at the edges. See, I just.

[Greg Rosalski]

You like a little gerbil. Just like.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Okay, two bites. Two bites and he's done.

[Greg Rosalski]

No, you gotta do two bites. The classic Reese's Peanut Butter cup. It's as scrumptious as ever.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Now we gotta taste the one labeled chocolate candy and peanut butter cream. This is where the investigation really picks at, people.

[Greg Rosalski]

Okay, I found Reese's Peanut Butter Mini Eggs unwrapped.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Me too.

[Greg Rosalski]

So it's. You got that? Yeah. All right, great.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

This is the same thing that Brad Reese had that he spit out, except these are the eggs. He had the hearts. Because it was around Valentine's Day.

[Greg Rosalski]

This is what broke Rad Reese's heart. All right, we'll open this up.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Oh, look at this.

[Greg Rosalski]

They're a little tiny. Oh, yeah, I see. They're unwrapped. Honestly, I'm just gonna be honest. It doesn't smell the same.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

I think it does.

[Greg Rosalski]

No.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Bite it in half or pop it.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, I think just pop it in. No, I'm not joking. No, I'm not just saying this.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

It's not totally.

[Greg Rosalski]

It's not.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

I mean, I can get on board with the peanut butter cream, but I give no allowances on the skimping of the chocolate. I like the peanut butter cream. I'm just gonna say it.

[Greg Rosalski]

Do you?

[Sarah Gonzalez]

It's like saltier.

[Greg Rosalski]

I, I like the OG peanut butter. Call me old fashioned, but I don't like a mister. I don't. What is the cream? What does that mean? See, I'm, I, I feel, I, I feel very passionate about peanut butter. So I, I, I, I don't want this. I don't want anything skimped on. It was a disappointing experience for me. I mean, listen, I love Reese's peanut butter Cups as much as the next guy.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Well, not as much as Brad.

[Greg Rosalski]

Not as much as Brad, obviously. I don't think, I don't think anybody likes it as much as him. But still, it stirred something in me. Was it anger? Was it desperation? An existential crisis? Or was it yearning to understand why a storied chocolate company would use less chocolate and peanut butter?

[Sarah Gonzalez]

It has to do with the global chocolate supply chain, the shapes our fun chocolate comes in, and the less discerning consumers who somehow may not even notice.

[Greg Rosalski]

Class, after the break, break me off a piece of that podcast underwriting.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Oh, baritone. I like it.

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[Greg Rosalski]

Built for you.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Dell.comdellpcs this message comes from American Home Shield. It's not a matter of if an appliance or system like your H Vac will break, but when. Without a home warranty, these repairs or replacements can cost thousands. But with an AHS home warranty, they will fix covered breakdowns, helping protect your wallet. Get 20% off all [e-mail] NPR and see promo details. See ahs.com contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations and exclusions.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

To understand why chocolate makers are skimping on the milk chocolate right now, we called up someone who knows the ins and outs of the chocolate industry and somehow seems to be as passionate about chocolate as Brad Reese.

[Judy Gaines]

You know, I travel a ton and in my luggage I always, always, always 100% carry with me Valrhona unsweetened cocoa powder.

[Greg Rosalski]

This is Judy Gaines. And honestly, we had to look up Valrhona. I'd never heard of it. And apparently this is like the Gucci or Lamborghini of cocoa powder because this stuff is like expensive, super high end.

[Judy Gaines]

It's a three kilo box.

[Greg Rosalski]

You're buying kilos of cocoa powder and you're like sprinkling it on things like what do you do with it?

[Judy Gaines]

I actually make hot chocolate with it. And sometimes it gets nailed by security as to what it is and you're

[Sarah Gonzalez]

like, I'm in chocolate. I'm in chocolate. I work in chocolate. It's cocoa powder.

[Greg Rosalski]

They're like frisking you. And I just love it because you're a chocolate expert and that's just like so wonderful.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Judy has a consulting firm that focuses on soft commodities.

[Judy Gaines]

So sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, orange juice.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

So a hard commodity would be like crude oil, coal, gold, diamonds. Basically. Hard commodities are mined or drilled. Soft commodities are typically grown. And Judy, Judy is a soft commodity gal. Particularly cocoa.

[Judy Gaines]

Yeah. Oh, definitely.

[Greg Rosalski]

Before we get into chocolate economics, coco nomics, if you will, you got to know how we even get this miracle of nature and human ingenuity we call chocolate. Chocolate comes from chocolate liqueur. It sounds like something that would give you like a really bad hangover, but it doesn't contain any alcohol.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Chocolate liqueur is what you get when you take the cocoa pod, like the whole fruit, take the cocoa beans out, ferment them, roast them, grind them up. The result is that chocolate liqueur, which is part cocoa butter, part cocoa powder.

