Reese's is moving beyond the candy aisle this Halloween season, partnering with The Nitro Bar to launch the Reese's Pumpkins PB Whip Latte — a limited-time dispensed beverage collaboration designed to compete directly with pumpkin spice for fall coffee share. The drink is available at a New York City pop-up September 14 and 15, followed by a three-day run across all Nitro Bar brick-and-mortar locations September 18 through 20.
The Play for Fall Coffee
The Hershey Company is leaning on Reese's standing as America's No. 1 Halloween candy brand — a claim backed by Circana data covering the 10-week period ending November 2, 2025, across total U.S. multi-outlet and convenience channels — to carve out space in the fall coffee conversation typically dominated by pumpkin spice platforms. The latte centers on the chocolate-and-peanut-butter profile of Reese's Pumpkins seasonal candy rather than any spice-forward flavor cue, a deliberate positioning move.
"Fall coffee season gets a lot of attention, but it usually follows the same script," said Melissa Blette, Senior Brand Manager for the Reese's brand at Hershey. "As the No. 1 Halloween candy, Reese's belongs in that conversation — so we're here to rewrite it."
Channel and Retail Implications
For c-store operators, the collaboration is a useful read on where confectionery suppliers are placing seasonal bets. Hershey's own research, conducted with Morning Consult, found that Halloween consumer engagement now stretches across roughly a third of the year — a window that overlaps squarely with the dispensed-beverage and self-serve coffee programs that many chains have invested in heavily since 2022. Seasonal limited-time offers tied to top-selling candy brands represent a low-friction way for foodservice programs to capture incremental ring during the Halloween build without significant back-of-house complexity.
The Nitro Bar itself is a small but fast-growing specialty coffee operator with 3 locations currently open (2 more planned) and more than 70 tap distribution points across Rhode Island, with a New York City location slated for 2027. Its community-driven, social-first model mirrors the kind of regional craft-coffee energy that larger c-store chains have been studying as they build out proprietary beverage bars. Operators tracking dispensed-beverage trends at convenience will note how tightly this launch is choreographed around shareability — a home recipe drops the same day as the NYC pop-up, compressing trial, earned media, and at-home occasion into a single week.
Operator Takeaway
For buyers and category managers planning fall candy and beverage sets, the collaboration signals that Hershey is actively extending Reese's seasonal equity into adjacent dayparts. The convenience channel was specifically cited in the Circana sourcing for Reese's No. 1 Halloween ranking, making the brand's fall push directly relevant to seasonal confectionery category planning at the store level. Pricing, per Hershey, remains at retailer discretion.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
