The Poor Farm Boy Who Invented Reese’s to Provide for His Family
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are number one on the list of top-selling candy brands! The classic, mouth-watering candy consists of a chocolate cup filled with peanut butter. And Americans love them so much that they will do basically anything with them. From baking them into pies and mixing them into cocktails, to even stuffing them into burgers!
But do you also know how the yummy snack was first invented? Hint: it wasn’t an accidental collision of a man’s chocolate in a boy’s peanut butter jar!
If you’ve ever tried one, then you probably already know that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are absolutely... delicious! They are number one on the list of top-selling candy brands. And they’re Reese’s flagship product.
The classic, mouth-watering candy consists of a chocolate cup filled with peanut butter. And Americans love them so much that they will do basically anything with them. From baking them into pies and mixing them into cocktails, to even stuffing them into burgers!
Reese’s is named after its inventor: Harry Burnett ‘H.B.’ Reese. This is his story.
Sources:
H. B. Reese
www.mashed.com/205754/the-unt...
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
www.hersheyland.com/reeses/about
www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
History
www.businessinsider.com/the-f...
www.snackhistory.com/reeses-p...
www.mashed.com/247571/the-tru...
Imagine having 16 kids today and being able to support them with odd jobs. What a time that was…
I have some of the craziest stories from my grandfather being a child of 16 of them.
I can hardly support myself and I have no kids. I couldn't imagine it without the help of the government and the public and churches etc.
Prob bc ur not really trying
People didn't have as much energy and energy intensive livelihoods like we do 24/7/365 complete super infrastructure light heat a/c all kinds of appliances and array of tools requiring the use of energy to be produced etc Markets then we're still growing the rich were poor living by lower middle class standards today Hell the economic growth was aligned well enough to be still back by gold production we had just begun to see fuller effects of the young industrial age Different times
For context, people lived much more simply then. No gadgets or multiple vehicles to manage.
The greatest candy ever created. If I could choose just one candy for the rest of my life, it would be Reese's.
Agreed
Peanut butter and chocolate, what’s not to like?
Reese’s Pieces 😊❤
On God..
Too bad it's severely processed and same of the ingredients are linked to diabetes and cancer.
it's a shame he didn't leave anything to his 8 daughters.
I'd pay a good amount of money to try some of the first reese's cups ever made. They were probably much better than the ones we have today
Grow some peanuts and roast them until almost burned. 😁
Ah man, I can just imagine how good they would have been back then!!
@@smithpianoservicing3421 what kind what soil what temp and climate ect. Jk haha joke killer here
I hate resse but I agree that would be good I think if they had THC but tasted the same I would eat them everyday haha
My mom figured out the "recipe" and we had homemade reese's several times a year! 😋
An honorable man would have left an inheritance to his daughters as well as his sons.
As a little boy growing up in the 60's I remember going to the local grocery store near Pasadena CA and purchasing a single Reese's cup for a nickel (circa 1967). Boy how times have changed.
Howd they taste back then
HAS THE TASTE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?
Taste is still the same but portions are much larger now... Can you still purchase a single cup?
@@byrons1339 oh wow! Not that I am aware of?
The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup was one of the most precious gifts given to the world chocolate and peanut butter is a very distinctive flavor that's why it was so successful
Wow I wonder if the daughters ever got anything from the brothers?
This is my favorite snack ever! It’s absolutely delicious. He was a genius for inventing this peanut butter/chocolate cup!
I always enjoyed the commercial so many years ago showing how chocolate and peanutbutter got introduced accidently. Don't know if it was true, but a cool commercial non the less.
Snack? They are breakfast, lunch and dinner for me… then a a few for a midnight snack!! 😂😂😂
He didn't really invent it. He copied others, but his recipe was the best and most popular.
How sad, he died a few months before he seen his factory🥺 RIP Mr. Reese🌹
You see son, when a chocolate bar and a peanut butter jar love each other very much...
