Reese's Pieces are a peanut butter

Peanut butter

Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly...

 flavored candy

Candy

Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...

 manufactured by The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...

 for the North American market; they are also available in Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 & The United Kingdom. They are circular in shape and covered in candy shells that are colored either yellow, orange, or brown. They can be purchased in plastic packets, cardboard boxes, or cup-shaped travel containers. The candy was introduced in 1978 and launched throughout the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1980. The relatively new product became very popular with the 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...

, in which the candy is featured.

Reese's Pieces are a product extension

Brand extension

Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity...

 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.

Manufacture

The candies 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

Penuche

Penuche is a fudge-like candy made from brown sugar, butter, and milk, using no flavorings except for vanilla. Penuche often has a tannish color to it and is lighter than regular fudge. It is formed by the caramelization of brown sugar, and thus its flavor is said to be reminiscent of caramel...

 filling. 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.

Product line expansion

In 2010, The Hershey Company expanded the Pieces line to include York Peppermint Pattie

York Peppermint Pattie

York Peppermint Pattie is a dark chocolate enrobed peppermint confection produced by The Hershey Company, under license from Cadbury plc ....

 Pieces, Hershey's Special Dark

Hershey's Special Dark

Hershey's Special Dark is a chocolate candy bar manufactured by The Hershey Company.Special Dark is similar to a normal Hershey bar, but is made with a dark variety of chocolate, and contains a higher percentage of cocoa solids, chocolate liquor, and cocoa butter than milk chocolate...

 Pieces, and Almond Joy

Almond Joy

An Almond Joy is a candy bar manufactured by Hershey's. It consists of a coconut-based center topped with two almonds and enrobed in a layer of milk chocolate...

Pieces.

External links

• Official product page