26 Reese's Candy Products Ranked Best To Worst

In 1928, Harry Burnett Reese introduced Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to the American candy market as part of the H.B. Reese Candy Company's large assortment. Now, 92 years later, Reese's products are part of the Hershey family, and its famous peanut butter cups have spawned a massive line of products, including candy, baking products, spreads, and even jars of Reese's-inspired peanut butter that can be used for everything from the most decadent peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to creative peanut butter-centric baking projects.

There are even seasonal favorites that some fans wait for all year long, like the monstrous, green-hued Frankencups for Halloween, and the fan-favorite line of Reese's eggs that comes out just in time for Easter. The late 1980s brought us the television ad campaign proclaiming that "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's," but the fact is that some Reese's candies are just better than others. While this is not a completely exhaustive list, we've ranked some of the most popular Reese's candies here, from best to worst.

It might surprise you to know that the best Reese's candy is not, in fact, one of the signature peanut butter-filled chocolate cups but rather the humble and versatile Reese's Pieces. These tiny nuggets of peanut butter confection are coated in an orange, yellow, or brown candy shell, and it is all too easy to eat them by the handful. One of the things that set Reese's Pieces apart from the rest of the product line (and the thing that makes them the overall best) is the fact that they actually aren't made from the same filling as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Instead, the centers of Reese's Pieces are actually made from a peanut meal substance developed by Hershey's that is meant to mimic the texture (but not the flavor) of chocolate. It is significantly less sweet than the typical Reese's filling and packs more of a slightly savory peanut flavor. That, coupled with the fact that there is no chocolate in Reese's Pieces, sets these apart. They also earn our number one ranking because of their versatility. Reese's Pieces are delicious on their own, but they're also excellent on top of ice cream, blended into a milkshake, baked into cookies or brownies, and in just about any other application you can dream up. 

Hershey's Take 5 Bar has always been a great piece of candy because of the way it combines sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy, to create a perfectly harmonious balance of texture and flavor. Even though Take 5 bars have literally always been chock full of Reese's peanut butter, in 2019, Hershey's decided to rebrand the bar as the Reese's Take 5 after tasters supposedly went wild during a test of the new Reese's-branded packaging. 

Reese's Take 5 bars arguably showcase the best application of the signature Reese's peanut butter filling. Because it is offset by crunchy, salty pretzels and peanuts, silky caramel, and Hershey's milk chocolate, the sweetness of the peanut butter just works better. The Reese's Take 5 is the candy bar equivalent of an everything bagel, and it is just as perfect. It also comes in standard, snack, and king sizes, so there is always a Take 5 bar that's perfectly suited to satisfy your cravings. 

In March 2018, Hershey's announced that a thinner Reese's peanut butter cup was about to be added to the product lineup. The candy masterminds assumed that consumers would feel better about eating a thinner chocolate peanut butter cup, and while that may or may not be true, the reason we rank these so highly is the fact that the THiNs ratio of chocolate to peanut butter filling is simply better than that of the standard-sized Reese's cup.

Furthermore, the dark chocolate shell does a much better job of playing off of the sweet, slightly gritty peanut butter filling. This is a grownup's Reese's peanut butter cup. It's sophisticated. It practically begs to be un-ironically placed on the cheese and charcuterie board at your next fancy cocktail party. It also makes a superior S'meeses (that's a s'more made with a Reese's cup, for the uninitiated), once again thanks to its thinner, more easily meltable design. Overall, we think this is the best of the Reese's peanut butter cup offerings.

Note the fact that these are called "White Creme" and not "White Chocolate," which is important, because the company was actually sued at one point for "misrepresenting white chocolate" on the product's label, according to TODAY. White chocolate has so many haters that many people don't even consider it to really be chocolate, so changing the name was probably only a helpful marketing tactic in addition to a legally sound decision.

The smooth white creme that enrobes the Reese's filling here is made from cocoa butter, sugar, and a bunch of other additives that we'd rather not think about too much because these are absolutely delicious. The thinner profile again gives a better peanut butter filling-to-coating ratio, and the creaminess of the white creme, which is sweet but not too sweet, plays very nicely with the filling. Like the dark chocolate variety, this is a more sophisticated Reese's product and definitely more of an acquired taste. 

