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Reese’s, a Hershey brand, is known for combining chocolate and peanut butter in delicious and iconic ways. Reese’s products come in a variety of formats, called “line extensions.”
[...]
One of my first jobs as an intern in corporate R&D was formulating cost reductions for existing products and later developing cost-effective line extensions building on the brand equity of the original product
does anyone remember food 
Professor of Food and Hospitality Management
not this fucking guy lol
is this the guy they read from on boonta vista fairly regularly?
it's not the Grocerant Guru if that's what you mean
There are grocerant gurus everywhere, for those with the eyes to see
chocolate peanut butter popcorn
that's outrageous. i'll take one large tin, please.
But most reformulations go unnoticed – the good work of food technologists who strive to keep food safe, affordable and delicious for consumers.
So, are these new Reese’s products inferior to the original? Maybe. Like with taste in art or wine, if it tastes good to you, it’s good. If not, vote with your wallet, or send the company a note like Brad Reese did.
Tranlsation: You are powerless, piggy!
I like to think that 50 years from now, people will look back on all the ultraprocessed shit we eat with the same revulsion we now have for asbestos filtered cigarettes and cocaine cola
My disgust re: cocaine cola is the same as these people's disgust about their peanut treats- they keep taking the good stuff out.
Imagine wondering when your cocaine cola was going to hit and then finding out the answer was never again.
Nope we're going the other way. We are bringing back leaded gas and leaded paint, we're gonna get even more ultra-processed post-food slop. People will look back at McDonald's meals fondly as high quality cuisine.
I cook at a higher end place and we genuinely put a shit load of effort into our food quality. It's harder to even get decent ingredients often now. The expensive better veggie supplier is putting out Sysco level garbage lately. They delivered a 5 pounds of rotten basil
I've noticed this at the consumer level too, places that used to have decent veggies and fruits often are out of stock or just have floppy weak shit. Have to garden yourself or know somebody who does, or go to a farmers market at a small town or something or you aren't getting anything good. Back to in-season cooking, probably for the best.
We order from local farms and change the menu based on the season. There is no escape cause weather is fucked
yeah i stopped enjoying those dry, powdery cups a long time ago. and i love peanut butter
found a worker owned co-op that makes banging peanut butter and sells huge tubs so i just make my own whatever
sure i lose my entire day after work cooking these days but i enjoy it and i'm getting better at efficiency and being able to freeze/meal plan the shit out of my week
something's off with their chocolate too, it's far too oily. Like even when it's cold and not melting at all, it gives off a pool of oil in its wrapper
Probably palm oil. It's been a common replacement for real chocolate. You mix it with a bunch of sugar and dye it brown to make artificial chocolate.
found a worker owned co-op that makes banging peanut butter ...
I misread this as "founded" and thought goddamn I wish I was that committed to sourcing good ingredients. Either way, hell yeah those big tubs of fresh ground peanut butter are the best
i wish. i do love peanut butter
honestly i would kill to work for that coop they really seem to walk the walk. democratically managed, really flat payscale. i've been using them as an example to sell to my dejected ideologically lost co-workers about how we could do a market economy "the correct way"
I used to work for a grocery coop and it was probably the best job I've had. It's such an easy sell when you explain it to people too, no one ever wants to argue against having a share of profits or a say in how their workplace is run
A couple years ago i noticed a big shift in how basically every chocolate but especially Reese's cups taste. Shit tastes like straight up candle wax now
How food manufacturers deal with rising costs
Much has changed in the marketplace since Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were developed by H.B. Reese in 1928 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, about two hours northwest of Philadelphia.
Inflation, tariffs, labor costs, fuel costs, employee benefits, competition and the vulnerability of climate-threatened crops, such as cacao, vanilla and sugar – none of which are produced anywhere near Pennsylvania – have made the confectionery business increasingly challenging.
When faced with rising costs, food manufacturers have three options:
1. Shrink the product. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have gradually shrunk from 0.9 ounce in the 1980s to 0.75 ounce today. That’s a 17% reduction. This phenomenon has been dubbed “shrinkflation.”
2. Raise prices. There is certainly a market for premium peanut butter cups, but how much will a consumer pay for the Reese’s brand? $5? $10? I suspect most consumers expect a single serving to be a couple of bucks at most.
3. Lower costs. While the company can improve operational efficiencies, changing the formula to reduce or eliminate high-cost ingredients is a standard industry practice to keep prices consistent for consumers in the midst of a dynamic supply chain. This phenomenon has been dubbed “skimpflation” and is Brad Reese’s main complaint.
Reformulations are common in the food industry. In addition to prices rising in general, a supplier could go out of business or have a shortage. A regulatory change or shift in consumer sentiment might prohibit the use of an ingredient. Wars, tariffs or climate change can raise costs temporarily or permanently.
An article about filler ingredients being substituted for higher-quality ones is written with LLM filler replacing actual communicative text.
Everything is shit, build up your local capacity for self-reliance, abandon the Economy with all haste.