Friday, June 3, 2005

Hershey Bites: York, Reese’s Peanut Butter and KitKat

Dovetailing with my earlier post about revisiting classics with new interpretations, Hershey’s recently launched “Candy to Go!” It’s just smaller packaging of their previously introduced Bites, but what I found interesting is that I thought most candy was packaged for going ...

 

These are perfect little bites of candy bars. I picked up three at the store on the lot today. Kit Kat Bites, Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites and York Bites. Each is about the size of a small marble, more or less. The York bites are exactly what you’d expect, dark chocolate covering a mint cream center. The Reese’s bites are covering a peanut butter cup filling (not that waxy Reese’s pieces stuff) and the Kit Kat bites are like little Kit Kat cubes.

Here’s my thing: I like appropriate ratios. In the case of the Reese’s bites and the York bites, the ratio of chocolate to filling is appropriate. Though the chocolate in these little poppers is slightly different - because it’s in a spherical shape, I think they toss a little resinous glaze on it. This makes for a slight waxy coating, which in one respect is good, because you can actually hold them in your hand for a moment without getting melty all over you, but it also means that you’re eating this resin and that you need to kind of get past that when you put it in your mouth.

In the Kit Kat bites, it feels like too much chocolate (Kit) and not enough crisp wafers (Kat).

The other odd thing about these are the portion size: 2.75 oz and that’s a full serving. Most candy bars are about 1.5 oz and have about 200 calories. The Reese’s bites have 410 calories! If you can control yourself and not eat them all at once, you’ll make it to fifty without a coronary. Me? I ate the whole York Bites and then moved on to the Reese’s and of course had to open the Kit Kat for a taste. Sadly, all that’s left now are some of the Kit Kats.

Name: York Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 116
Type: Mint/Chocolate Candy

Good chocolate, nice mint, pretty much a tiny spherical peppermint patty. The only problem I had with these was the variation in quality. Some were soft and fresh, but others were rather hard. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’re spoiled, maybe the chocolate didn’t seal in the filling completely and they dried out.

Name: Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 149
Type: Chocolate/Nuts

Okay, of the three, these smelled absolutely divine when I opened the package. A wonderful roasted peanut scent with the sweet overtone of chocolate. Really, these smelled awesome. They taste good, and I think I’d buy them again, especially as something to eat when at the movies, but I still prefer the miniatures for the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.

Name: Kit Kat Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 145
Type: Chocolate

My least favorite of the three, but I’ve always been fond of Kit Kats and buy them often. But my favorite thing about Kit Kats is deconstructing them while I eat, which means prying off each layer with my teeth. That’s not really feasible with this iteration, so I’d just have to eat them and where’s the fun in that?

I’m not always fond of miniatures or giganto bars, but I think that Hershey’s really did a nice job of inventing these as candy that stands alone without the other versions. As always, freshness helps, if these were old and had bloomed or something, I’d find them absolutely unappealing. But I find these to be the perfect movie food or good to tuck in your bag to share with others.

Ratings:
Kit Kat Bites - 5 out of 10
York Bites - 6 out of 10
Reese’s Bites - 8 out of 10

UPDATE: It looks like these didn’t go over very well and have been discontinued. The remaining inventory can still be found at discount stores like 99 Cent Only. (But be sure to look at the expiration date before you take a chance.)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:53 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyMorselizationReese'sReviewHershey'sChocolateCookieDiscontinuedKitKatMintsPeanuts5-Pleasant6-Tempting8-TastyUnited States

Comments
  1. Never heard of ‘em

    How many in each bag? Are they for biting, or can you pop the whole thing in your mouth at once and bite down and flood your senses?

    I may try these some day…

    Comment by russ on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  2. Cybele's avatar

    Being the size of marbles, I think they’re meant for popping in your mouth whole.

    Do you think the name “bites” is not an appropriate one because they’re pre-bitten?

    I can’t say how many are in each bag, but there’s about two handfuls (well, my hands). Maybe I’ll count the Kit Kats I left at the office.

    Comment by Cybele on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  3. I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of these things, especially the ratio business, and the waxy coating on the York bites.

    I wanted to add that at Easter time (maybe Christmas too) Reeces peanut butter cups come in an egg shape—and yes—it’s the different ratio that that makes them even better than mini-peanut butter cups.

    But I still don’t get why you’d want a bag of the little bites for a little more money, but the same basic quantity of these classic candy bars.

