Monday, May 4, 2009

Dark Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Dark Chocolate Reese's DarkThe Dark Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have finally returned as a regular product (teased here in CandyForums.net).

Dark chocolate Reese’s come and go from Hershey’s. Last summer they were a limited edition product as a tie in with the Batman: The Dark Knight movie.

The new package design is different enough that I was able to spot them from the next checkout aisle at Target (though I definitely have candy-vision) on Saturday.

I have to say that the wrapper is rather spare, though bold. As someone who has to look at design pretty often in her day job, I wasn’t really pleased with the mix of fonts. (The script logo, the italic san serif “dark chocolate” and then the regular san serif of the “2 peanut butter cups” and weight info ... but then the use of black outline on white in a serif font for “dark” feels like an afterthought.)

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But enough of this judging a book by its cover. It’s what’s inside that matters, right?

So what does the package say is inside?

Semi-Sweet Chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin, vanillin, artificial flavor, PGPR, milk), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, TBHQ.

Okay, so it’s not really dark chocolate, it’s dark chocolate with some milk fats ... not that big of a deal. It’s pretty common in mass-marketed semi sweet chocolate candies. 

Reese's DarkThe encouraging part is that these cups are full sized. When Mars makes a limited edition or dark chocolate version of a milk chocolate product, they have a tendency to make it smaller. This package is 1.5 ounces, the standard these days for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup two packs.

Each 3/4 of an ounce cup is lovely to behold. Satiny smooth with lightly fluted sides. It may be that these were fresh (as it’s a new product) but there was no little oily pool on the top of the chocolate.

They smell very dark - like deeply roasted nuts and woodsy charcoal.

Like most other Reese’s products, the chocolate is a very soft bite. The dark chocolate, though it lists sugar as the first ingredient, is not at all sweet. The first impression I get is bitterness - a nutty toasted bitterness that goes well with the deep peanut flavors.

The salty hit from the crumbly & grainy peanut butter went well against the creamy chocolate. It has a nice melt without the fudgy grain that the classic milk chocolate has.

Overall, this is a winner. I can see craving these in the evening (I usually don’t want super-sweet after dinner) and keeping the Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups for daylight hours (afternoon pick-me-up).

They also come in the little foil-wrapped miniatures, but Target didn’t seem to have those in stock yet. If you’ve tried though (they were also available about three years ago), let me know how they are.

Related Candies

  1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Bar
  2. Reese’s Select Clusters
  3. Reese’s Whipps
  4. Factory Fresh Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
  5. Reese’s Crispy Crunchy Bar
  6. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Line
Name: Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: Target (Burbank)
Price: $.69 each
Size: 1.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 140
Categories: Chocolate, Peanuts, United States, Hershey's, Reese's, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I’ve had these… they are amazing… calories be dammed!

    Comment by miss bliss on 5/04/09 at 9:38 am #
  2. I hope these make it to our area.  I would love these.

    Comment by dawn on 5/04/09 at 9:55 am #
  3. I would love to try these.  Haven’t seen them at 7-Eleven.  Maybe I’ll see them during my monthly Target visit.  Mmm…

    Comment by Marvo on 5/04/09 at 9:58 am #
  4. Yum yum yum! Another lovely product from the Reese’s line. And in DARK CHOCOLATE. I love it when companies make a dark chocolate version of a candy. Like Dark chocolate m&ms;, mmmm.

    I will be purchasing these sometime in the near future!

    Thanks Cybele!

    Comment by Emmy on 5/04/09 at 1:08 pm #
  5. The mini ones are REALLY good. I think I have some still in the freezer. I haven’t seen the big size ones anywhere yet.

    Comment by Kelly on 5/04/09 at 1:21 pm #
  6. Sera's avatar

    I *just* found these today and then I saw your review. It took such willpower to not eat the one I bought to take photos of right away. tongue laugh

    Comment by Sera on 5/04/09 at 3:25 pm #
  7. YUUUUMMMMM!!!! Thanks for the heads up.  They are definitely on my list for the next grocery store run.

