I'm a die-hard peanut butter junkie. It doesn't matter whether it's Skippy or Jif, chunky or creamy, honey roasted or even that bizarre Smucker's Goober stuff with stripes of grape jelly already included. If there's a jar of peanut butter around, I'll
eat the whole thing faster than you can say fresh-roasted taste. I love the smell. I love the flavor. I even love the way it spreads and melts on warm toast.
That said, I also have an understandably deep appreciation for any candy which features my beloved peanut butter as the star attraction. Both Peanut Butter M&M's and Reese's Pieces certainly fall into this category. But since there are constant epic debates over which one of these bite-sized goodies is the better peanut butter tribute candy, I nobly decided to sacrifice my body for science and do a blow-by-blow, winner-takes-all comparison. So here is the lowdown on who reigns supreme in peanut butter treat land, and who is simply not worthy...
1) Colors
When Mars Incorporated first introduced Peanut Butter M&M's in 1990, folks over at Hershey headquarters were pretty peeved. So peeved, in fact, that they brought a lawsuit against the Mars company for making a candy just like their own Reese's Pieces (created in 1978). But if you look really closely, there are significant differences between the two.
Take, for example, the color scheme. While Reese's Pieces are only available in a trio of autumn hues (yellow, orange, and brown), Peanut Butter M&M's come in six lovely shades (blue, green, red, yellow, orange, and brown). That means you get a full 50% more rainbow-based satisfaction with Peanut Butter M&M's. And of course everybody knows it's important to eat candy that can color coordinate with any outfit in your closet. Thus, Peanut Butter M&M's fit the bill perfectly.
2) Festiveness
Based on Reese's Pieces alone, it would seem that the people working over at the Hershey company aren't in touch with their full celebration potential. With the exception of a short-lived Easter pastel variation, no matter what the season or the holiday, poor little Reese's Pieces look
the same and stay the same the whole year through. Boring with a capital B.
On the other hand, the Mars Incorporated candy elves really know how to throw a sugary party. Peanut Butter M&M's (and their bag wrappers) get dressed up for all sorts of different occasions--Halloween, Christmas, even Valentine's Day--and carry off the changes beautifully. Plus in the springtime they turn into full-fledged Easter Speck-tacular Peanut Butter Eggs, nearly doubling their normal M&M size and sprouting festive little dots to boot. Color me impressed!
3) Coating
Reese's Pieces may have been E.T. The Extraterrestrial's favorite candy, but if Steven Spielberg had actually allowed the wrinkly space guy to hang around for a few more years, he might have stopped phoning home and started eating Peanut Butter M&M's instead. Why? Because in any bite-sized sweet, the coating is key.
Now sure, both Reese's Pieces and Peanut Butter M&M's deliver on their crunchy outer shell promises with great style and finesse. But Peanut Butter M&M's also add an extra bonus: a layer of creamy milk chocolate attached to the inside of that shell. And if anything goes with peanut butter the way Humphrey Bogart went with Lauren Bacall, it's chocolate. As far as I'm concerned, little things like this are the difference between a good candy and a great one.
4) Filling
The Hershey company decided to make Reese's Pieces because their first-born Reese's Peanut Butter Cups became such a phenomenal success. So logically speaking, it should have been an easy task for them to duplicate the exact same creamy-nutty center for Reese's Pieces. But in reality, the peanut butter filling in Reese's Pieces is unpleasantly hard and rather artificial tasting--a far cry from the luscious melt-in-your-mouth interior of their namesake counterparts.
Meanwhile, Peanut Butter M&M's succeed exactly where Reese's Pieces fail. The filling in these Mars candies is quite soft and creamy with that fresh-roasted flavor you find in a newly-opened jar of Skippy's Super Chunk. In short, the rich center of every Peanut Butter M&M gives me exactly what I want: a carbon copy of the real yummy bread spread!
5) Taste
Between the added layer of chocolate and the superior creamy-nutty filling, it comes as no surprise that Peanut Butter M&M's simply taste a whole lot better than Reese's Pieces. These M&M's have an almost gourmet candy store quality about them--like something you would buy from
Godiva wrapped in an expensive gold foil box. Absolutely delicious.
By contrast, Reese's Pieces--while a good idea in theory--leave a genuinely unpleasant chemical aftertaste on the tongue. The peanut butter flavor in this candy is just plain off, and that recipe foul-up only makes me want to eat something else right away so I don't have to taste it anymore. Thanks, but no thanks.
In short, I say Peanut Butter M&M's win an easy victory over Reese's Pieces. For two candies that similar in origin, it's actually quite amazing how different they wind up being in terms of taste, filling, coating, festiveness, and overall color appeal. So if you want to get a bite-sized fix to satisfy the peanut butter junkie in you, then pick up a bag of Peanut Butter M&M's right away. Because in the land of nutty sweets, they rule!
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