M&M's

M&M's is a famous type of candy made by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc. since 1941. Each small piece has a colorful candy shell with the letter "m" printed in white on one side. Inside the shell is a chocolate filling, and there are many different kinds of M&M's, including plain chocolate, peanut, peanut butter, almond, pretzel, crispy, dark chocolate, and caramel.

The original M&M's had a semi-sweet chocolate filling, and later new varieties were added. The Peanut M&M, which has a peanut coated in milk chocolate, was introduced in 1954 and is still popular today.

M&M's were first made in the United States in 1941 and are now sold in more than 100 countries. They were created by Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, whose family name gave the "M&M" part of the name. The candy was inspired by Smarties, which Mars saw during the Spanish Civil War. The sugar coating helps keep the chocolate from melting, which led to the famous slogan: "the milk chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hand."

History

1940–70s: Beginnings

In the 1930s, Forrest Mars Sr., son of the Mars Company founder, Franklin Clarence Mars, saw soldiers in the Spanish Civil War eating Smarties, a British candy made by Rowntree's. These candies had a chocolate inside protected by a colored shell of hard panning, which stopped the chocolate from melting.

On March 3, 1941, Mars received a patent for his own version of this idea. The two Ms in M&M's stand for Forrest E. Mars Sr. and Bruce Murrie, who was the son of the Hershey Chocolate Company president. This partnership allowed M&M's to be made with Hershey chocolate, since Hershey controlled the rationed chocolate in the USA at the time. Production began in 1941 in a factory in Clinton Hill, Newark, New Jersey.

The U.S. Army was the first big customer, as the candies were perfect for soldiers to carry in tropical climates without the chocolate melting. During World War II, M&M's were sold only to the military. Because of high demand, the factory moved to a bigger location in Newark, New Jersey, and later to Hackettstown. A second factory opened in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1978.

In 1949, M&M's introduced the tagline "the milk chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hand." In 1950, a black "M" was imprinted on each candy, which later changed to white in 1954. A peanut variety was introduced in 1954, and new colors like yellow, red, and green were added in 1960.

1980s: Expanding internationally

In the 1980s, M&M's began to spread internationally to places like Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Special holiday candies for Easter and Christmas were launched in 1986, featuring symbols like bunnies and pine trees on the shells.

In 1988, almond-centered M&M's returned for special occasions like Christmas and Easter, and later became a regular part of the product line.

1990s: New flavors ring

In 1991, a peanut butter variety was released. In 1995, tan M&M's were replaced with blue ones. During the 1990s, M&M's started to be sold in Europe, replacing other similar products.

New smaller candies called "M&M's Minis" were introduced in 1996, and crispy M&M's came out in 1999. These crispy candies had a wafer inside and were later discontinued in the United States but remained popular in Europe and Australia.

2000s–present: New flavors and re-releases

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, many new flavors and varieties of M&M's were introduced, including dulce de leche, pretzel, coffee nut, caramel, English toffee, and hazelnut spread.

Other products like M&M cookies and chocolate blocks were also launched during this time. In 2020, a Fudge Brownie variety was released in the United States but discontinued in April 2024. In 2022, a purple variety was introduced, along with a new "spokescandy" named Purple.

Ingredients

A traditional milk chocolate M&M weighs about 0.91 grams and has around 4.7 calories (kcal) of food energy. Despite what some people think, all M&Ms taste the same — they all have the same chocolate flavor, no matter their color.

Marketing

Marketing has played a big role in making M&M's famous. Fun cartoon characters, new flavors, and colorful packaging have helped make M&M's a well-known candy. Over the years, M&M's has used many creative ideas to stay popular with people of all ages.

Since 1982, M&M's has done many fun campaigns. In 1990, they made a giant cow covered in M&M candies that got a lot of attention. In 1995, they let people choose a new color for M&M's, and blue won. They even lit up the Empire State Building in blue! M&M's also made special candies for movies like Shrek 2 and Star Wars, and they even made giant M&M statues. In 2006, M&M's became the official candy of NASCAR, and they have done many fun promotions tied to sports and movies ever since.

M&M characters

Early advertisements for M&M's in 1954 featured two animated characters—one plain and one peanut—diving into a pool of chocolate. In 1994, the characters were first shown in computer animation, interacting with celebrities who picked their favorite M&M candy colors.

The animated characters include Red, the mascot for milk chocolate and peanut butter; Yellow, the happy mascot for peanuts; Blue, the cool mascot for almond M&M's; Green, the mascot for dark chocolate mint and peanut butter; and Orange, who was introduced for crispy M&M's. In 2022, Mars announced changes to the characters to make them more representative of different personalities and backgrounds. A new Purple M&M was introduced in 2022, voiced by Amber Ruffin.

Color changes

The original M&M candies came in five colors: red, yellow, violet, green, and brown. In the late 1940s, violet was replaced with tan.

In 1976, the red M&M was removed because of health concerns over a dye, and orange M&M was introduced. Later, red returned, and orange stayed too. In 1995, tan was replaced with blue after a vote by consumers.

In 2002, a new color — purple — was added after another vote. In 2004, M&Ms began offering 17 colors with custom messages. For Valentine’s Day in 2008, all-green bags were sold because of a fun belief that green M&Ms might be special. In 2011, white chocolate M&M Candy Corn came out for Halloween.