I’m a big fan of the current Renaissance Reese’s is having these days. It feels like we’ve had more peanut butter cup innovation over the last 12 months than the previous 12 YEARS, and I, for one, am there for it. I have to admit, I’ve had mixed feelings about some of the newer creations, but on the whole, I am just happy for all the new treats.
In addition to some heavy hitters that dropped recently, like the Caramel Big Cup and Red Velvet, we now have PB&J with strawberry and grape flavors! Honestly, the only real surprise is how long it took Reese’s to come out with such a classic peanut butter pairing, especially as we’ve had things like cereal, sugar cookies, and pretzels featured in peanut butter cups. But the wait is over! It’s peanut butter jelly time sans baseball bat.
Let’s start with the grape, if only because it comes first alphabetically.
After opening the package, there is a whiff of chemically grape and then the familiar peanut butter and chocolate combo. That fruity scent almost brings to mind the grape flavor of Big League Chew. I cut the first cup in half to get a view of the inside and was disappointed at the ratio of peanut butter to jelly inside. If this were a sandwich, it would absolutely not pass muster. This is disappointing for two reasons: 1) It throws off the flavor balance in the candy. 2) I KNOW Reese’s can and has done better! The ratio in the recent Chocolate Lava Cup and the aforementioned Caramel Cup was much better.
The chocolate and peanut butter you know and love are the same as you’d expect, with the artificial grape flavor playing a distant third. It tastes very fake when my tongue could pick it up. I even pulled apart the cup to get a better taste, and it was hard to get much flavor, even with a finger swipe of just the sticky purple goop itself. What is there is very reminiscent of grape Kool-aid with a bit too much water mixed with it.
Now, onto the strawberry.
The initial scent upon opening these is oddly both stronger *and* weaker. Stronger in that there’s definitely more there, more present than the grape, weaker in the sense that it smells less like the intended flavor. It’s less of a specifically strawberry fragrance and more of a generically sweet, fruity candy scent. That didn’t bode well.
As with the grape, the strawberry layer is pitifully thin and utterly lacking. Interestingly, it had a stickier consistency though. It reminded me of the squeeze tube-type candy like Ooze Tubes.
Just like with the grape, the flavor was faint and very artificial. It reminded me of mixing green gummy bears into Sprite and letting them sit long enough to start dissolving. It was like someone turned down the flavor without turning down the sweetness.
All in all, both flavors are good for peanut butter cups but really weak if you’re specifically looking for peanut butter AND JELLY cups.
Purchased Price: $3.19 each
Size: 2.8 oz
Purchased at: CVS (Grape), Cumberland Farms (Strawberry)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (both)
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 190 calories, 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of total carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 22 grams of total sugar, and 3 grams of protein.
Great descriptions. Saved me a purchase.
These definitely need more jelly, but I think they are better than a 5 out 10. I don’t mind the artificial fruit flavors because that’s what I expected from candies like this so I think overall it works decently enough. I’d go 8/10 for the grape and 7 out 10 for the strawberry. The grape does come thru better than the strawberry, which has more of a generic “fruit” flavor than it does strawberry
I had had a hard time focusing on the product because of how rough the polish was on the nails. That said, they seem to have the “goo” portion of the treat located in the same area (roughly) as the Lava cups.
Great descriptions! I liked the strawberry variety better than the grape, but both were underwhelming. It was a bummer because I’ve wanted a PB&J Reese’s for years. The Russell Stover peanut butter and jelly cups from the early 2000s were a childhood favorite–and much superior to these!
I have to put in a good word for the version that AREN’T the big cups. The normal sized cups are the perfect ratio, IMO, and that’s coming from someone who grew up choosing PB&J over any other sandwich.
tried the grape one — took one bite and threw it out…. i had HIGH hopes, but these were garbage
100% agree… I guess PB&J conjures up some expectations that they heavily candified fruit flavors didn’t deliver on. It tastes like PB & Artificial Strawberry Goop, but not PB&J. My expectations were probably unrealistic but I just didn’t like it.