Reese's Pieces
| Reese's Pieces, current design Reese's Pieces candies |
|
| Product type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | 1978 |
| Website | www.hersheys.com/pieces |
Reese's Pieces are a peanut butter candy manufactured by The Hershey Company solely for the North American market; they are oblate spheroid in shape and covered in candy shells that are colored yellow, orange, or brown.[1] They can be purchased in plastic packets, cardboard boxes, or cup-shaped travel containers. The candy was introduced in 1978,[2][3] and introduced to Canada in 1980.[4] The then relatively new product became very popular with the 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in which the candy is featured.[5]
Reese's Pieces are a product extension of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups line; this new product was designed to capitalize on the success of the chocolate-covered peanut butter cups.
Contents
Manufacture
Reese's Pieces were first manufactured using panning machines that had been used to make Hershey-ets, a chocolate-filled candy that had been discontinued. Designers knew that they wanted a peanut-flavored candy but had some problems with the filling. Original plans called for filling the candy shells with peanut butter, but the oil leaked out into the shell, leaving it soft, rather than crunchy.
The developer of the project turned the problem over to a team of outside scientists, who created a peanut-flavored penuche filling.[6] More experimentation was needed to determine the correct thickness of the shell. Finally, the colors of the candy coating were designed to coordinate with the color of the Reese's package. The goal color distribution is 50% orange, 25% brown, and 25% yellow.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
In 1982, the Mars candy bar company rejected an offer for the inclusion of its key product M&M's in the new Steven Spielberg movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Hershey, on the other hand, took the chance, and with the blockbuster success its product's sales dramatically increased, perhaps as much as 300%.[7]
Product line expansion
In 2010, The Hershey Company expanded the Pieces line to include York Peppermint Pattie Pieces, Hershey's Special Dark Pieces, and Almond Joy Pieces.[8] Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds Pieces became the fourth expansion of this line in 2012.[9]
See also
References
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- ↑ Snopes: Taking it E.T.
Business by its very nature is cut-throat; competitors rarely aid one another because one company's success almost invariably comes at the expense of the other's vitality. When such leg-ups occur, they are often inadvertent — the result of one firm's having failed to take advantage of an opportunity that its competitor later cleaned up on. Such was the case when Mars, Inc. passed on the chance for its flagship product, M&Ms, to be the candy used in 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Its turn-down cleared the way for Hershey Foods Corporation to make a remarkable splash for its Reese's Pieces. - ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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