😂😂😂😂
I see nothing but a BRILLIANT man in Mr. Reese! He thought of ideas, he knows WHEN they are not going to work, he then stopped them when needed, started something new..... He NEVER gave up! Only his heart did. So sad. This is still me FAVORITE candy today! I'll NEVER say "NO" to a Reese's, just like millions of other people out there!!! RIP Mr. Reese!
I wish I could learn to think of ideas. Sounds pretty crazy.
just read a comment that said he left all his daughters out of his will and left it all to his sons who sold the company. doesn't sound like that great of a guy to me. also having so many children you can't provide for them? come on, man
People with dreams and gifts are not perfect. I do not condone the bad decisions to harm kids and leave some or all of them out of the will. Their legacies live on through the ideas, products, and ways our lives were changed.
I'll never be able to eat another one without remembering that these started in his basement! Wow! I've loved them since I was a child and we used to have a penny candy store just a few houses down on the corner and it was such a joy to go in there with only a few cents and come out with a mouth full of chocolate!
Me too. This was when I was 5 years old, in early 1971. Read my just posted walk through memory lane.
Seems like the best inventions were made in the basement.
Just about every invention started in a basement, in fact.
@@eva5601 I will look for your post. We are the same age! Life was so much simpler then. Of course, we had no worries except asking our parents for some change and riding our big wheels! LOL!
I'll never be able to eat another without thinking about how his poor daughters (and wife) were left out of his will. How is no one else mentioning this?
This man deserves a medal, no wonder the candy looks like a prize. I’m a fan, no doubt. And I always come back for more. The newest craze is the “Super King” - I had to buy one. The cashier said “That’s dangerous!” 😂
Outrageous bar is better than it sounds! 🥴
@J K No it's not dangerous. It's just so darn delicious! 😋😋😋
@@billrobbins5874 take 5 is even better. but hard to find.
A medal? No… The jerk cut his daughters out of the family fortune. Nice dad. Also, chocolate and peanut butter are gross together.
@@wendytravis6427 Your right, that jerk doesn't deserve a medal. But he did, make some mighty fine chocolate and you, don't have to like peanut butter and chocolate either. Because, their are plenty of us who do.
My all-time favorite candy. Thank you Mr. Reese for your perseverance to make a GREAT candy!!!!!!
Don't know if it was a mistake like back in the 70's commercial, but IF it was, it was the absolutely the BEST mistake EVER!!
These were my favorite chocolate bar since I was four years old! I am 53 now and still love them! Rest in peace Mr. Reece! You are still number one!
If you want to make a 'modern' Reese's Peanut Butter Cup - I've stolen the perfect recipe from a former workmate, Joc. For the filling, he mixes equal volumes of regular peanut butter, icing sugar, and graham crumbs. Form it into logs the diameter of a quarter and freeze them. From this you can slice thick coins of 'filling'. For the chocolate, you need to slowly melt good semi-sweet baker's chocolate, or baker's milk chocolate - no higher than 32 C. Pour some chocolate into muffin cups, press in the coins of filling, and pour a little more chocolate to cover. It takes some practice to get them consistent, but they'll be the best peanut butter cups you've had since the 80's.
Thank you!
I do something kinda like that, but with dark chocolate and peanut butter. They melt fast, but damn they're good. XD
Ahh! I tried to make some one time. I made my own peanut butter, it was too thin, even frozen! I wondered how adding confectioners sugar would work. I'll try that next time! Still need a tabletop enrober.
This sounds amazing and super easy, I’m definitely going to try it. Thank you!!!
I'm a Chocolatier myself and I love to make different flavors every month for my Chocoholic friends.
Back in the early 80's, we sold a 3-pack of Reese's for $1 to raise money for the Latin Club. I was the # 1 salesman all 4 years.
Everyone is blessed with a set of talents and it's cool to see how some people found their success in life. I have a stash of Reese's peanut butter cups in my kitchen.
