8 Discontinued Reese's Candies And Desserts That Don't Actually Deserve A Comeback

Reese's peanut butter cups are a staple of the candy world, and the first name in peanut butter and chocolate. These sweet and salty treats were introduced by confectioner H.B. Reese in 1928, with his company becoming a subsidiary of the Hershey Company in 1963. Nearly a century later, Reese's has become one of the most popular candy brands in the world, ranking No. 1 by ounces sold on Instacart, per a September 2026 report.

But Reese's hasn't always been a success story. The brand has often branched out, launching any number of unique Reese's peanut butter cup flavors, in addition to other products like the iconic Reese's Puffs cereal and bite-sized Reese's Pieces. Many of these have stood the test of time, while other Reese's products have completely vanished.

While some of these limited-edition Reese's treats still have their adherents, others just weren't worth their salt. Whether it's due to lackluster taste, brand identity missteps, or actual hazards to consumer health, some discontinued Reese's products were pulled from shelves for good reason.

Introduced in 2003, Swoops have become a cornerstone of early-2000s sentimentality. This unique line of Hershey's products is best described as "Pringle-shaped": thin, oblong, slightly curved slices of chocolate that visually resembled the many-flavored potato chip brand, and even packaged stacked on top of each other in a similarly shaped tin. Swoops came in a variety of different Hershey's-branded flavors: milk chocolate, York Peppermint Pattie, Almond Joy, and, of course, Reese's. 

Overly thin and flimsy, Swoops would melt in your hands, making a mess long before they ever made it to your mouth. They didn't taste great, either; you'd be better off with a regular old bag of Reese's minis. Perhaps the biggest issue with the Swoops line, though, is that they came in just six-count servings, which meant a single pack wouldn't last more than a few minutes. We don't know with any certainty whether Hershey's intended Swoops to serve as a chocolate-flavored potato chip alternative, but having such a small serving size would've defeated the purpose. 

Either way, Swoops were discontinued by the end of 2006. And while some fans are still longing for this discontinued Reese's snack, it's safe to say they've been blinded by nostalgia.

In the mid-to-late 2000s, candy companies the world over went on a health kick. Hershey was no exception: it released a series of sugar-free flavors, pushed a line of antioxidant-rich chocolate bars, and even introduced a new, ostensibly healthier product in the Reese's line. Reese's Whipps  — long chocolate bars filled with a thin layer of peanut butter and a peanut butter-flavored nougat — came with a label that proudly proclaimed that they contained 40% less fat than other candy bars, liberally using adjectives such as "light" and "fluffy".

A contemporary review by Candyblog was actually fairly positive on the filling: The reviewer noted that the nougat had a noticeable peanut butter flavor, and the extra layer of peanut butter wrapped around it didn't hurt. The problem, though, was the chocolate. Candyblog's reviewer found it thin and tasteless, adding nothing to the overall flavor profile of the bar.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, Reese's Whipps weren't actually all that healthy. With 230 calories per bar, you'd be taking in more than a comparably sized pack of peanut M&Ms or KitKats. Either way, though, Whipps never caught on and appear to have been discontinued; they no longer appear among the product listings on Hershey's website.

Whoppers are the scourge of every trick-or-treater's pumpkin-shaped bucket. The chocolate outside is bland and artificial-tasting, and the hardened, malted milk inside has an unusual flavor and an unpleasantly chalky texture. For a time in the mid-to-late 2000s, Hershey's made an attempt to innovate on the Whoppers line, and that included a Reese's-flavored variant.

Reese's Whoppers took the divisive malted milk filling and enrobed it in a layer of peanut butter-flavored candy, as opposed to the usual chocolate. The result could've been a fascinating, salty-sweet combination that compensated somewhat for Whoppers' shortcomings, but unfortunately, it was anything but. 

The issue, explained one reviewer, was the peanut butter. Reese's peanut butter isn't terribly exciting on its own; the reason it works in a peanut butter cup is because of how well it pairs with chocolate. Without the sweet, rich decadence of a chocolate coating, Reese's Whoppers just fell flat. They seem to have been quietly discontinued sometime in the years since, and no longer appear on official Hershey's product listings.

In the early 2000s, Hershey's put out a more snackable version of Reese's peanut butter cups. Called Reese's Bites, these could be described as Reese's-flavored Milk Duds: little spheres of chocolate filled with peanut butter. Like many 2000s Hershey's products, Bites came in a variety of other flavors, including milk chocolate and cookies and cream. 

