This must be the greatest advertising tie-in of all time.  Nearly 30 years later, I still think of E.T. whenever I think of Reese's Pieces, and vice versa.  In fact I would wager that if you are over the age of 20 or so, you thought of E.T. as soon as you saw the title of this post, correct?

Famously, M&Ms turned down Spielberg's advances for a tie-in.  Promotional appearances were new then, and M&Ms didn't want to get caught up in a backlash if there was one.  Reese's new candy Pieces had no such compunctions, and history was made.

I have to wonder if E.T. nostalgia isn't the entire reason for the continued existence of Reese's Pieces, because they aren't very good.  The candy shell has a faint chemical taste, gone almost as quickly as you detect it.  And the peanut butter filling is so sub-par that I feel obliged to put it in scare quotes: "peanut butter."

This is surprising, given that Pieces evolved from the same product line as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which are widely acknowledged to be one of the best peanut butters in candy.  But the peanut butter (excuse me, "peanut butter") in Reese's Pieces bears no resemblance to that in Cups.  It has a solid texture much like the inside of a regular M&M, and the peanut taste is artificial in the extreme.

The aftertaste is peculiar, and defies description.  There's a slight unctuous feeling, as you might expect from peanut butter, but it tastes completely fake.  Like peanut butter made entirely in a laboratory test tube.  You also get the bright sweetness of the candy coating, and that strange transient chemical-y taste from the shell.  Something in there wants to reference the taste of chocolate, presumably in order to bring Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to mind.  But as hard as it's trying, it is failing.  

Overall, Reese's Pieces taste 100% artificial, and in a bad way.  "Artificial" isn't a fault for a lot of candies (Swedish Fish spring to mind) but if something should have a peanut butter center, I feel like it should taste like peanut butter.  Call me crazy.  The "peanut butter" center of Reese's Pieces doesn't taste like it's ever seen a peanut, even though they are listed on the ingredients list.

Speaking of the ingredients, I am unclear on whether or not Reese's Pieces contain trans fats.  Granted, the Nutrition Facts on the back says "0%" trans fats per serving.  But those numbers are notoriously rounded, which means that trans fats could still be present, it's just been rounded down to zero.  The ingredients list includes "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel and soybean oil)" which may or may not be trans fats.

The kindest thing I can say about Reese's Pieces is that they do not contain high fructose corn syrup.  Sugar is the first ingredient, and although they contain less than 2% corn syrup, that's still better than HFCS.  Yay, Reese's Pieces.

In every way that I can come up with, Reese's Pieces are inferior to Peanut Butter M&Ms, which are absolutely delicious.

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user roboppy