Something is amiss with the Hershey’s Kiss

In what could be described as the most first-world problem ever, bakers across the US were dismayed by a problem with Hershey’s Kisses this December. The iconic drop-shaped chocolate buttons are a favorite of cookie bakers, millions of whom made a version of the Peanut butter blossom cookies that feature a Kiss in the middle for their holiday cookie tray.

As bakers unwrapped their Kisses for their cookies earlier this month, many of them noticed a problem – the tips were missing. The issue was first brought to light in the Facebook group  The Wedding Cookie Table, when a user posted a photo of the Kisses, asking  “Do this year’s kisses look like this for you? Or are the tops broken off?” It turns out that the problem was not a one-off issue, as several others chimed in that their Kisses were also affected. 

Soon the problem was spread across social media and the story was picked up by several news outlets. The outcry prompted Hershey’s to issue a statement. “We make more than 70 million Kisses a day here in Hershey, Pa., and we want each of them looking as great as they taste,” the statement read. “The iconic, conical shape is one of the reasons families have loved Kisses for generations…[and] while there has always been some variability in that process, we are working to improve the appearance because it’s as important to us as it is to our fans.”

No explanations were offered about why the problem happened or if it has been fixed. The photo above came from a bag of holiday Kisses purchased last week, and you can see that the tips are broken. Almost all of the Kisses I unwrapped were damaged (I put them into Ovenly’s easy and gluten-free Peanut butter cookies.) Were your Kisses affected in this way?