Unlike most of these deservedly discontinued Reese's snacks, Reese's Bites were actually pretty good, according to common consensus. They packed the familiar Reese's flavor in a smaller, more poppable package, making them the perfect movie snack and a great alternative to Reese's Pieces. 

So what happened? While we don't know the exact reasons for the discontinuation of Reese's Bites, rumor has it that concerned parents deemed the tiny chocolate balls a choking hazard. As a result, the entire line was pulled from shelves by 2007. Hershey's has since introduced the Drops product line, which are noticeably larger and flatter — but they don't come in a Reese's flavor.

Available as a limited-edition product in 2006, Reese's Double Chocolate peanut butter cups were exactly what they sound like: a twist on the usual chocolate/peanut butter combination, this time containing chocolate-flavored peanut butter.

Reese's has released a number of limited-edition treats over the years, some of them perfectly fine. By all accounts, the Double Chocolate variety tasted alright; reviewers complimented it for the abundance of chocolatey taste. 

However, these Double Chocolate cups have since been discontinued, and it's not hard to see why they've never made a comeback. The chocolate has never been the main attraction of a Reese's cup; it's the delicate balance of sweet and salty that makes the whole dessert work. Adding chocolate to the peanut butter tilted the scale too far in the former direction, and makes a poor argument for picking a Double Chocolate Reese's over, say, a Take Five, a Snickers, or any other combination of peanut and chocolate on the shelves.

Introduced in April 2015, Reese's Spreads Snacksters felt like Hershey's take on the popular Nutella & Go snack brand. Where the latter includes a bundle of breadsticks attached to a tub of its namesake chocolate and hazelnut dip, Reese's Snacksters followed a similar formula: a handful of stick-shaped graham crackers, served alongside a portion of peanut butter and chocolate-flavored spread.

There were two major issues with this product: First, a reviewer for Taquitos.net found the spread itself underwhelming, saying it tasted nothing like a Reese's peanut butter cup. Other consumers had the same issue with the graham crackers, finding them bland or a poor pairing with the included dip.

Perhaps even more damningly, though, some reviewers found that the dipping sticks included were hard and brittle, and would break when they tried to scoop up the peanut butter-chocolate spread. That defeated the whole purpose of Reese's Spreads Snacksters as an on-the-go treat: if you have to start digging around in the chocolate with your fingers to retrieve a lost graham cracker, it's a huge blow to the portability aspect. It's unclear exactly why Reese's Spreads Snacksters were discontinued, but it seems that no one's begging for these to make a comeback, especially since they needed so much retooling.

Reese's is beloved for its line of seasonal products: eggs around Easter, pumpkins for Halloween, and trees at Christmastime. While all three of these remain readily available when seasonally appropriate, not all of Reese's seasonal offerings have met with the same success.

Enter Reese's Mallow-Tops, which were introduced in early 2021 as part of the brand's yearly Easter offerings. Reese's took the top half of the chocolate cup and replaced it with a stark white, marshmallow-flavored creme, clearly trying to draw on the salty-sweet Fluffernutter flavor profile that calls for a mix of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.

That all sounds good, but the issue was that Mallow-Tops weren't very good. A reviewer for Taquitos.net found them to be much sweeter than regular Reese's, but with an underwhelming amount of marshmallow flavor. TheImpulsiveBuy concurred, claiming that the peanut butter and chocolate quickly overpowered the relatively subtle Mallow-Top.

Mallow-Tops may have been discontinued, but Reese's has since introduced a similar product: Big Cups Marshmallow. These oversized peanut butter cups contain a layer of soft, fluffy marshmallow-flavored filling, adding an extra textural element on top of the iconic flavor combination.

And speaking of seasonal Reese's offerings that inexplicably changed the color of the top half of the cup: in 2022, Reese's put out Blossom-Top miniature cups, a Valentine's Day-themed variation on the adorable, foil-wrapped mini cups that are normally available year-round. 

But while Mallow-Tops at least had a clear point of inspiration, Blossom-Tops were a little harder to understand. Sure, pink is often linked to Valentine's Day, but the addition of "pink-colored creme" to the top half of a Reese's just looks odd, and doesn't promise much in the way of unique flavor.

As it turned out, that was the problem. Reviewers noted that the flavor really wasn't all that different from a regular Reese's cup; Blossom-Tops just didn't do enough to distinguish themselves from the rest of the brand. They've since been discontinued, but other Valentine's Day-themed Reese's, including heart-shaped peanut butter cups, remain available seasonally.