In Harry and his wife's honor, we enjoyed some peanut butter cups while watching this video: snack size and miniature cups (leftover from Halloween; I always get several bags so I have few hidden around to get through the year 🙂 ). Thank you for a great story in this video. And he remained friends with his competition. Looking at our bag, it says "Dist. by the Hershey Company"
Sadly they own the company now. I won't touch any more of their products. It's sad because I grew up on Reeses. I especially miss the bigger candy bars, from the 60s and 70s! My sisters and I used pillow cases, because we got so much candy! 😋
My husband's grandma had 14 kids. There were times she was pregnant with her daughter in laws at the same time.
What a great man he struggled through life worked hard working numerous jobs looked at 16 children and looked after his elderly mother and Aunties. All on him. Really inspirational.
But he also cut out his daughters out of his will....inspirational indeed?!
You missed the part of leaving all of his daughters out of the will? He sounds like a pure chauvinistic prick to be honest. We are left to assume that the only reason he kept having more children was to have boys, not girls.
@@workingguy6666it was a different time then. He left a company, not cash. Women didn't work outside the home.
Just finished a very fresh Reeses cup. Well, I ate four. 😋 gonna down some cinnamon now.
What a story!! An all-time favorite, but they were a bit thicker in the 1950s when I was a kid! I have to eat them in moderation like once a year for Halloween or I'd have more cavities and get fat from too many sweets! I've got it down to the way French women eat chocolate, only a tiny bit once in awhile. I can make a chocolate bar last a whole week! lol Thanks for sharing this Business Stories, love the history of different famous foods and beverages!
Your hands were smaller when you were a kid.
Fantastic So informative I had no idea Love how Hershey and Reese are such bros
He left all of his daughters out of his will and left his wealth to his surviving idiot sons who sold the company to Milton Hershey.
@@fb8916 it wasn't THAT long ago. You're talking the 1800's into the very early 1900's. He could have left it to them. But his man brain wasn't that far evolved.
That's so messed up
but Hershey give them a very VERY good deal... he could've left the company to rot and came out with his own version of peanut butter cups but didn't..
@@dunhillsupramk3 you must be a man. Trying to make excuses for misogyny. Ha! Try again. This isn't the 1950's. Women don't put up with that shyte anymore.
He was a sexist dad who left his daughters out of his will. He left his female children out of the will. The female side of the family did not benefit from that sweet deal. Imagine if one of those females was your grandmother.
Still my favorite candy to this day loved them as a child and I'm 45 now I still love them.
Kind of sad he left his daughters out of the company!
The old days were messed up in some ways!
I know did they get any money. I wonder if they are still living and what they did for work.
Giving women rights changed our society for the worse. You wanna live in a world where no one knows their gender, people aren’t having kids, and people (primarily women) are voting for a demented psychopath who’s regime steals half of our money and robs our freedoms? I’ll go back to the early 1900s thanks
Reese's peanut butter cups may be the only candy that isn't using the cheap palm oil that is so prevalent now. I hope Reese's doesn't change their excellent formula .
Bad news they are
Heads-up sorry to inform you they change that great formula long time ago
@@tomlewis5542 I've seen it in some of the varieties but not all
Ah yes, soybean oil. A much better alternative 😂
@@NuggsDD Soybean oil production doesn't impact the native habitat of many animals species. Besides being unhealthy due to high saturated fat, palm oil production has lead to deforestation and the demise of many animals.
Very interesting story, but I take exception to Reese's decision to disinherit his daughters.
I was thinking the same thing!! WTF?!?
I’m surprised there’s no mention that in the Movie ET, Steven Spielberg went to M&M’s first, & they decline. and then he went to Reese’s pieces, and they said “yes” That was a significant boost to Reeses sales.
