Reese’s Medals review: These delicious blobs won’t win the gold

I’ll fully admit I’m one of those maniacs who thinks the different shapes of Reese’s taste differently. It’s all down to the ratio of the chocolate to peanut butter, though there’s certainly textural differences as well. But I think I’ve been underestimating visuals, which is the key factor when it comes to the brand-new Reese’s Medals, which have been released tying into the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics Games. And frankly? These delicious blobs won’t be winning the gold any time soon.

In fact, Reese’s is leaning into the comparisons with an ad campaign pitting legends versus newcomers. In the ads, that’s Olympic gold winners versus Olympic gold hopefuls. However, it also ties into a box sent to Guilty Eats to test out the newbies versus the oldbies. Aka, the new medal shape, versus the classic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Honestly, it wasn’t even close.

Let’s break this contest down into three categories, to make the competition as fair as possible:

Presentation

I want to start here because frankly, I should have known better. On the package for the new Reese’s Medals, there’s a cut-out design through the chocolate on the top, revealing the peanut butter, that makes it look like a medal. Had I peered closer at the package, I would have seen a full disclosure there: “Decoration shown for illustration purposes only.”

So, yeah, the “medals” do not look like that. They look like this (note: yes I'm aware I'm holding them upside-down):

They are blobs. The defined angles and circle of the package picture aren’t even present, perhaps due to shipping and/or the chocolate not holding its shape completely. Depending on how you look at it, it could be a peg person, a ghost, or a starship from Star Trek. But if I had not known it was a medal, I would have had no idea that’s what the company was going for. And even then, I’m not totally convinced.

Compare that to the classic peanut butter. Circular, ridged, iconic. It invites you to bite and looks like a candy I want to eat (and I did).

Winner: Peanut Butter Cups

Taste

Like I said above, these two did taste inherently different due to the ratio of chocolate and peanut butter. But one undervalued aspect of the cup is there’s a hard shell around the edge of the chocolate that provides a textural difference. The medals had a thicker chunk of peanut butter, but also a softer, almost taffy-life consistency to the chocolate.

Because of this, the peanut butter mildly overwhelmed the chocolate in the medals; whereas it was perfectly balanced in the cups.

Winner: Peanut Butter Cups

Performance

The entire time, both candies just sat there and did nothing.

Winner: [TIE]

Overall Verdict

It’s pretty clear that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the better candy. But… They’re both delicious? Look aside, if you handed me either of these, I would eat them immediately. If you handed me both I’m definitely reaching for the cups, first. But then I’m following it up with the medals. So while I might quibble with the tricky package design, it’s Reese’s peanut butter and chocolate, aka the perfect food. What more do you want?