Candy Girls: Reese's Milk Chocolate Layered Cookies

By Liz Kellermeyer Fri., Mar. 13 2009 at 11:50 AM

Categories: Sugar High

Photo by Aubrey Shoe

We have pretty much given up on Reese's products that aren't Reese's cups. The story is getting old: Reese's cups = delicious, Reese's cup variants = eh. But as fate would have it, a colleague recently took a tour of the Hershey factory, where he purchased and brought back for us a brand! new! Reese's product! So in a battle between wariness and intrigue, intrigue won out. The upside is that now we can tell you with authority that Reese's Milk Chocolate Layered Cookies are pretty gross. You're welcome!

We can blame this whole cookie/candy hybrid madness on Richard Lenny, a CEO who came to Hershey's from Nabisco and had a vision for how the company could convert its familiar candy brands into new products. The Layered Cookies are another variation on a similar theme that's been playing out for a few years. If we were being generous, we might say the idea behind the cookies seems to be Oreo meets Reese's Peanut Butter Cup: two chocolate cookies coated with milk chocolate housing a layer of peanut butter.

Sounds awesome, right? That's how they get you!

The problem is in the execution. The cookies are dry and flavorless. One guest tester called them "generic-tasting," while another likened them to store-brand sandwich cookies. The only good part about the cookie--the chocolate and peanut butter--are lost under a crumbly mess. And even the peanut butter, which carries the Reese's name, isn't the same super-salty confection found in the cups. What would make these better? "If the peanut butter were scraped out of the cookie and put into a chocolate shell." Exactly.

Would we finish the package? Nope. We're saving our calories for the Reese's treats that really mean something.

Would we buy again? No! And this time we totally mean it. For reals, Reese's, don't be giving us that look.

Rating: 2 out of 5