[Judy Gaines]

So it's sort of like having a jar of peanut Butter that the oil rises to the top.

[Greg Rosalski]

Judy says the cocoa butter part is kind of essential for the texture and silkiness of chocolate. The cocoa powder, it's more essential for the flavor.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

And as we've mentioned, if you want to call something milk chocolate, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't mess around. They have strict, strict rules in milk chocolate.

[Judy Gaines]

As per the FDA, it has to be in the U.S. 10% chocolate liqueur.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

At least 10%.

[Greg Rosalski]

Let's say it together, let's harmonize. At least 10% chocolate chocolate liqueur.

[Judy Gaines]

That little catch on the FDA is that for whatever cocoa butter is in that milk chocolate, it must be 100% cocoa butter. You can't substitute any vegetable oil or palm oil.

[Greg Rosalski]

It has to be pure cocoa butter, people.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

I mean, come on. If there's vegetable oil in there, that's the weak stuff.

[Greg Rosalski]

We don't want that. That's not chocolate.

[Judy Gaines]

Then it's not chocolate.

[Greg Rosalski]

That's what we're saying. That's what I said. Judy, we need to go back to the investigation.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Cue the sound, James. All right. When you flip over some of these Reese's products that we have in our hands right here, you will see in the ingredients, first sugar, then vegetable oil.

[Greg Rosalski]

The smoking skinflation gun. It's right there, right in front of our face the whole time. Sarah.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Well, hold on, because do we know for sure that the motivation here is to skimp? Like, could there be other reasons to swap out the ingredients? Because in March, when we first heard from Hershey's, they suggested that their use of chocolate compound and peanut butter cream was not skinflation, that it was innovation, that this was about new shapes and sizes, new products, and serving consumer preferences.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll dive into more of that in a second. But I'm just gonna say it like, it's not this consumer's preference.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We know, we know, we know. Okay, we are going to start with the evidence that this is actually skinflation.

[Greg Rosalski]

Okay, hear me out, guys. The case for skinflation. Here we go. First of all, for years, big American chocolate companies, including Hershey's, have actually lobbied the federal government to let them switch in vegetable oil for cocoa butter and still call their products milk chocolate.

[Judy Gaines]

The industry is like, please, please, please, you got to help us out. And the FDA says, no, if you

[Greg Rosalski]

skimp on the cocoa, you cannot call it milk chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

So why would you skimp? Like, surely chocolate makers don't want to have to call their stuff chocolate candy or chocolate compound, so why even do it? Well, to understand that, we need to dive into the global chocolate supply chain.

[Judy Gaines]

So there's been a dependency on the Ivory coast and Ghana to supply a massive percent of of the world's chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Yeah, Most of the world's cocoa comes from the Ivory coast and Ghana in West Africa.

[Greg Rosalski]

And a few years ago, there was this funky weather. We're talking long droughts and extreme heat and also excessive rainfall and that smothered cocoa production. And In April of 2024, the global price of cocoa went cuckoo.

[Judy Gaines]

The price of cocoa butter, rather than being $3,000 a ton, went to $25,000 a ton.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Holy moly. Yeah, that's a big difference.

[Judy Gaines]

Okay.

[Greg Rosalski]

This was record highs.

[Judy Gaines]

So the last time cocoa prices were high, you know, at like, nosebleed levels, was in 1977. And now you have prices that are triple that level.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

And then President Trump also slapped high tariffs on Ghana and the Ivory coast on top of the already cuckoo for cocoa prices. And Judy says, like, put yourself in the shoes of a chocolate manufacturer here.

[Judy Gaines]

I mean, it's impossible.

[Greg Rosalski]

Now, when ingredient costs go through the roof, companies have three basic options.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

They can raise prices, you know, kind of like inflation on a product. But of course, consumers do not love it when prices go up.

[Greg Rosalski]

Or they can shrink the amount of stuff they provide in their packages, which is known as shrinkflation. But consumers also don't love it when, you know, the chip bag is now smaller or half empty, or they can

[Sarah Gonzalez]

skimp on the quality of their product. What we at Planet Money really, Greg, our newsletter writer, have dubbed skimpflation.

[Greg Rosalski]

Skimping on the ingredients. It's all pretty sneaky. It's all subtle. Some consumers, you know, with less refined chocolate and peanut butter palates and, you know, you, Sarah or me or Brad Reese, they might not even notice, you know. And this recent cocoa shortage was so extreme that Judy says chocolate makers, they pulled all the levers.

[Judy Gaines]

They did raise prices, they did shrink the packaging, and they had to reformulate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We got skinflation, we got shrinkflation, we got inflation. They hate us on all fronts, which, like, okay, understandable.

