Are Reese's Seasonal Chocolates Really Better Than Cups? I Taste Tested Them To See

Steven Luna/Mashed

The idea that seasonal Reese's peanut butter shapes taste better than the traditional cup form started circulating as a bit of urban folklore a while back. Spurred by internet sleuths looking for an excuse to buy candy (probably), less attentive candy fans started doing their own research to see if it was true. The more the notion spread, the bigger the audience who confirmed that there was a distinct difference between what you get in the candy aisle and what you get in the seasonal aisle.

There are scientific reasons why Reese's tastes so good, as well as theories about why seasonal shapes taste even better. But the most obvious reason is that molding a heart or Christmas tree or a rabbit shape out of peanut butter cream robed in chocolate is an entirely different task than plopping out cup shapes. The various forms require a bit of tinkering to ensure the balance of filling to coating suits the chosen geometry. And since there seem to be fun new Reese's holiday shapes popping up all the time, there's plenty of opportunity for the candy to get even better.

But folklore and theories are all just guess work if you don't do the work of tasting regular cups side-by-side with seasonal shapes. It was my duty and my honor to shop for the seasonal Reese's candies available in my area — in this case, the Easter collection — and perform a bit of tasting experimentation to get to the truth.

Steven Luna/Mashed

It's been a few years since I taste-tested the collection to determine what the best Reese's cup shape was beyond the holiday version, though it's the sort of experience that locks in as a core memory. They used to be supremely creamy on the inside, with al dente chocolate that took a little bit of effort to get through forming the outer shell. Half the fun was nibbling around the rippled perimeter and leaving the center circle, then lifting the chocolate off the top like breaking open an Oreo. The standard was high back then.

So what happened in the years between my last Reese's peanut butter cup experience and this one? The chocolate was softer this time, and though the peanut butter was just as creamy, it seemed to be lacking essential sweetness, as if the formula had changed to suit a different generational palate. It's still one of the best candy bars to stash in the freezer for a sugar fix, but it no longer measures up to the earlier days of Reese's, at least the version that lives in my memory. I'd still choose it over most other candy bars, but I'll always be wondering why it isn't the same anymore.

Steven Luna/Mashed

This is the candy that most closely resembles the original cups, though Reese's eggs and Reese's cups are less alike than you think. The eggs are broad and flat, and while they don't feature the same snappy structure with the corrugated edges, they do offer the most surface and interior area for stuffing chocolate with peanut butter. They also melt easier than the cups; eating them in several bites was a tad sloppy. But they're too large to handle in any other way, so dirty fingers just come with the territory.

Because the chocolate is softer than in a regular cup, the merging of chocolate with peanut butter in a single bite is a quicker process. The peanut butter itself is a bit grittier than in the other seasonal candies, possibly because of the higher volume that allows texture to come through more prominently. But if you're someone who likes your Reese's cups to dissolve as quickly as possible, you won't notice the grain for long before the chocolate swirls into it while you chew. It's a different experience than the usual cup, and a fair amount sloppier, but the flavor is pretty darn close to the original overall.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Reese's forgoes the hollow Easter bunny in favor of one loaded up with creamy peanut butter, of course. It offers a different sense of fun when you bite its ears off but resists caving in like the empty-headed bunnies do. It's also less substantial than the solid-mold chocolate rabbits that require days of gnawing to get through even the thin spots. Regardless, it's bound to be more exciting seeing the orange box sitting in your Easter basket, promising classic candy enjoyment in a timeless holiday format.

It's also pretty exciting to bite into. Instead of an empty shell or a rock-hard molded rabbit, you get a super-sized Reese's candy that feels like a motherlode of cups molded into the shape of Easter's favorite animal. There's plenty of chocolate surrounding the creamy center, like a mega version of the whole Reese's idea with adorable embossed details that add character and charm. That beats a plain old peanut butter cup any day.

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The equivalent of a Cadbury Creme Egg but with better filling, this Reese's egg is a three-dimensional blow-up of the flatter eggs, but with an embossed decorative surface. The idea seems to be that if an egg filled with yolk-like goo catches the eye of seasonal candy shoppers, one filled with peanut butter is bound to be a thousand times more attractive.

Biting into one of these eggs is a nonstarter, mostly due to the super-thick chocolate wall around the peanut butter filling. I sliced into mine to chop off a bite and saw that the filling was two tubes of cream that seemed insufficient but dissolved nicely once I started eating. It turns out the 3-D composition works in the candy's favor, even though it seemed a bit of a rip-off to not have wall-to-wall peanut butter inside the chocolate shell. Once I knew what I was in for, it was easy to see how great the Reese's creme egg actually is.