16 kids??? HOLY Reese's pieces!!!!😂
She got a lot of Reeses pieces if you know what l mean. Don’t know how he found the time or privacy
@@ProctorsGamble that precisely what I meant 😂
If they were single pregnancies and not multiples like twins, his poor wife still would be pregnant for 16 years if she took no breaks. Wow that's be exhausting.
His daughters were left out of the will? I hope when the sons sold the business, they at least took care of their sisters.
Loved this amazing story...I am from a large family and the story touched my heart ❤️
Reese’s can make anything taste amazing!!
Thank you Harry for your delicious peanut butter cups. May you rest in Reeses Pieces!! 😂
The Reese’s Break-Fast was my dad’s absolute favorite when he was still alive! Something I’ll always remember him by.
It’s Fast Break (not Break Fast)😉
Thanks Harry for your hard work and wanting to help your family. I love a Reese's cup!
Wow. I was really enthralled until “he left the daughters out of the will”. How sad!!!
Has alway been my favorite treat to have with a cup of coffee. My refrigerator is filled with Reeses. Thank you Mr. Reese
Always the sumptuous choclated peanutbutter treat I have enjoyed from childhood and on.🥜+🍫= Deliciousness
Great. It is 11pm and I want a Reese's now.
I'm very glad to see this video. For sure the best candy bar/cup ever made.
I love this. I am a big fan of Reese's product. I could eat them every day if I want to. Love it.
I'd have to disagree that "the way he roasted his peanuts" was what really stood out from the rest. That's just a phrase to keep the recipe under wraps. Rather, its the added graham cracker, sugar and butter mixed with peanut butter that made them stand out from the rest. More, fat, sugar and texture.
The story I heard in a tour of Hershey PA was that while working for Mr Hershey, Mr Reese developed the pb cup in his barn & offered to sell it to Mr Hershey then. Mr Hershey refused the offer because he wanted Mr Reese to get the profits. Hershey helped him with providing sugar from his plantations in Cuba. The story went on to jive with this video as the Reese heirs sold the pb cup to Hershey at a later date
What a inspiring despite of tragic experience Mabuhay k Mr. Reese 🇵🇭👍
I Love, Love, Love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!!! They're My All Time Favourite Candy!!!
Eating these to an extreme over the years led to my poor health...they are that good. Fortunately I have left sugar and processed food behind 😊
You don't need too , you can still enjoy them but just from time to time.
Sad that he left out his Daughters in the will. That sucks.
Women were only brood mares back then…hence the wife. 😮
Daughters either married into other families, or found ways to support themselves. Employment in the family candy business was surly a given.
My family members worked for the company and was able to sustain themselves from both companies. The company means a lot to the state of PA. Because of this I have gotten to taste this candy my entire childhood for free. I was happy to taste their candy before the labor was out sourced outside of the US. Now the candy taste different. The earliest cups tasted WAY better! Getting candy from Hershey plus ice cream and fresh cookies from Hershey is heaven!!!
And probably diabetes too
@@BigDees19 first off there are multiple types of diabetes and none of my relatives that worked there or that enjoyed candies cookies and ice creams ever got diabetes. You’re ignorance is a wild liability. You might want to tame it.
Humble beginning for that man and family.
I love Reese's cups even more now that I know the story!!
So do I!
They’ve always been my absolute favorite. My nightstand drawer and pantry is full of back stock for my nightstand drawer! The newer big cups with the Reese’s pieces inside are amazing, but hard to find, they’re usually at gas station markets, the only reason I go to a gas station market. The Fast Breaks are also super delicious and at Easter the peanut butter shaped eggs have the best flavor of all of them, I wish they made the eggs year round, but until they do I will keep buying cartloads full (literally) of the PB eggs when they go on clearance after Easter… Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!!! 🤤
I will also sandwich them between Oreo’s, or just eat them along with them rotating bites, pb cup, oreo, pb cup, oreo, and so on!! SOOOO Good!!!
Literally eating a Reese's big cup while watching this. Thank you so much!
