Are Thinner Reese's Cups Actually Better? We Found Out.

Courtesy of Hershey's
Courtesy of Hershey's

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the perfect candy, and have been since Hershey’s began producing ‘em in 1963. But the good folks at Pennsylvania’s finest chocolate corporation have decided that they want to mess with perfection. In fact, Hershey’s has gone all Marie Kondo on Reese’s by releasing a new snack called Reese’s Thins, which takes its standard peanut butter cup and makes it 40% thinner. They come in old-school milk chocolate and new-school dark. Here's how they stack up among Reese's surprisingly wide-ranging arsenal of candy.

What’s the difference between Reese’s Thins and regular-sized Reese’s?

Great question! Reese’s created a fancy infographic to show you exactly how much smaller a Thin is from a standard cup, but when we did the eye-test of a regular Reese’s next to Thins… it didn’t look too much different. If you look at the nutritional info, a different picture emerges.

The standard serving size for Reese’s is one package -- or two cups -- and that provides you with 210 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 22 grams of sugar. The Thins are purchased in a larger bag that contains 18 little cups. The serving size for the Thins is three cups, but despite the fact that three is more than two, there are only 170 calories, 10 grams of fat, and 18 grams of sugar. If you think this is going to come up again later in the article, you’re right!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Thins
Courtesy of Hershey's

Taste test #1: Milk chocolate Thins

First of all, I love that the Thins are individually wrapped. I don’t know about you*, but I get my required sugar rush after I bust open the package and eat one standard Reese’s. The second cup usually goes into the garbage or back into the pantry, where I’ll forget about it until I discover it a month later when I’m hungry and scouring my kitchen for junk food at 2am. The fact that I’m given the option to eat one Reese’s Thins and then bail is fantastic.

It tastes like a standard Reese’s, but with significantly less peanut butter. The ratio here is a lot more pleasurable than the original, as you won’t have to pour yourself a cup of water to drink afterwards. Whereas Reese’s Minis are so bite-sized and easy to pop in your mouth that you end up eating way more than you planned on, you need at least two or three bites to finish the Thins. It delivers on that familiar peanut butter and chocolate combination without feeling like it’s skimping on either of the ingredients. In short, the Reese’s Thins are perfect junk food. And if you do have the urge to eat two or three of these, you’re still consuming less sugar and fat than if you ate a standard Reese’s package.

*Nobody at Thrillist condones Mr. Breslouer's habit of discarding or forgetting about Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. He is a monster, and we have alerted the proper authorities. - Eds.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Thins
Courtesy of Hershey's

Taste test #2: Dark chocolate Thins

I remembered hating dark chocolate with a passion growing up. It tasted bitter to me. “Adults are stupid for liking this,” I thought. Adults are stupid for liking a lot of things in 2019 -- I personally have no interest in a pygmy goat walking on my back while I do yoga -- but eating dark chocolate is not one of them. World-class, artisanal dark chocolate is at most specialty supermarkets, and can be delivered to your door within an hour. Let’s be real: Hershey’s isn’t in the business of producing an artisanal product, and high quality dark chocolate cannot be found in a Reese’s Thins. Having eaten something like a Justin’s Organic Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups has ruined me, since I know what a higher quality dark chocolate and peanut butter combo tastes like.

That said, while this undeniably tastes good, this version of the Thins loses the essential Reese’s-ness of the thing. If someone fed this to me with a blindfold, I wouldn’t necessarily think it was a Reese’s product. Then I’d try to escape whatever creepy place makes me eat food while wearing a blindfold. But sadly, it overall makes me crave better versions of this product I’ve had previously.

Bottom line: Despite Reese’s Thins offering less peanut butter than its predecessor, you’ll probably like it even more than the original, which many thought was impossible.

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