    Comment by Diane on 5/05/09 at 6:01 am #
  8. Found the Dark Miniatures at my local Wal-Mart today. I definitely prefer them to the milk miniatures?which, while addicting, frequently verge on cloying. I hope these stay in regular production.

    Comment by dzd on 5/07/09 at 11:46 am #
  9. When the original dark chocolate peanut butter cups came out about 8 years ago, neither my wife nor I cared for dark chocolate. Then we tried these, and went over to the dark side. We ate them so often that we started buying them by the case at Costco. After we finished a case (they usu. lasted about 2 months), we went back for another one and found out that they had STOPPED MAKING THEM. We were devastated! In the intervening time, I’ve even resorted to making my own using products from AC Moore. Not quite the same, but edible. We were so thrilled when we found some dark chocolate peanut butter cups at Wilbur’s Chocolate up near Hershey, PA. They didn’t last long enough, though. I was so happy when I saw these at Sears yesterday!!

    Comment by David Castro on 6/01/09 at 8:19 am #
  10. I have had a package of Dark Chocolate Reese’s sitting in my refrigerator for the past 8 years, apparently (according to the last poster).  I probably shouldn’t eat them, but now that I know they have finally been brought back permanently, I don’t have to!  I only wish I knew what took so long!

    Comment by Art on 6/04/09 at 4:21 pm #
  11. I saw these at the local CVS the other day, and since I love dark chocolate, I just had to get them.  I’m glad I was adventurous for one day.  I bought one bag of the minis for home, and today I bought four more bags to take to work and dump in my candy jar.  I may have to fight a few people off once they try them.

    Comment by Patrick on 6/15/09 at 3:03 pm #
  12. I love these since I’m alergic to milk this is all I’ve really tasted as far as the peanut butter cup line or pretty much any milk chocolate goes. I have eaten about 5 a week since I heard they came out. I love you reeses. Awesome. I hope they never go away!!!!!

    Comment by AJ on 8/31/09 at 3:55 pm #
  13. OMG….dark chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cups are sooooooooo good. A few months ago they finally brought them into my area. Before that the nearest place I could get them was in Wisconsin. Walmart sells the miniatures….most definitely a life saver when I’m craving a sweet pick me up.

    Comment by Mecc on 10/10/09 at 9:25 pm #
  14. These…are… fantastic!

    They are a must have for my sweet fix ever since I bought them a few months ago.

    Their PB recipe goes PERFECTLY with the dark chocolate.


    Peace to All,

    Comment by hollybear61 on 11/20/09 at 8:28 am #
  15. Totally love these! Wal Mart, CVS and Target are the stores that carry them! Yummy!

    Comment by deszignerchick on 1/25/10 at 5:29 pm #
  16. I’m headed to Hershey, PA, this summer. My wife and I went a few years ago, and bought a 36-pack of regular Reese’s PBCs because they hadn’t re-released the dark chocolate ones, yet. The quality of the straight-from-the-factory-next-door PBCs so outdid the ones you get from the store that I am giddy with the thought of what the dark chocolate ones from the factory will be like. Needless to say, we’ll be getting more than a 36-pack! w00t!

    Comment by David Castro on 1/26/10 at 12:10 am #
  17. The Dark Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are fantastic, lovely, irresistible and a whole lot more!  Only one questions Reese’s line—What took you sooooo long to get them in the stores???!!!!
    April

    Comment by April on 4/05/10 at 11:41 pm #
  18. Have these been discontinued again??? I can’t find them anywhere in either the single pack or 6 pack! They were the one “vice” I allowed myself to cheat on my diet with!!!!!!

    Comment by Ed on 6/03/10 at 9:00 am #
  19. I will be heading up to Hershey, PA, for vacation this summer. I will try to remember to post here whether they are available at their factory. That should be a good indicator of whether they’ve been discontinued, or not. I can say that I have seen them recently (within the last week) at the Walmart in Summerville, SC.