Truly my favorite…well done Mr. Reese
My mother used to make a variation of this candy for Chrtismas gifts. The peanut butter was mixed with rice crispy rolled into balls and chilled in the refrigerator then dipped into melted chocolate. Love both candies. Oh are Buckeyes also a variation?
Im going to try making that. I have peanut butter and rice krispies already, just need to get the chocolate.
Oh my God. The creator of Reese's peanut butter cups has 16 kids!
Horney and hungry apparently.
he was a very busy bussinesss man.
With three jobs how did he even have time or energy to be having sex that much . God damn lol 😂
Couldn't control his Reeses pieces!
That's wonderful. What a treasure.
You got chocolate in my peanut butter. No, you got peanut butter in my chocolate.!!!!! Loved those commercials
What pleasant story on Mr. REESE’s BLESSED life. I am so glad I watched this video on my favorite CHOCOLATE!!! There is NO BETTER PEANUT BUTTER PRODUCTS THAN THOSE OF REESE’s! 😋
Wow... It's just candy. Calm down.
I love them! They’re my go to when Kit Kat is gone. And always buy two. I buy the bigger pack of Reese’s peanut butter cups at least twice a week. I ate mine and have to get some more. Put them in the freezer then eat them cold and they last longer. Neat seeing how they’re made.
So this man, along with Hershey himself, created the edible crack that I've had to quit twice now....interesting. And informative. Now I know who's behind my addiction. Harry Reese, you bastard...
Love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! YUM!!!!😋😋
I love Reece's peanut butter cups... yum:)
I can’t lie, they make the best peanut butter in the world. My favorite candy is the double cups and I only use their peanut butter for sandwiches.
Reese's Peanut butter cups are one of my Fav candies. I get the bag of slightly smaller sized ones, and they're gone in 2 days. 🥰 Note to self: Add 3 bags of Reece's peanut butter cups on next grocery list ❤❤❤❤
10\10 video good presentation the history u give and new stuff is amazing
I'm not much of a peanut butter eater. I like Reese candy once in a while. Thanks for your documentary. Much success and health to all.
Wow Mr Hershey and Mr Reese met and the rest is history
The white chocolate ones are even better than the regular, and those are delicious
The Reese’s white chocolate ghosts are the perfect mix of white chocolate and pb filling.
Yessss
Truly Inspirational 🎉 Best candy of all time
Reeses has always been a favorite! Especially the organic ones. Oh, and the Reeses Easter pb eggs, pb Christmas 🎄 trees! Oh yeah!
Left his daughters out of the will? Okay, now I'll never look at this man and the candy the same way again. Hope his sons knew better to share the fortune..
Exactly ! Still my fave candy
There had to be some family politics going on... The video said Reese had a large family. It didn't say everyone got along with each other.
You can't trust women with business and money. They'll sell the business to buy shoes.
He had 16 kids they can't all be good xD
The eight daughters were really dissed by not being included in the will.
Now I love this story 😁 and the cups 😊
Surprised that no mention was made of the use of the Reese's Pieces in the movie, ET. THAT made a big boost in sales also.
Why let his daughters out of his will?😭
After enjoying myself in Europe with the finest of chocolates for several years, returning stateside and one bite of a Hershey's bar I just knew I was back in good ole America. Lite beer, wonder bread and shitty chocolate.
I've not been yet, but you're welcome to go back if it's that bad here. Jeez!
@@ceeceety2320 na I've fought for this country, I deserve to live here. America just has a tendency to think we always have the best and we don't.
You are right, you do live to deserve to live here and Americans deserve to have the same superior products that Europe has. And until the 1930's, we did. It was about that time that making money took priority over quality, health and safety.
@@ceeceety2320 bro america sucks let's be honest but you guys have alot of things to do there so that's why we Europeans come there
@@royh429 So true! Our govt. sucks! My wife and I have yet to see so much of what we have here. We plan to travel and hopefully I can manage to retire at 62 yrs. of age. Where have you been that you really enjoyed here if I may ask? I would love to know.
