Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day: The story behind Reese’s delicious candy combo

Long before the Americas were discovered by Christopher Columbus, the peoples that lived here enjoyed not only peanut butter but also chocolate. While the two delicacies coexisted side by side in Aztec and Inca civilizations, they were not used in the same way that we use them today.

However, with the advent of mass consumption of these two foods they were bound to come together to form a most perfect union. The exact first time someone put the two together in a scrumptious snack is unknown, but one man’s invention made the two inseparable, so much so they share a day to celebrate them.

So, with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day, which is celebrated 23 July, in mind, here’s a look at how the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup came to be.

From a dairy farm to Chocolate Town

Henry Burnett Reese wasn’t born into greatness, but he would go on to invent one of Americans’ favorite candies. The son of Pennsylvania dairy farmers he entered the world on 4 May 1879. He married his wife Blanche, the daughter of a well-to-do family in a near by town in County York, in 1900.

The two had a fructiferous union having sixteen children of their own, sadly only 13 survived into adulthood. But, that exponentially growing family meant more and more mouths to feed so HB sought out work where he could find it.

The family moved around as he picked up jobs farming, managing a fishery and canning operation, and factory work, among others. Luck would have it, one day he saw an advertisement for dairy farmers to work for Hershey, the famed chocolatier.

He was promoted to manager of the company’s Round Barn in 1918, but unfortunately a year later it was shuttered as a cost saving measure. Out of work, he thought he would take a shot at making candy himself, it was a flop.

He moved the family once again to Spring Grove about 45 miles away to take another job at a mill, along with other odd jobs to make ends meet. But two years later he was back in ‘Chocolate Town’, this time working in the Hershey Chocolate factory shipping room.

Necessity is the mother of invention

He hadn’t given up on his dream of having his own candy business inspired by the idea that “if Hershey can sell a trainload of chocolate every day… I can at least make a living making candy,” according to the Hershey Community Archives. So he began making candy in the basement of his house, and this time he had more success.

He started making a variety of candies, which he named after his children, and used his sizeable family as a marketing tool in his advertising. Business was so good that he built his own factory in 1926, and a house that could finally fit his entire family.

The candy he invented that would carry his namesake to this day, the Peanut Butter Cup, came around 1928. He made them with Hershey chocolate, even using the connection to the company and ‘Chocolate Town’ on his packaging.

The Great Depression brought financial difficulties but business really began booming by the 1930s. Then World War II broke out and with it, wartime rationing. But nothing stopped Reese and he dropped all other lines of candy he was producing to focus on Peanut Butter Cups, which was his most popular product.

The gamble paid off and the company enjoyed success in the post-war years requiring another expansion. Sadly, HB would not live to see the completion of another new factory, dying in 1956, the year before it was complete.

His six sons took over operations of the business but eventually sold H.B. Reese Candy Company to Hershey Chocolate Corporation in 1963. They got $23.5 million and about a 5% share in the Hershey Company according to Business Insider. That stake in the company is worth roughly $1 billion today.

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