[Greg Rosalski]

But wait just right there because. Okay, right, like, yeah, drought and rainfall, West Africa, production problems with the cocoa, global supply chain, and yada, yada, yada, you know, affected chocolate.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

What about the peanut butter, though? Because peanuts are grown in the United States for the most part. Like, why are they skimping on the peanut butter? Why do we have peanut butter cream right now? Like, what is the argument for that? Come on.

[Judy Gaines]

Okay, okay, so it's not only about the price.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, it's not just about the price. Judy says maybe they changed the peanut butter so it works with the new

[Judy Gaines]

chocolate formula, a product that's made with vegetable oil that doesn't have the same texture. Is there going to be seepage? And, you know, how does it stand up in packaging?

[Greg Rosalski]

And Hershey's actually told us a version of this, too. And this is bringing us to the rest of Hershey's case, that this is not skinflation. Okay. They said, quote, different shapes simply require a different recipe to hold their form. And for labeling purposes, that's referred to as a cream.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

As a cream. But they did say that even when they create different Reese's shapes and forms, that they still start with, quote, fresh ground peanuts, which is an important distinction, because to be clear here, peanut butter cream just means that Reese's is using less than 90% peanuts, which is the FDA rule for calling yourself peanut butter. So I don't know, maybe they're using 80% peanuts or 50% peanuts. So when we say that they are not using real peanut butter or real milk chocolate, it's not like they're using fake peanuts or fake cocoa. It's more like they're using less peanuts and less cocoa.

[Greg Rosalski]

Hershey's told us as we've grown and expanded the Reese's product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes, and innovations that Reese's fans have come to love and ask for.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Yeah, and Judy says maybe there's a broader business strategy going on here too. Okay. Because Reese's consumers aren't all the same. And she says Hershey's is, like, differentiating their products for different segments of the market.

[Judy Gaines]

I would say look at designer clothing.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Think of, like a luxury clothing brand. They have their haute couture, their fanciest clothesline.

[Greg Rosalski]

For Reese's, that's the classic peanut butter cup. Silky smooth, luxurious. Still legally, milk chocolate and peanut butter.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Then they have more like middle of

[Judy Gaines]

the road clothes that are selling mid

[Sarah Gonzalez]

market, you know, like at a Macy's or something.

[Greg Rosalski]

Okay, like mid market Reese's, that's probably like the Reese's sticks or something. I mean, they're pretty good, but they're kind of just like an imposter KitKat. I mean, like, what are we doing?

[Judy Gaines]

And then they have offshoots for, like, the discount stores, you know, the stuff

[Sarah Gonzalez]

you'd find at, like, a Ross.

[Greg Rosalski]

And maybe for Reese's, that would be like the mini eggs unwrapped. And for those eggs Reese's can use the chocolate compounds or the peanut butter cream because those mini eggs, they're just not for me, the Reese's purist, they're more of like a down market product.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Yeah. Judy says these products maybe more meant for kids and kids, they don't care.

[Greg Rosalski]

I'd like to think my son would notice.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

I would like to think that we are raising children to notice the difference. Same.

[Greg Rosalski]

I definitely taste the difference. I'm still trying to get it off my tongue.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Alright, so maybe some of this is the result of trying to make new products and shapes for different kinds of consumers. But if it has been about skimping in response to sky high cocoa prices, and there's a chance that our national skimpy chocolate nightmare might soon be over

[Greg Rosalski]

because cost pressures have partly subsided over the last year. In November, the Trump administration, citing affordability concerns, exempted cocoa beans from tariffs. And the production problems in West Africa seem to at least have been partially resolved. Since its peak in early 2025, the global price of cocoa has fallen more than 60%.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

So maybe, maybe chocolate companies will go back to the real deal, milk chocolate. Right.

[Judy Gaines]

Judy, I'm going to throw something at you. Okay, okay.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

In the 80s, the major soft drink

[Judy Gaines]

manufacturers, Coke, Pepsi, switched from 100% sugar to high fructose corn syrup.

[Greg Rosalski]

That was in response to high sugar prices. But soda makers, they never looked back.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Judy, it sounds like you're saying you don't think these chocolate manufacturers are going to go back to the original milk chocolate formula. That's what that example is telling me.

[Judy Gaines]

Like some will not. It really depends on the economics and what their sales are. And if consumers are buying it.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Yeah, are consumers buying it? Are they even noticing it? I mean, certainly you would not want someone announcing to the world like, hey, this isn't real milk chocolate anymore. But that is what Brad Reese is doing. He has mounted what you might call a skimp shaming campaign against Hershey's.

[Brad Reese]

I, I, I think I'm having an impact. I really do. They're on notice. Are they not on notice?

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, it seems like they're on notice. I, this was not on my radar and I actually love Reese's. And now, and to be honest, now that because of you, when I go to the store, I do look at the ingredients. Brad's been writing these open letters, he's making media appearances, he's documenting Hershey's ingredient lists and their changes and he's been updating his website and his LinkedIn. But he's hoping his skimp Shaming tour can end soon so he can go back and enjoy retired life.

