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Readers give thumbs-ups to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups but say Peanut Butter Kisses are misses.
Both come in orange and black wrappers.
Both have a peanut buttery flavor.
And both contain the mysterious ingredient “soy lecithin. ”
But that’s where similarities end between Wichita’s most loved Halloween candy (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups) and Wichita’s most loathed Halloween candy (Peanut Butter Kisses).
Every day they come, from far and wide, making the pilgrimage to the Downbeat Café with one thing on their minds: peanut butter. Or, more precisely, peanut-butter cookies: crispy, flaky, slightly crumbly, sand-dollar-size handmade cookies, pasted together with preternaturally smooth peanut-butter filling, that have developed a following. Some fans are casual snackers. Others are die-hard devotees. All are comforted by the sight of that giant glass jar on the counter, which fills up each morning with the day’s batch. And when that jar is empty, there is often panic. I’ve seen it happen: A customer in search of cookies enters, glimpses the barren glass and turns ashen with grief. Recently, a two-day cookie dry spell threatened to sow chaos and confusion into some people’s lives. “Now, they’ve started planning,” says Crissy Carter, who works the morning shift at the Downbeat. “They call in to make sure they’re here.” Arrangements are often made ahead of time to pick up a batch for a party. “I don’t even call them cookies anymore. I call them peanut-butter crazies!” says longtime Downbeat peanut-butter-cookie enthusiast Kelly Sears.
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