Reese's is stepping into the specialty coffee arena with a limited-time latte that deliberately sidesteps pumpkin spice. The Hershey Company and Rhode Island craft coffee brand The Nitro Bar are co-launching the Reese's Pumpkins PB Whip Latte, a seasonal drink centered on the chocolate-and-peanut-butter profile of Reese's Pumpkins candy, not the cinnamon-nutmeg notes that dominate fall menus industry-wide.
The Rollout
The drop follows a tight, event-driven retail window. Fans can try the drink first at a New York City pop-up on September 14 and 15 — The Nitro Bar's first foray into the market ahead of a planned 2027 NYC location opening. The latte then moves to all existing Nitro Bar brick-and-mortar locations for a three-day run from September 18 to 20. A shareable at-home recipe also goes live on September 14, extending the campaign's reach beyond physical locations. The compressed availability window is a deliberate scarcity mechanic, mirroring the flash-drop model that has driven foot traffic and social engagement for regional coffee concepts in recent years.
Why This Matters for Operators
For beverage and foodservice operators tracking seasonal menu strategy, the collaboration is a useful case study in confectionery-to-cup licensing. Rather than launching through a national chain, Hershey chose a community-rooted, social-savvy independent with three current locations and more than 70 tap accounts across New England. That selection signals growing brand interest in authentic, smaller-format specialty coffee partners as a vehicle for seasonal product trials — a dynamic that restaurant beverage trend coverage has tracked as an accelerating category play.
Melissa Blette, Senior Brand Manager for Reese's at The Hershey Company, framed the move as a direct challenge to the fall coffee status quo. "Fall coffee season gets a lot of attention, but it usually follows the same script," she said. "As the No. 1 Halloween candy, Reese's belongs in that conversation — so we're here to rewrite it." According to Circana data cited by Hershey, Reese's ranked as the top-selling Halloween candy brand during the 10-week period ending November 2, 2025, across total U.S. multi-outlet and convenience channels.
Audrey Finocchiaro, founder of The Nitro Bar, noted that the partnership represented an opportunity to bring unexpected flavor energy into craft coffee — a segment that has increasingly leaned on LTO collaborations to generate earned media and new trial. The Nitro Bar built its following through grassroots pop-ups, on-tap wholesale placements at more than 60 regional accounts, and a social-led content approach, making it a natural fit for a campaign designed to travel digitally as much as physically.
Hershey's broader research, conducted with Morning Consult, has found that Halloween has evolved into a celebration spanning roughly a third of the year — a behavioral shift that seasonal foodservice marketing analysis increasingly reflects in menu planning cycles. For operators, that elongated season creates an expanded window for themed LTOs that go beyond the final week of October.
The Reese's Pumpkins PB Whip Latte's brief availability at The Nitro Bar underscores a broader shift in how confectionery brands activate in foodservice: using regional, digitally native café partners rather than mass quick-service rollouts to test seasonal beverage concepts and build cultural relevance before scaling.
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.