I’m amazed he had an iPad in 1910. Brilliant guy!
Big cups pieces and puffs are my favorites ❤
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the nectar of the gods! Not one of the variations has ever surpassed the wonderfulness of the originals! But all are beyond great!
When God told humans to be fruitful and multiply, Mr. Reese literally took it seriously. He had 16 kids! Wow
loved how he named the different candies after his children, what a guy!
Ok but mr hearsay just sounds like a chill dude
We all would have loved to meet the creator himself Mr. Reese.
This video made me want to buy candy. Personally I love the big cups.
Thank you!
Myself and my sisters say a big, fat thank you for this tasty treat! ❤❤
As a kid in the 70's after seeing the commercial hey you've got peanut butter on my chocolate, no you've got chocolate on my peanut butter 😃 I never thought twice about combing the two 😁😁
Best commercial ever, and if you know the phrase you are definitely dating yourself right?! It's great!
Okay, it's basically a machine made Buckeye, and there are lots of recipes if you want to make them.
Sure you can make anything if you want to. Cars, furnaces, light bulbs...Basically anything
Maybe, but are they going to taste exactly like this recipe? I tend to doubt it. I could be wrong. It's happened before. All in good humor!
One of my favorite snacks is taking a bottle of chocolate and squeeze some into my jar of peanut butter. Then enjoy by the spoonful. I prefer the crunchy peanut butter when doing this. Shalom
Reminds of when I use to make and sell auxiliary cables in the musician circuit I played in. Was a nice thing to do because every single drummer I knew who needed to connect their phone or computer to a mixer always had a shortage in the more prestigious brand names. . . That’s when mine became more considerate
He built his own community😁😁😁
I wonder if he was a Christian…that’s what they brainwash followers and women into…pumping out kids.
OMG!!! 16 kids? Poor guy couldn't pull out of a damn driveway!!! 😂😂😂
Lmfao 🤣🤣, yeah I guess also Harry didn't realize there's another lane close by to drive thru 🤣🤣
@@darrylbrosius4619 😂
Guess he had an excess amount of fuel ⛽ to keep on trucking 😅😂!
I think he walked.
@@darrylbrosius4619 yeah, the 'Hershey highway'...Lol!
I love them ❤ so damn good!!!
I ❤️Reese’s Cups…They gotta be in the top 10 or 15 of favorite chocolate candies
They are my favorite but I think when a company gets to big things can go wrong! I'm not sure why when I lived in the PA, NY ,NJ area they always tasted great!!! But recently in Arizona I purchased some Reese cups they were so sweet like 3X what they should be!!! I had to throw it out. 😮 I don't know if they outsource manufactureig for different markets like most domestic beer is? But someone fell asleep at the sugar controls .
I had a bag once that said, Made In Mexico. Most of the time it just say's distributed by the hershey company. Doesn't say where they are actually made. At least I know Mallow Cups are still made in Altoona Pa.
Yes my favorite because I don’t have to bite into it. That’s why young and old love it- no teeth required because it’s so mouth watering. ps. always leave a detailed (and logical) succession plan for your business. It would have been a shame if the kids’ bickering had destroyed the company. 🍫
Reeses Puffs was one of my favorite cereals growing up and I still crave the candy time to time
Why is it so mind blowing for people to hear anyone having mad kids back then? It was a different time, most people had a farm, and they needed the extra kids for help... I only have 3 siblings and I wish I had a few more.
Women weren't allowed to NOT have kids. We've been treated as breeding sows for millenia. Given a choice, women have fewer kids - and more and more, none at all. Human pregnancy is extremely dangerous, too.
My mother's parents had 14 kids. One died at 3 yo and another at 18 from typhoid fever. The rest lived to ripe old ages of up to 94 years old.