Reeses vs Skinny Dipped Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

It has been a while since we had a new peanut butter cup showdown post, hasn't it? I did so many of them that I ran out of competitors where I normally shop. I had a coupon for a Skinny Dipped product so I picked up their Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup to compare with Reese's. Here's one of my sorrows currently – regular sized Dark Chocolate Reese's seem to be no longer made; I had to use the thin variety. The difference in size is real and we'll get to it, but I think for this blog we have to focus on the chocolate, so "dark" needs to be our defining comparison point for each pairing. This is the first of a short series of showdowns between Skinny Dipped and other dark chocolate peanut butter cups.

There were two things that stuck out as differences after I unwrapped a cup from each brand – thickness and color. The Reese's on the right is noticeably lighter in color and shorter. The Skinny Dipped is 1 mm (almost a half inch) thick while the Reese's is only 7/10 mm (touch over one quarter inch) thick. The Skinny Dipped had a stronger, darker chocolate and a roasted peanut fragrance; the Reese's had little scent compared to it.

What you really want to know is how do these compare in terms of taste, texture, and sound, right?

I'll start with the Reese's because it is the most widespread brand. Even though I've had it before (too many times to count) I did try it again so that everything about it is fresh. The primary flavor is the slightly dark chocolate that is the first and third flavor. I'm guessing this may be a 50% or 55% cacao. The peanut butter is quite sweet and rather a thin layer as you can see in the photo. While the chocolate isn't soft, I had to cut it, it makes no sound when I take a bite or chew it. The aftertaste lingers a bit and is strong combination of the slightly bitter with the sweet leaning more toward the sweet peanut butter. One cup is approximately 53.3 calories.

The Skinny Dipped cup has more peanut butter and do you see that the top of the cup is thicker than the base? That's the opposite of the Reese's where top and bottom coating are fairly evenly matched. That might explain why it more challenging to get the knife to cut the Skinny Dipped but after it got through the top, it split more easily. This does make a snap when I bite into it and for a few chews. The chocolate is much darker in flavor and it is so intense that it dries out my mouth by the second half of the cup. The peanut butter is roasted but not really sweet; even though I can't see them, there are tiny bits that crunch when I chew. The aftertaste is bitter as expected with little sugar added. One cup is 80 calories.

Which did I like better? The aftertaste became unpleasant with the Skinny Dipped but the lower sugar and higher bitterness is also a good way to curb eating multiple cups at once. I'm still going to go with the Reese's but I really wish they'd go back to make the regular size so I could have done a better comparison.