    Comment by Why We Type on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  4. Reading this from your (current) Reese’s line review, and had to comment on “I thought most candy was packaged for going”. This weekend I saw a coupon for a new Pop Tarts product - a Pop Tarts snack bar, “for eating on the go.” And I thought “aren’t all Pop Tarts for eating on the go??” (I prefer to save my sweets quota for candy, but the rest of my family are pop tarts fans…)

    Comment by Tricia on 5/02/06 at 3:05 am #
  5. It is 2009 and I am wondering where all of the York Bites are gone to? I went to the store today and they werent there? Where did they go? Did you stop marketing them?

    Comment by Mikala on 4/17/09 at 10:07 am #
  6. Cybele's avatar

    Mikala - Hershey’s discontinued the Bites back in 2007. For a similar product try the York Mints, which are about five times the price and come in a difficult to open tin.

    (Or try any version of Dutch Mints by Jelly Belly, Marich.)

    Comment by Cybele on 4/17/09 at 10:59 am #
  7. where do i buy them

    Comment by christopher wilber on 5/17/09 at 12:58 pm #
  8. Cybele's avatar

    Christopher Wilber - as noted above at the end of the review and in my comment just before yours, Hershey’s discontinued these. You can buy them at a few closeout stores, however, they will be expired and will be inferior tasting.

    Comment by Cybele on 5/17/09 at 1:06 pm #
  9. I loved the reeses bites they were PERFECT for the movies… I always got the large bag not those small ones. I was SO upset when they were discontinued.

    Comment by Tyler on 7/06/09 at 11:06 am #
  10. I adored the kit kat bites i wish they would come back they were so good.

    Comment by Jessica on 10/27/09 at 1:15 pm #
  11. I loved Reese’s Bites. Though I do not need to consume more sugar, this was the perfect candy. I really missed them and still do not understand why they were discontinued. Maybe it is God watching out for my health!

    Comment by diane stien on 3/30/10 at 8:32 pm #
  12. Just wanted to say that I’m eating a bag of Reese Bites right now.  I bought them at Sobey’s in Canada, and they’re in a 230g orange bag.  There are probably 6 or 7 handfuls in here.

    There is a crispy-waxiness to the chocolate, and the peanut butter is sweeter and smoother than the regular PB cups.  Don’t think I’ll buy them again.

    Comment by Elisabeth on 4/14/10 at 7:52 pm #
  13. I was SO UPSET when I realized they didn’t make Hershey’s Bites anymore. I was good for a bag a week!
    They were fabulous. I don’t know why they stopped making them, but I’m still sad about it lol

    Comment by CJ on 6/09/10 at 12:46 pm #
  14. Are the york bites ever going to come back?  I loved those!!

    Comment by Amy Issenmann on 10/15/10 at 6:59 am #
  15. Ok so Reese’s bites is a hershey product. Now I have personally talked to them and tried to talk to the production section as to what would be required to bring them back. Now what they told me is if I get a fair amount of people to say “yes we want the bites back and we would buy them.” Than yes they would bring it back but the site I posted here as well is just for that i’m still edditing it and also may use it for other purposes but for now I don’t have much for it but check out the site register on it and i will contact you on helping me to bring back the bites.

    Comment by Sean on 10/06/11 at 9:10 am #
  16. I loved the bites!!! I’ll do anything to help bring them back!

    Comment by Riley on 11/06/11 at 7:06 pm #
  17. good i love your enthusiasm Riley. sorry it took me so long to respond but my email put the reply in the junk folder. anyway if you truely want i have made a website and am planning on using it to demonstrate to hershey’s corp how much people want reese’s bites back. I am putting a fourm on there now and when you sign up for the site you can comment on it. Same goes for anyone else who wants to try to get reese’s bites back. The site address is hiddenshadey.webs.com

    Comment by sean on 11/13/11 at 2:25 pm #
  18. God, I miss these things. I wonder if there’s any use in petitioning the Hershey company to bring ‘em back.

    Comment by Sara on 3/14/12 at 10:39 pm #
  19. Well it can’t hurt right besides it will ne great if they do I just got some from Canada on my bday (jan 3) and ohhhh *moans* they was exactly how I remembered . Lol

    Comment by sean on 3/14/12 at 11:48 pm #
  20. AHHH I remember these! The Reese’s bites were definitely the best. I wish they’d bring these back, along with Butterfinger BBs.

    Comment by Angelica on 3/24/13 at 4:58 pm #
  21. So… Are we gonna try to bring Reese’s bites back or what?
    Make a buzzfeed article or any blog about it with a petition at the bottom!

    Comment by Brooke on 10/30/14 at 11:13 pm #
  22. I would like to help get the bites back I really enjoyed them growing up.

    Comment by Dante on 5/07/17 at 9:39 pm #
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