Ranking the two version of Reese's Dipped Pretzels is difficult, given that the difference really comes down to your personal preference for milk or dark chocolate. We believe the dark version narrowly beats out the original because it's a better balance of flavor that combines a touch of bitterness with all that sugar, unlike the milk chocolate version which tends to be pretty sweet overall. 

Ultimately, we think that Reese's Dark Dipped Pretzels are the perfect combination of sweet and salty, with just the right amount of richness to balance out all the other flavors involved. Plus, the textures were pretty pleasing, as the peanut butter is as smooth as the melted chocolate on the back.

Reese's Dark Dipped Pretzels are one of the few items here where you might just eat the whole bag without noticing. It has all the satisfaction of a salty, crunchy snack but with that added Reese's flavor for those of us with a sweet tooth. "[I] never knew they had set the bar for dipped pretzels so high. The sweet/salty combination of these dipped pretzels are amazing," one CVS customer wrote. 

Reese's Snack Mix is what every other kind of trail nut mix wishes it was. This is a frankly stellar combination of treats, that includes peanuts, pretzels, Reese's Pieces, and Reese's Minis all together in one bite. It makes for a salty and sweet snack that is simply loaded with peanut butter flavor (via Hersheyland). The Reese's Pieces are a nice twist on the traditional chocolate candies that come in other trail mix varieties, while the mini peanut butter cups are, hands-down, the absolute star of the mix.

Whether you end up eating a Reese's Pieces and a peanut together or a pretzel and a peanut butter cup, any combination of these ingredients will be delicious. This multi-purpose treat can also be incorporated into dessert recipes, such as one Influenster user who suggests topping a chocolate tart with the mix. "Whoever came up with this is a genius," another Influenster review reads. "It's so good that this is literally all I eat for lunch." 

Like a more snackable version of the Reese's Take 5 candy bar, Reese's Dipped Pretzels combine crisp, salty mini pretzels that are dipped in a peanut butter candy coating and topped off with a milk chocolate drizzle. There is none of the Reese's peanut butter filling present here, and that isn't a bad thing. Instead, you get to really relish the fact that you're eating a crunchy snack with just a hint of Reese's flavor.

The flavor combination is addictive, even if the candy coating does have a slightly artificial aftertaste. One of the best things about these, compared to other Reese's products, is the fact that the peanut butter here is smooth, whereas the texture of the filling used in the peanut butter cup candy products can be on the grittier side. The dipped pretzels also get bonus point for being versatile ingredients as well as snacks. Like Reese's Pieces, you can bake with these, and use them as ice cream and milkshake toppings or mix-ins.

If you're craving the classic combination of Hershey's milk chocolate and Reese's peanut butter filling, we think that the thin version is actually the best iteration. As with the other thins flavors, the ratio here is better, so instead of being overwhelming, the peanut butter filling provides a pleasant counterpoint to the classic Hershey's milk chocolate. 

According to the official Reese's website, the THiNs line of peanut butter cups is a full 40 percent thinner than the original standard-sized Reese's cup, which is a pretty significant difference. In this format, we find not only the most balanced flavor profile but also a more pleasing texture. The thinner chocolate coating has more snap than smush, which is the best part of the classic milk chocolate Reese's THiN. It has a satisfying crispness when you bite into it that is not unlike a potato chip, except it's a peanut butter cup — so better.

Another Reese's product that is especially good because it is both a standalone candy snack as well as an ingredient that has multiple culinary applications, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Unwrapped Minis are one of the best iterations of the Reese's cup. These are teeny tiny little peanut butter cups that you'll probably find yourself eating by the handful.

Again, they have a really nice balance of peanut butter filling and milk chocolate in this format, where neither flavor overwhelms the other. These don't have the same satisfying snap as the THiNS, but if you freeze Reese's minis, you get another delightfully toothsome snack. These can be used in baking more or less the same way you'd use chocolate chips. If you're really ambitious in the kitchen, there is no better mix-in for homemade ice cream than a teeny tiny Reese's peanut butter cup. 

Out of all of Reese's attempts to crack into the candy bar sphere, the Reese's Peanut Butter GIant Bar is the one that stays the most true to the flavor of the original Reese's peanut butter cup. The chocolate is smooth and melts in your mouth to reveal the gooey Reese's peanut butter filling that has just the right consistency. It's like a regular Hershey's bar with that signature peanut butter-lover's twist that works so well. We think this is a really versatile product that could work well added to cookies, s'mores, and more. 

