Aldi Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Vs Reese's: Which Is Better?

Welcome to Dupe Detective, a new column where I'll be reviewing a name brand food product's competitor product to find out how well it compares to, or even beats, the original.

Reese's aficionados know that its signature blend of chocolate and peanut butter tastes best in limited-edition holiday form, like the Halloween pumpkin or Easter egg — the latter of which is the most popular Easter candy. Comparatively, Miniature Cups are a dark horse in the Reese's lineup, notable more for the convenience of their small form factor more than representing the Reese's formula at its finest. On that note, according to customers, they're among the 10 most overpriced Walmart products. Nevertheless, Miniature Cups are still Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which for my money rank among the absolute best of the classic American chocolate candies.

Aldi's Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups are competing directly with Miniature Cups, replicating their smaller size rather than standard, larger-sized Reese's. I picked up a bag of Miniature Cups and their Aldi dupe to find out for myself if Aldi successfully improved on one of Reese's underdog products, or if there's simply no beating the best in the peanut butter cup game. Ahead are my thoughts on both products, before my pick for which is the best overall.

Unique to Aldi's Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups compared to its Reese's equivalent is a clear distinction between the peanut butter and chocolate components. Initially, peanut butter is what dominates — its texture is soft and creamy, with a flavor that balances salty and sweet. Then the rich milk chocolate of its firm outer shell takes over. While there's simultaneously a mashing-up of two distinct flavors and a textural contrast at play, both work, with each component nicely complementing its counterpart.

Aldi's chocolate comes from a factory in Germany, operated by a company that originated in Belgium. So, it's no surprise that its peanut butter cups' chocolate component is richer in cocoa than what you typically find in America. The saltiness of the peanut butter within, however, feels more American in character, such that Aldi's interpretation of the classic peanut butter cup combines two continents' distinct strengths at making chocolate-y treats. I enjoyed that quite a bit.

Sometimes trying an iconic product's dupe before the actual name-brand product reveals facets I never would have noticed otherwise. When I compared Walmart's orange chicken to Panda Express, for example, flavors missing from Panda's orange chicken suddenly came into focus. Something similar happened when I tasted my Reese's Miniature Cups after trying Aldi's Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups — relative to Aldi's European chocolate, the chocolate of my Reese's tasted generically sugary, lacking in rich cocoa.

With that said, I'm a big Reese's fan, and after that initial shock of sorts, I was able to enjoy the Reese's on its own terms. Whereas the Aldi peanut butter cups mashed up two distinct components, the Reese's delivered a more holistic flavor I would simply describe as chocolate peanut butter. In other words, rather than peanut butter giving way to a more chocolate-y aftertaste, I got sweet, rich, and salty all at once. Meanwhile, the texture of the Reese's was also quite a bit different from Aldi's, with a bit of a nutty crunch in the peanut butter contrasting with a softer chocolate. Characteristically for an American sweet, the Reese's tasted lower-quality. But the candy made up for that deficiency of sorts with how simply its pieces fit together in a coherent, compelling whole.

Both my Reese's Miniature Cups and Aldi Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups were delicious, but I felt that Aldi ultimately made the superior product. Aldi previously won when I compared Aldi's Berryhill Hazelnut Spread to Nutella, so I think it's safe to say the German grocery store chain makes some quality desserts.

While I initially had a hard time choosing between Reese's and Aldi, I couldn't help but feel that there was a bit of nostalgia at play behind my fondness for Reese's. Judging both products as objectively as possible, the Aldi peanut butter cups utilized a plainly superior chocolate. Its flavor was made more compellingly complex with the addition of a bold, salty peanut butter. Even if I found the Reese's tasty on its own terms, its flavor was muted in comparison. Put another way, if I was recommending a peanut butter cup to someone who had never tried one before, I would pick Aldi in a heartbeat, because without an existing fondness for the Reese's formula, I think that hypothetical person would find the Reese's lacking by most metrics. Helping matters is the fact Aldi's product is technically greater in quantity at a lower price point. Combined with the fact Aldi's peanut butter cups taste better, Reese's only significant advantage over the Aldi dupe is mere brand recognition.

At my local Aldi in Henderson, Nevada, I paid $4.99 for a 12-ounce bag of Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. At a nearby Smith's — a subsidiary of Kroger, the oldest grocery store chain in America — a 9.6-ounce bag of Reese's Miniature Cups was $5.99.

Nutritionally, a three-piece serving of Aldi's peanut butter cups totals 170 calories, 11 grams of fat, 6 grams of which is saturated fat, 100 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. An equivalent three-piece serving of Reese's Miniature Cups equals 130 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of which is saturated fat, 70 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbs, 14 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. So, while I did find that Aldi made the superior product, its greater sense of indulgence does come at a slight nutritional cost.

I picked up my bag of Reese's Miniature Cups and my Aldi Choceur Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups in one shopping trip. I kept both products in the air-conditioned cabin of my car to keep them out of Las Vegas' summer heat as much as possible. When I got home, I put them in the fridge for a few hours. Both kinds of peanut butter cups ended up with some melty parts, but they seemed to be affected equally, and I didn't find their overall taste or texture to be significantly altered.

To start, I tried two whole Aldi peanut butter cups before recording my thoughts about them. Then I switched to Reese's and did the same. After that, I had three more of each, alternating between the two products to better compare them. Over the next couple of days, I had a handful more of each kind of peanut butter cup for my own enjoyment — even if my critical brain wasn't turned on to quite the same degree, I did keep those that I had later in mind during my final assessments. My analyses are based entirely on this experience, and not any past thoughts I may have had about either product or its associated brand.