[Brad Reese]

I can go. I can do my karaoke at Wednesdays at Benny's on the beach. That's what I want to get back to. I don't know where this is going to lead because it is a lot of work, and I'm not against doing a lot of work. But also, I need to take my naps and I need to. I want to have a simple, enjoyable life. But Reese's is no longer the enjoyable part of my life anymore. It's now just. I'll just go out and just be a normal person wearing a normal shirt and. And won't be talking about Reese's.

[Greg Rosalski]

Brad's hope is that consumers notice the new formula and that they won't settle for skimpy chocolate and that Hershey's is forced to go back. Oh, my gosh. I just got an alert. Sarah. We're working on this story right now. This is breaking news for us. What happened, Hershey? This is from Bloomberg Business. Hershey will change the chocolate in a small portion of its Reese's and Hershey's products. The latest twist in a squabble over its ingredients initiated by a grandson of the Reese's Peanut Butter cup creator. Brad did it. Brad did it. Okay, so let's put a pin in whether Brad did it or not. But, yeah, Hershey's. It announced it will stop using chocolate compound coating in all of its products.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

The moment the news broke, we, of course, called up batteries.

[Greg Rosalski]

I have some news.

[Brad Reese]

What news? What are you talking about? What's going on?

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Brad was out on the town. We were talking to him on the phone on speaker, and he had not yet heard the news.

[Brad Reese]

I already. I already got my computer to sleep. Yeah. So I'm. I'm not partying right now.

[Greg Rosalski]

So, yeah, this is today. This just came out. The company said, this is Hershey's. It will swap out a chocolate compound coating as part of a return to using, quote, classic milk and dark chocolate recipes, end quote, unquote, in all Reese's and hershey's products by 2027.

[Brad Reese]

What? Wait a second. They're giving themselves two years.

[Greg Rosalski]

Wait, so you're not happy, Brad? I mean, come on.

[Brad Reese]

The very end will be ruined by that.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We did tell Hershey's that this recent ingredient change by them seemed like a pretty big contradiction to what they told us before, that the compound stuff and the cream stuff was all about innovation that consumers love. They suggested it was not a contradiction. They said, quote, as Consumer preferences continue to change about ingredients and tastes. We continue to evolve to meet these needs.

[Greg Rosalski]

Now, as to whether Brad caused this to happen, in the Bloomberg article, it does seem that Hershey says the Hershey Chief Executive Officer Kirk Tanner said he made the decision to change the ingredients shortly after he took the role last summer and well before Brad Reese aired his complaints. So I don't think.

[Brad Reese]

Oh, that's hilarious. Okay.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

All right. Wait, where are you?

[Brad Reese]

Johnny Brown's in Delray.

[Greg Rosalski]

Are you. Are you singing karaoke?

[Brad Reese]

Well, no, that's later tonight. Tin roof at 9 o'. Clock.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

What are you gonna see?

[Brad Reese]

I'll probably be singing Nightlife by Willie Nelson.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

You want to give us a little.

[Brad Reese]

Oh, the nightlife. It's not a good life, but it's my life.

[Greg Rosalski]

Listen to what the blues are saying.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Do you love the banter between your Planet Money co hosts? The chemistry.

[Greg Rosalski]

Just bantering back and forth. It's like, it's like tennis. We're going back and forth, just bantering away.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Wanna see this all happen live on a stage as we do a live taping of a brand new episode. Great. You are in luck. You should come see us on the Planet Money book tour. I'm gonna be in Santa Monica on April 16 with Jack Corbett from our famous famous Planet Money TikTok. You can see him doing his thing live on stage.

[Greg Rosalski]

Yeah, we're gonna be so many places. Dc, Seattle, Boulder, San Francisco, Toronto.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

We're going international, baby.

[Greg Rosalski]

We're going to the moon. We're going all over the place, baby. Let's get wild.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

The book is called Planet Money, A guide to the economic forces that shape your life. And every stop is going to be unique and different with different hosts, different guests. If you get a ticket to one of our live events, you will also get a book tour exclusive tote bag. We know you love a tote bag, listeners. Okay, find the show nearest to you at the link in our show notes or go to planet moneybook.com and thanks for supporting us.

[Greg Rosalski]

This episode of Planet Money was produced by the wonderful James Sneed.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

Cue the chocolate investigation sound again. One more time for the people.

[Greg Rosalski]

It was edited by Kenny Malone, fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Sina Lofredo. Alex Gomark is our executive producer.

[Sarah Gonzalez]

I'm Sarah Gonzalez.

[Greg Rosalski]

And I'm Greg rosalski. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.

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