If you're someone who prefers Reese's products that have a higher ratio of peanut butter to chocolate, then be aware that this may not be your favorite candy option on the list. But if you like it, then chances are that you're really going to like this treat. "After having my first Reese's "Giant" bar (actually the 4.2 oz size) I was spoiled. The traditional 'cup' version I'd loved since childhood unexpectedly lost their appeal," one Amazon customer wrote.

The Reese's Outrageous is a spinoff of the popular Reese's Nutrageous bar, which we'll get to in a minute. Hershey debuted the Outrageous in 2018 along with a social media contest asking fans of the brand to show their love for Reese's by posting photos with the hashtag #ReesesOutrageous in a bid to win free candy. The Outrageous bar takes the same base at the Nutrageous — that classic Reese's peanut butter filling, which gets wrapped in caramel — and changes things up by studding the bar with tiny Reese's Pieces candies for added peanut butter flavor and crunch before covering the entire thing in a milk chocolate coating.

If you really love peanut butter, this is pretty close to a perfect candy bar. We love the double-whammy of classic Reese's filling paired with the creamier Reese's Pieces filling, and the crispy quality of the Reese's Pieces candy coating is insanely satisfying. 

This is one of those cases where the original is really good but just slightly less good than the modern spinoff. Enter the Reese's NutRageous, which was released in 1994. This is a candy bar that has a bit of an identity crisis. When it first debuted, according to Snackhistory.com, it was called the "Acclaim," which doesn't quite conjure up the peanut buttery delight that this candy bar truly is. However, focus groups made up primarily of children did not respond well to the original name, so the Hershey company rebranded the bar as the Reese's NutRageous, which has a much better ring to it.

The NutRageous is exactly the same as the Outrageous but with roasted peanuts instead of Reese's Pieces. In 2014, four years before the Outrageous debuted, Hershey made the NutRageous smaller and rebranded it again as the Nut Bar, which also is not a particularly appealing moniker. It's now available again under the NutRageous title, but it can be a little bit tricky to find. 

A Reese's Crunchy Cup takes everything that folks tend to like about a standard Reese's: the classic filling and the unmistakable flavor of Hershey's milk chocolate. But these peanut butter cups have one small addition that makes a big difference: crunchy peanut pieces. These are filled with a crunchy version of the signature Reese's peanut butter filling, so for fans of intense peanut butter flavor who want a bit more crunch and a tad more salt in their candy, this is a solid choice.

We love the fact that these have more bite than the classic cup, where the filling can tend to be too soft and grainy, especially if you aren't eating your candy directly out of the refrigerator or freezer. This flavor isn't as hyped up as some of the other Reese's cup offshoots, like the THiNS or the Reese's Pieces Cup, but it's certainly a peanut butter cup worth trying. 

For many people, no matter how many variations and spin-off products the Hershey company can dream up, there is just nothing that can ever compare to a classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Filled with classic Reese's peanut butter filling and enrobed in Hershey's milk chocolate, this classic candy isn't trying to be anything other than exactly what it is. 

It's pretty good straight out of the package, it's better chilled in the fridge, and it's best when it has been taken out of the freezer a minute or two before it's eaten, but as the commercials told us, there's no wrong way to eat one! This is the peanut butter cup that formed the basis for every other product in the Reese's line, and for that, it deserves some serious respect. This is a classic treat that has been winning fans for generations, and it shows no signs of stopping. 

Reese's Crunchers are as hard to figure out as their ambiguous name, but at least they aren't lacking in flavor. We think this is the perfect movie snack to eat with popcorn, blending a variety of flavors without buying out the whole candy case. But what is this stuff? Essentially, a "Cruncher" is a cluster of peanuts, mini peanut butter chips, and rice puffs that has been covered in milk chocolate. 

This treat certainly lives up to the name, being crunchy and undeniably tasty. However, the mini peanut butter chips get totally lost amongst the other flavors. That lack of strong peanut butter flavor — which you would typically expect from a Reese's product — is why we can't justify placing this product any higher. Maybe things would have been a bit more cohesive if there were some sort of peanut butter drizzle on top of it all. 