    If anyone has the ability to get DCPBCs in Hershey, I highly recommend it… they’re SO much better when they’re fresh! Creamier, smoother, and less of the slightly bitter aftertaste. Yum!

    Comment by David Castro on 6/03/10 at 9:23 am #
  20. Ooh! I love love LOVE these! Thankfully the area I live in has them in the regular packaging and in the bags of mini’s. A bag of mini dark chocolate rpbc’s lasts awhile for me, nearly a month give or take a week as these things are so rich tasting that after eating 2, even the mini ones I’m done.

    Comment by Cassandra on 6/03/10 at 12:38 pm #
  21. I have to say I completely disagree. I absolutely love dark chocolate. I can handle 90% dark chocolate. It’s an amazing taste that’s sweet and bitter and makes you feel more mature somehow but still a child because it’s CANDY.

    These Reese’s I was excited about when I saw the commercials and I looked everywhere I could for them to no avail. Then today I finally found them in the supermarket, finally on the candy stands near the registers! I eagerly opened the package once it was paid for and hurriedly took a bite, only to be completely and utterly disappointed.  Not only is the chocolate not dark chocolate because of the milk, I found the entire candy entirely too sweet. Maybe it’s the peanut butter, as I don’t like normal Reese’s (except the minicups at halloween) either. I decided to try the second one properly. I smelled it, inhaling the scent. It certainly smelled like dark chocolate but as I tasted it slowly, it was still way too sweet, before I even hit the peanutbutter, hardly any bitterness.

    Now maybe it’s just because I’m used to 90% dark chocolate. I used to love hershey’s dark chocolate bars but now they seem as sweet as milk chocolate! The only inexpensive dark chocolate I like really (aside from gertrude hawk chocolates, the 99c bars) are Dove.

    I wouldn’t buy these again. Sure they’re good but there’s nothing special abut them. the peanutbutter really overpowers any bitterness and the chocolate itsself is entirely too sweet as well.

    Comment by Riskyrussian on 7/31/10 at 2:17 pm #
  22. I just tried the dark chocolate minitures in the reeses pieces. They are wonderful. They were in a mixed bag with milk chocolate. Can you buy the dark chocolate only? Hope you keep these in stock at the stores!

    Comment by Janet on 9/08/10 at 7:42 am #
  23. the dark choclate has disappered from our location.

    Comment by jack hummel on 1/22/11 at 7:54 am #
  24. I have only been able to find these at a local dollar store for several years now. They aren’t at Walmart, Target, any of the local convenient stores, or grocery stores. It’s really wierd!

    You’d think that with all the media attention lately about how good for you dark chocolate is that they’d have no trouble selling them and they’d be everywhere.

    like them lot better than the regular milk chocolate ones. They’re more filling and when you eat them you feel like you’ve had something with some depth and substance.

    I wonder if that’s why they got rid of them in lots of areas; because people need to buy more of the regular ones to get the same satisfaction you get from the dark ones.

    Comment by Giftbearer on 8/29/11 at 6:29 pm #
  25. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups are more than awesome, they taste like angels made them. But, they aren’t sold widely in Kunming, Yunan, China where I live. IF they sell it here, fifty million people will buy them. Make it happen, Hershey!

    Comment by Jenny on 9/09/12 at 6:54 pm #
  26. Hi Jenny, just saw your post about wanting Reese Peanut Butter Cups in Kunming China!  Well Hershey made that happen.  You can come to the American Market on the north side of Kunming and buy all the Dark Reese Peanut Butter Cups you want.  My shipment will arrive soon.  We are located in Bei Chen across from the Metro supermarket.  The address is Bei Chen Xiao Qu, building 63, shop number 101.  Hope to see you soon… The American Market

    Comment by AmericanMarket on 3/21/13 at 7:07 pm #
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