Meet Harry. Not the Prince.
Nothing could stop our Harry. He was born in 1879 on the poor Frosty Hill Farm in Muddy Creek, Pennsylvania. He was an only child – that meant working from a very young age. The boy helped farm, milk cows, and when he was old enough, built a “pond” to raise frogs and sell them to local restaurants.
You might know him better as Harry Burnett Reese.
Harry married in 1900. He and his wife had sixteen children (8 boys and 8 girls!). They lived in a home with the kids, his mom, and aunts. Over 20 people regularly showed up for dinner.
That was a lot of people to feed.
Harry was determined to make a fortune. He took different jobs like managing a cannery, fish hatchery, and dairy farm – working at a paper mill, butcher shop, and in the local Hershey company.
Milton Hershey hired Harry as a shipping foreman and later promoted him to run an experimental dairy farm called “Round Barn.”
It failed.
According to Michael Mink in Investor’s Business Daily, “H.B. had a sweet tooth for his business.” He wouldn’t let his dream go.
In 1920 Harry founded the R&R Candy Company that made chocolate covered almonds and raisins.
It failed.
A year later he reorganized, calling the new company Superior Chocolate and Confectionary, making an assortment of high-class chocolate-coated candies.
It failed, too.
Harry refused to accept defeat. In 1928, under the new name of H.B. Reese Candy Company, he invented “penny cups” – later renamed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They sold for one penny each. Their slogan was “Made in Chocolate Town, So They Must Be Good.”
What is a peanut butter cup? Basically, it’s molded chocolate filled with peanut butter.
Harry developed an automated process for the new candy. It was against all odds – surviving sugar and chocolate rationing, The Great Depression, and World War II. Harry persisted and discontinued all candies except for the cups. (see Harry below).
Sales doubled every four years.
Who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate? Booming sales enabled Harry to pay off both his house and factory mortgages and feed his huge family. That was only the beginning. Today, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have gone from one penny to worth two billion dollars – one of the world’s most popular candy.
Food Scientist and Penn State University Professor, Gregory Ziegler, explained that the contrast between salty peanut butter and sweet chocolate is almost addictive. You always want more.
Harry passed away in 1956 and six of his sons took over. They ran the company for almost a decade until selling out to the Hershey Company for the equivalent of $20 billion in today’s dollars.
Harry Reese and Milton Hershey would be proud.
Today there are many Reese’s peanut butter products – from pieces and bars to seasonal specialties and giant cups. There’s even a Peanut Butter Cup Thanksgiving Pie. You can find peanut butter cups in ice cream, cocktails, baked goods, and milkshakes. There’s no limit to the imagination of creative chefs, home cooks, and cup lovers.
Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are sold all over the world. JustforFacts reports that so many cups are made each year it could feed one to every person in the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, and Africa combined. Another way to look at it is with FoodNetwork who estimates that enough Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made annually to circle the Earth seven times.
That’s a lot of cups.
The by-products are compelling – the official holiday, “I Love Reese’s Day” occurs every May 18; the Guinness World Record for the largest cup ever made (weighing nearly 440 pounds and molded in a kiddie pool); and a lot of fun songs, quotes and videos. You can find every size and flavor on Amazon as well as books ranging from recipes to Harry’s biography, children’s books, and the delicious Tiffany Barrett’s Peanut Butter and Chocolate Recipe Heaven. There are tee-shirts and sweat shirts, notepads, and stationary. Even parades.
Get moving. Grab that giant orange package and indulge. Take a slice of Thanksgiving Pie or munch on a mini. Put Reese’s in your ice cream or cheesecake.
Thank you, Harry!
Makes me hungry!
My absolute favorite candy! The few times a year that I bake cookies, its usually with Reese’s brand Peanut Butter Chips and/or with the Reese’s peanut butter.
Well, there goes any diet I might have been on…where’s the nearest Reese’s??? Truly yummy and what a fun history. What strikes me the most is how many failures Mr. Reese had before he hit upon a successful formula… Bravo to him for not giving up, and Brava to you for another wonderful article!
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