Still, we think that the flawed Reese's Crunchers are worth trying. "Its perfect blend of crunch and that melt in your mouth sensation truly makes this the most desirable chocolate in my opinion," one customer wrote on Hersheyland. 

Let's be real — when popular snack brands try to make "healthier" versions of fan-favorite products, the taste of often what suffers the most. Yet the reason that Reese's organic version of its candy deserves to be so high on the list is because it's mostly indistinguishable from the original. The things that are different, like the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter being a bit more skewed toward the former, make the candy better. The chocolate flavor is richer and more intense than the non-organic version, while the peanut butter is a little less sweet. 

While Reese's Organic is slightly different from the original, it won't be very noticeable to someone who only enjoys a Reese's cup once in awhile. "If you're looking to enjoy a classic candy with better for you ingredients than this is the answer to your search," one Influenster user wrote.

The stuff of good Halloween hauls, doctor's office candy bowls, and goodie bag galore, Reese's Miniature Cups are smaller than a standard Reese's Peanut Butter Cup but bigger than a Reese's Mini. These candies have more chocolate than some other Reese's cups, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. We actually really like the ratio but find that individual paper cups and foil wrappings to be a relic of a bygone era when people cared a lot less about the concept of packaging waste. 

That being said, there is something incredibly satisfying about the act of unwrapping one Reese's Miniature Cup after another. Nostalgia is definitely a big factor in enjoying this miniature peanut butter cup varietal. They're not just mini, they're sort of kid-sized, and the individual wrapping can make a kid feel like they're getting a whole candy bar to themselves but in a serving size that won't have them bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day. 

Released in 2016 via a social media campaign that seemed to encourage the candy fandom rumor mill, Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cups take the classic milk chocolate Reese's cups and stuff them full of tiny Reese's Pieces, resulting in a candy-inside-a-candy. It's easy enough to understand why some people love this candy, but unfortunately, it can also be a bit too cloying.

The combination of Reese's Piece and classic Reese's Peanut Butter can work really well when it's placed in the context of another ingredient like caramel, as is the case with the Reese's Outrageous candy bar. However, when it's just peanut butter and Reese's pieces inside of a standard milk chocolate shell, the flavor profile ends up falling flat. The crunch of the candy coating isn't particularly satisfying. Eaten at room temperature, everything can be a bit too soft, but freeze these peanut butter cups, and the Reese's Pieces inside can become unpleasantly hard. This is a good candy for those who love it, but it definitely isn't a must-have. 

Reese's Sticks are more or less the love child of two classic Hershey's products: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat Bars. Reese's Sticks come in packs of two and have two layers of crispy wafer and peanut butter filling that are covered in Hershey's milk chocolate. This is not a bad candy bar by any stretch of the imagination, but it also just isn't as good as either a plain Kit Kat Bar or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

The wafer layers often get soggy and don't have enough of a crunch when you bite into them, likely because of their close proximity to peanut butter. They also don't really add anything in terms of flavor, so the fact that they don't have an amazing texture either can make this candy bar feel like a serious miss. There are many better Reese's products out there, so it's probably fine to skip this one. 

Reese's Snack Cakes seem like they were meant to compete with the Little Debbie and the Hostess snacks of the world, but the result is a bit different. Instead of going toe-to-toe with a Zebra Cake or Zingers, we think this is a pretty good mash-up of a candy bar and a baked good that lands in a category all its own. The inside is dense and filled with chocolate cake and peanut butter cream, which is then given a milk chocolate coating. It's a unique item that gets some props for an inventive design, but this treat could still use a little tweaking to become one of Reese's better products. 

The main downfall is the texture of the cake, which is a major bummer considering the product is advertised as a snack cake. It's super dense and almost tastes stale, though the other elements are executed well. Walmart customers have pretty mixed feelings about the Reese's Snack Cakes, too. "Pretty tasty, but was expecting an actual snack cake. This has the consistency of a protein bar, meaning very heavy," one customer review read. 

The Reese's Big Cup is, in fact, quite big. Weighing just shy of one and a half ounces, this is a seriously big Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. In fact, it may be so big that it kind of turns our stomachs. The huge size is almost too big for most people to actually be able to enjoy — without getting a serious stomache ache and a nagging feeling of regret. 

