Peanut Butter Cup Shot

Peanut butter whiskey and chocolate liqueur — recreating Reese's (H.B. Reese, 1928), the peanut butter whiskey category emerging in the 2010s (Skrewball, 2018).

The Peanut Butter Cup Shot derives its identity from one of the most commercially successful candy products in American history: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, created by Harry Burnett Reese in 1928 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Reese, a former dairy farmer who had worked at the Hershey Chocolate Company, developed his chocolate-and-peanut-butter combination using Hershey's chocolate as the outer shell and a sweetened peanut butter filling. H.B. Reese Candy Company sold the product independently until 1963, when it was acquired by Hershey — a deal that made Reese's the largest single product in the Hershey portfolio by dollar sales. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup has ranked as one of the top-selling candy bars in the United States every year since its widespread distribution. The shot translates the chocolate-peanut butter combination into liquid form using peanut butter whiskey — a flavored whiskey category that emerged commercially in the 2010s, with expressions from brands including Skrewball (launched 2018 in San Diego) gaining wide distribution — combined with chocolate liqueur. The benzaldehyde chemistry that makes amaretto taste of almonds has a parallel in peanut butter whiskey, where pyrazine compounds produced during the roasting of peanuts create a specific nutty, slightly savory flavor that barrel-aged whiskey's vanilla and caramel notes complement naturally.