You smell it before you see it. If the wind is blowing the right way in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the air doesn’t just smell like "chocolate"—it smells like roasted peanuts and warm salt. That’s the signal you’re close to the Reese’s peanut butter cups factory.
Most people think of the massive West Hershey plant when they imagine candy being made. But the Reese’s operation is its own beast. It is a sprawling, high-tech fortress on Chocolate Avenue that basically functions as the heart of a $3 billion brand. Honestly, it’s a little wild to think that a guy named H.B. Reese started all of this in his basement in 1928. He was a former dairy farmer who worked for Milton Hershey, got inspired, and decided to try his hand at the candy business. His "Penny Cups" eventually became so popular he ditched every other product he made.
The Mystery of the Closed Doors
Here is the thing most visitors get wrong: you cannot actually walk through the real production lines of the Reese’s peanut butter cups factory.
Public tours of the actual working floor ended way back in 1973. It was a matter of logistics and, frankly, safety. When you have nearly a million people trying to shuffle past industrial machinery, things get messy. Instead, Hershey built "Chocolate World," which is a simulated version of the factory. It’s fun, sure, and you get a free sample at the end, but it isn’t the real plant. The real plant is just down the road, and it is a marvel of 2026 engineering.
📖 Related: Cactus Jack Auto Tucson: What Most People Get Wrong
Inside the 2026 Operations
The facility has undergone massive changes recently. In 2025, Hershey opened the Reese Chocolate Processing (RCP) facility. It’s a seven-story extension of the original Reese plant, and it is weirdly futuristic. Several of those floors are actually underground.
This isn't just a kitchen; it's a "digitally integrated" manufacturing hub. They spent over a billion dollars across their supply chain to make sure that when you want a Reese’s, the shelf is never empty. The speed is almost hard to wrap your head around.
- Peanut Roasting: They roast Georgia peanuts at approximately 289°F.
- The Grind: The peanuts are ground into that specific, slightly gritty texture that distinguishes a Reese’s from, say, a smooth jar of Jif.
- The Shell: Robotic arms and precision "plugs" deposit the peanut butter into chocolate shells at a rate that allows them to package 900 pairs of cups every single minute.
That 900-pair-per-minute stat is the one that always sticks with me. That is 1,800 individual cups sliding down a conveyor belt every sixty seconds. If you stop to watch it, the movement looks like a liquid orange and brown river.
Why the Texture is Different
Have you ever noticed that the peanut butter inside a Reese's Cup doesn't behave like the stuff you put on toast? It’s crumbly. It’s almost "short," in baking terms.
This isn't an accident. The factory uses a specific "crumb" process. They mix the peanut butter with powdered sugar and a bit of salt, which absorbs the oils. This ensures the filling stays put instead of oozing out the second you take a bite. It also gives it that salty-sweet contrast that people are literally addicted to. In fact, Reese’s accounts for nearly 47% of all seasonal candy sales in the U.S. during the big holidays. They basically own Halloween.
The Labor and the Legacy
There is a bit of a corporate quirk at the Reese’s peanut butter cups factory that people rarely talk about. While the main Hershey plant has a long history of unionization, the Reese’s plant workforce is actually not unionized. This dates back to when the H.B. Reese Candy Co. was a separate entity. Even though the Reese family sold the business to Hershey in 1963 for about $23.5 million (which would be worth billions in today's stock), the plant has maintained its own distinct culture and subsidiary status.
Working there is a local legacy. You'll find families in Hershey where the grandpa worked the roasters in the 60s, and the grandson is now monitoring the digital sensors in the new RCP facility.
Can You Get Close to the Action?
Since you can't go inside the actual gates without an employee badge, the best way to experience the "factory vibe" is through the Reese’s Stuff Your Cup experience at Chocolate World. It’s essentially a micro-version of the factory line where you can customize a one-pound cup.
Is it a tourist trap? Kinda. But it’s the only place where you see the sheer volume of peanut butter being pumped into a shell right in front of your face.
How to Actually "See" the Factory
If you are planning a trip to Hershey to see where the magic happens, keep these tips in mind to avoid the "closed door" disappointment:
- Don't look for one building. The "factory" is actually a complex of several buildings. Look for the one with the brown, Hershey-bar-shaped panels on the facade—that’s the new extension.
- Go to Chocolate World first. It’s free to enter. The "Great Candy Expedition" and the "Chocolate Tour" ride are your best bets for seeing the mechanics of the process explained, even if it's via animatronics.
- Check the air. If you want the authentic experience, park near Old Chocolate Avenue. That’s where the roasting happens. The smell is strongest in the morning.
- Visit the Hershey Community Archives. If you’re a history nerd, this is where you can see the original blueprints and photos of H.B. Reese’s first real factory from the 1950s.
The scale of the Reese’s peanut butter cups factory is a testament to one simple idea: people really, really like the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. From a basement operation to a seven-story digital powerhouse, it’s arguably the most successful "side project" in the history of the American food industry.
To get the most out of a visit, skip the peak summer crowds and head to Hershey in late September or early October. You'll avoid the three-hour lines at Chocolate World, and the cooler air seems to hold that roasted peanut scent a lot better as you walk the perimeter of the real plant.