While the various smaller iterations of the classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup play with the proportions of milk chocolate and peanut butter filling in ways that generally make the combination taste better, the Big Cup warps everything, so you're just getting more, but not better. There is way too much chocolate in a Reese's Big Cup, but there is also way too much of that super sweet peanut butter filling. It's just not that enjoyable. We'll pass on this one the next time we see it.

The Reese's Fast Break feels like Hershey's best attempt at competing with the Butterfinger, but unfortunately, this is a candy bar that just falls flat. The Fast Break is a combination of peanut butter filling, nougat, and milk chocolate, but the marriage of flavors is not a harmonious one. There is not enough salt in the mixture, which is one of the biggest problems we have with this candy bar.

The nougat is tasteless, chewy, and sticks to your teeth in a decidedly unpleasant manner. The texture of the whole bar is another big problem. It's neither satisfyingly chewy like a Three Musketeers bar, nor is it crisp and crunchy like a Butterfinger, and the peanut butter flavor kind of gets lost in the mix of ingredients. Freezing does nothing to improve the taste or texture, and when eaten at room temperature, it is lackluster at best. 

Reese's Pretzels Big Cup just narrowly beats out its potato chip-infused cousin, given that the experience of eating it is closer to what was advertised. But that doesn't mean it's worth seeking out. 

Essentially, this is a massive Reese's cup with pretzel pieces that have been mixed into the peanut butter filling. The overwhelming amount of peanut butter in the Reese's Pretzels Big Cup already makes it seriously hard to finish the whole piece of candy in one sitting. Once you throw pretzel pieces in, you'll feel like you need to chug a glass of water after each bite.

The pretzels add a nice saltiness that helps balance some of the taste, but the whole experience would be better if there was more chocolate than peanut butter in this candy. "I was expecting more pretzels," one Influenster user wrote. "Maybe sprinkle pretzel crumbs on top for us pretzel and Reese's lovers."

The Reese's Peanut Butter Lover's peanut butter cup feels like an idea that probably should have died in whatever marketing team brainstorming session during which it was generated. Here we have a more or less regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, which is a fine enough beginning. But then, the top half of the chocolate coating is replaced with a layer of peanut butter creme.

What exactly is peanut butter creme? That's kind of hard to say. It has the taste and texture of the white creme that is used on other Reese's products but with just a hint of peanut butter flavor and a strange pale beige color. For true peanut butter lovers, this will wildly miss the mark. The peanut butter flavor is not particularly pronounced, there's no extra salt to offset the sweetness of the candy, and there is nothing interesting happening at all in terms of texture or crunch. 

One of the biggest failure points of the Reese's Big Cup is the fact that there is too much chocolate. Enter the Reese's Chocolate Lover's peanut butter cup, which aims to make that problem worse by taking a relatively standard amount of Reese's signature peanut butter filling and trapping it inside of way too much Hershey's milk chocolate.

You're probably better off just getting an old-school Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar, not this weird chocolate bar in a peanut butter cup's costume. The peanut butter is barely a suggestion here. It gets completely overwhelmed by the double layer of chocolate, and the chocolate unfortunately just doesn't taste that good. That's not what most people are going for in a Reese's, anyway. Unlike many other Reese's candy bars, you can't improve this one by freezing it either because then you'll just end up with a massive block of frozen chocolate. 

Reese's Potato Chips Big Cup is an imaginative dream brought to life. But just because some strange food combinations sound interesting in theory or even taste good when created in the wild, that doesn't always mean that brands should make them a reality. Reese's Potato Chips Big Cup is a prime example of this conundrum.

It's the off-putting mouthfeel of this candy that ruins the experience of the cup. At the point that notice this issue, you're likely already overwhelmed by an outrageous amount of peanut butter. That filling is pebbled with sad, soggy pieces that claim to be potato chips. Yet the pieces inside resemble nondescript salty bites more than they do rippled chips. 

You're better off putting a Reese's cup and a potato chip in your mouth at the same time. At least then the texture of the chip will be preserved. As others noted, it may also just taste weird. "I had hopes for this product, but it's very dry, extremely salty and tasted like chemicals," one Amazon customer wrote. "I gave it to a friend who loves Reese's products and even she couldn't stomach it."