Steven Luna/Mashed

This tiny carrot-shaped version of the Reese's peanut butter template is pretty charming. They come individually wrapped in plastic rather than foil, but it's hard to tell if that preserves the flavor any better. The chocolate on these conical ingots is thicker than on any of the other seasonal Easter Reese's I tried, with just a tiny space inside for a dab of peanut butter. The chocolate was also far more solid than a standard cup as well as most of the other seasonal bites. It gave the bite a bit more snap — a plus — but the minimal filling left me wanting more.

It's easy to see that thick chocolate plus thick peanut butter would equal a sloppy bite, so the configuration makes sense. The solid chocolate shell also helps the carrot retain its shape and hold its sharp edges, both of which are crucial to pull off the whimsical holiday mold. But with so little peanut butter to sample, this interesting Reese's holiday shape remix feels less satisfying compared to the basic peanut butter cup.

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Wrapped in foil so they stay fresh until you're ready for them, these Reese's eggs are the peanut butter lover's answer to Hershey's Kisses. You can finish one off in two bites — fewer, if you're ravenous and don't mind a mouthful of melted candy — and you don't have anything left over except the pastel wrapper when you're finished.

Without a second cup to force you into either over-snacking, sharing with someone else, or stashing away an open package, these little treats are an optimal Reese's format. They're the right size for stuffing into plastic Easter eggs without making a mess or filling a candy dish to show off the happy holiday colors, so there's more to this design than just the better-than-cups flavor. And the foil lets you eat the eggs without getting melted chocolate on your fingers, as long as you peel the candy as you eat. It also makes it easier to store them in the freezer like you'd do with a standard cup — a sweet bonus.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Is there no end to what Reese's can do with an egg shaped candy? The Mini Eggs are an echo of the larger flat eggs, shrunken down to an adorable size that invites you to enjoy a handful at a time. That makes them both enticing and dangerous. And since they come without wrappers, it's all too easy to snarf down more than you intend to without realizing it. Oops. But also, yummo.

The scale of these candies provides the perfect blend of chocolate and peanut butter, and since you can't help eating the whole thing in one bite, the textures and flavors combine into something like peanut butter fudge. They melt easily, too, so there's no excessive chewing required to get everything incorporated into a single taste-texture combination. Being just a little bigger than chocolate chips but much smaller than many Reese's cups, they're perfect for tossing into cookies or sprinkling on ice cream. The specialty nature does make them one of the more expensive purchases, but they're well worth the price for pickier people.

Steven Luna/Mashed

There's a genuine difference between the everyday Reese's peanut butter cups and the special occasion versions designed to fill Christmas stockings and Easter baskets. Though not every size and shape of seasonal treat shakes out the same, they all seem to be just a little more special than the general grocery store candy bar. The fact that they come in a wide range of designs gives Reese's aficionados plenty of stock to work through until they find one that works best for their particular tastes. And since every holiday comes with its own array of symbols and characters, the opportunities to sample the goods extend throughout the entire year.

None of this is to say that Reese's peanut butter cups are disappointing on their own; the untold truth of Reese's in any form is that the supremely satisfying merging of chocolate and peanut butter will always be delicious. And on its own, the Reese's candy collection provides enough different size cups and variations on candy bars to offer something for every sensibility.

If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that once you know which seasonal Reese's peanut butter candy is your favorite, watch for it to go on clearance after the holiday passes and grab as much as you can to last you until that holiday circles back around. There's no reason to go without if you're able to plan ahead.

Steven Luna/Mashed

I shopped for as many different shapes and forms of seasonal Reese's candies as I could find. With Easter approaching at the time of writing, it was easy to find a slew of different options. I stood clear of anything that was cup-shaped, since that seemed to be a little too close to the baseline candy. I ended up with several versions of egg shapes, as well as carrots, and a full-size chocolate bunny.

Then, I tasted each one individually, paying attention to the distribution of chocolate to peanut butter filling and doing my best to notice how it impacted the overall taste and texture. Instead of just downing them, I bit into each one, even the tiny ones, in order to get a view of how the peanut butter filling takes up the interior. It also let me distinguish the consistency of the chocolate from one candy to another, a difference which turned out to be incredibly noteworthy and a definite influence on the seasonal candies versus the regular cup.