Reese’s built a brand on one perfect combination — in orange.

Reese’s built a brand on a single, brilliant combination: chocolate and peanut butter, in the form of the ridged peanut butter cup. It’s one of the most beloved candies in the world, sold in unmistakable orange packaging with a yellow, script wordmark outlined in chocolate brown. That orange is so central to the brand that it’s a registered colour trademark (registered with the USPTO in 1999, with first use claimed in 1969) — one of the oldest still-registered single-colour marks in the US. The peanut butter cup was so popular that its creator eventually dropped his other candies to focus on it entirely. (Honest caveats: the cursive wordmark is custom lettering with no documented typeface, so don’t name a font; and while the orange is trademarked, Hershey publishes no official hex, so any value is an approximation.)

The origin is a great story. Reese’s was created by Harry Burnett (H.B.) Reese, a former employee of Milton Hershey — but crucially, he worked as a dairyman on Hershey’s farms, not on the chocolate line. After the dairy operation closed (around 1919), Reese started making candy in Hershey, Pennsylvania, founding the H.B. Reese Candy Company in 1923 and using Hershey’s chocolate. He created the peanut butter cups around 1928 — sold so cheaply they were known as “penny cups.” After H.B. Reese died in 1956, his six sons merged the company with Hershey in 1963 (a common myth dates this to 1969, when the cups became Hershey’s top seller — the merger was 1963).

The brand’s advertising sealed the combination in people’s minds. The slogan “Two great tastes that taste great together” (from Ogilvy & Mather, ~1970) rode the famous “collision” ads — two people bumping into each other, one eating chocolate, one peanut butter: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” / “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” Reese’s is a brand of The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY), whose voting control rests with the Hershey Trust — proof that one perfect combination, in one trademarked colour, can be a brand.

Reese’s lives in orange. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Reese’s palette is its unmistakable orange, with a chocolate brown and a bright yellow for the wordmark. The orange is warm, bold and appetising, and it’s so consistently used that it functions as the brand’s single most recognisable asset — recognisable enough to be a registered colour trademark. Brown grounds it in chocolate; yellow gives the script its glow. It’s a warm, confident, food-appetising palette that says “Reese’s” from across a shop. The honest caveat: although the orange is trademarked, Hershey publishes no official public hex — community values around #FE5200 for the orange are approximations, not official brand-guideline colours.

The lesson is owning a colour so completely it becomes a trademark. Reese’s orange is a textbook example of building such consistent colour equity that the shade itself becomes legally protectable and instantly means the brand. For designers, it’s a reminder that relentless, consistent use of a single colour can turn it into one of your most valuable assets. The takeaways: own a distinctive colour and use it with total consistency (Reese’s orange); consistent colour equity can become legally protectable; and treat specific hexes as approximate even when the colour itself is trademarked, if no official value is published.

The wordmark is a warm script — friendly and appetising.

Reese’s warm, cursive script wordmark — yellow letters outlined in chocolate brown on the orange field — is friendly, appetising and full of character. The flowing script feels approachable and a little indulgent, exactly the mood of a chocolate-and-peanut-butter treat, and the yellow-on-brown-on-orange colour treatment is instantly recognisable. That handwritten quality gives the brand warmth and personality, distinguishing it from more corporate, geometric candy logos. It’s a wordmark that looks as inviting as the product tastes. (Because the lettering is custom with no documented typeface, the honest description is “a warm script,” not a named font.) The type behaves like the brand: friendly, indulgent and appetising — the look of a treat you want right now.

Reese’s built a brand on chocolate, peanut butter and orange.

Reese’s is a lesson in owning one perfect combination. Chocolate and peanut butter wasn’t a new pairing, but Reese’s made the peanut butter cup the definitive expression of it — and then wrapped that combination in an equally ownable identity: the orange packaging (a registered colour trademark), the warm script, and the “two great tastes” story that literally dramatised the combination as two things colliding. The brand’s genius is total ownership: of a flavour combination, a product form (the cup), and a colour, all reinforcing each other. That’s why Reese’s is instantly recognisable and deeply beloved.

For designers and brand-builders, Reese’s offers a clear takeaway: own a combination — of product, colour and story — completely. The lessons: take a simple idea (chocolate + peanut butter) and become its definitive expression (the cup); build ownable identity assets around it (the trademarked orange, the script); and dramatise the core idea in advertising (the “collision” of two great tastes). It’s also a reminder to keep the facts precise — H.B. Reese was a Hershey dairy worker who created the cups around 1928 (“penny cups”); the Hershey merger was 1963 (not 1969); “Two great tastes that taste great together” came from Ogilvy around 1970; the orange is a registered colour trademark; and Reese’s is a Hershey brand. Reese’s turned one combination into a trademarked brand — proof that owning an idea completely is a powerful strategy.

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