This Is The Superior Reese's Peanut Butter Egg

One potentially hot take on which The Takeout stands firm is that Easter candy, not Halloween candy, is the best that the snacking landscape has to offer. It's a category where we see true innovation happening. What is it about spring that moves candy companies to transform breakfast cereal into chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks into jelly beans? Even Reese's refuses to rest on its laurels: Since 2017, the company has produced two beloved Easter essentials each year, the classic Reese's Peanut Butter Egg and the Reese's Peanut Butter Creme Egg. Which of these two products belongs in your Easter basket?

I was surprised to discover that the original Reese's Peanut Butter Egg has been a springtime staple for the better part of a century—following initial success in their test market of Pennsylvania in 1966, the eggs went national in 1967. This innovation, interestingly, was soon after Hershey's acquisition of Reese's in 1963. While Reese's are a crowdpleaser any day of the year, the eggs have particular reverence attached to them, largely because of the generous portion of peanut butter inside. When it comes to Reese's, it's all about the ratio.

It's only for the past five years that Reese's Peanut Butter Creme Eggs have been available at retailers nationwide (launching exclusively at Walmart in their first year). This product is a clear attempt to compete with the seasonal supremacy of the Cadbury Creme Egg, a big, satisfying, foil-wrapped standalone crown jewel of any Easter basket. Unlike the other Reese's eggs, these feature a three-dimensional egg shape and don't need the support of a cardboard insert. They're wrapped in canary-yellow foil and stand out on grocery shelves.

Both eggs are 1.2 oz., and at my local Walgreens, both cost $1.25. Let's take a closer look at each.

This product looks bigger in that photo up at the top, but don't let that fool you; it's the same volume as its counterpart, just protected by a cardboard insert that's wider and longer than the egg itself. That said, it's a sizable dessert, the perfect three-bite candy that won't leave you hunting for the next piece.

Without the ridged edges and flat top that define a classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, the egg is free to be its most peanut-buttery self, bulging outward at the top and sides with extra filling. Because the ridges always account for the most firm bite in a Reese's cup, the egg is silky all the way through, a uniformly velvety bite that melts in your mouth even more than the traditional product. The dominant flavor you're left with after eating one is peanut butter, not chocolate.

As we found with Reese's new plant-based oat chocolate peanut butter cups, a key defining feature of a Reese's cup is the way your teeth can sink down into it, encountering slight resistance along the ridged chocolate edges but a yielding softness everywhere else. The chocolate of a vegan Reese's cup is more rigid throughout, leading to a less satisfying snacking experience.

The same is largely true here: When you bite into this Reese's egg, you really have to bite. The thick, sturdy chocolate molded into a three-dimensional egg shell has to stand up to the grocery store elements all on its own, without the aid of a cardboard sleeve. The textural contrast between the hard outside and the soft inside is interesting, but definitely less melt-in-your-mouth than the other Reese's egg.

Moreover, the word "creme" in the name of this product is a bit of a misnomer. It evokes the runny liquid goo center of a Cadbury Creme Egg, yet when you bite into this Reese's egg, you'll find the same (rather grainy) peanut butter filling of any other Reese's product. I suppose it's kind of interesting that each bite of this egg yields a different ratio of peanut butter and chocolate, but since the flavor of Hershey's chocolate is nothing to write home about, it's not the best move to place it front and center in this product.

For peanut butter lovers, the choice is clear: Go with the traditional Reese's Peanut Butter Egg. The Creme Egg will leaves you fighting with the chocolate a bit as you gather your peanut buttery prize.

However, if you want to buy the product you can only get at Easter, the Creme Egg is the way to go. Reese's releases seasonal shapes all year long: pumpkins at Halloween, bells in December, hearts at Valentine's Day, eggs at Easter. All of these feature similar chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratios and deliver nearly identical textural experiences. The Creme Egg, by contrast, is a true Easter original, right down to the fun details molded into the egg's shell.