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| "M&M's"® Plain Chocolate were first introduced to the general public in the USA in 1941 and "M&M's"® Chocolate soon earned a solid reputation from American GIs serving in World War II who first enjoyed the candies in their food rations. "M&M's"® Chocolate were an excellent choice for the military since they were a convenient snack that travelled well in any climate and were packaged in paper tubes. The packaging changed from a paper tube to the characteristic brown packaging known today. In the summer of 2000 it was decided that "M&M's"® Plain Chocolate were too good to be called "Plain" and therefore the packaging name was changed to "M&M's"® Milk Chocolate. |
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| The making of "M&M's"® Milk Chocolate begins with milk chocolate centres, which are formed in a machine and then "tumbled" in order to obtain a smooth, rounded centre. For "M&M's"® Peanut a whole peanut forms the centre, which is first roasted, then surrounded with milk chocolate. "M&M's"® Crispy begins with a crisp rice centre which is then covered with chocolate. What follows is a process known as "panning". Panning involves coating candies by rotating them in a coating material in a revolving pan. Panning can be done using syrups and other materials such as chocolate, fats, etc. The principle, briefly, is to coat the centre with a layer of materials, which on evaporation leaves an even layer or shell of dry substance. The chocolate (or chocolate-covered peanut or crispy) centres are colour-coated by rotating them in a revolving pan, while a sugar and corn syrup mixture is added. This process is repeated several times until "M&M's"® have a thin, smooth shell with the desired thickness. Then, the machine specially designed for the purpose gently imprints an "m" on the surface of the fragile candy shell without cracking the thin sugar shell. |
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| When the original "M&M's"® Milk Chocolate mix was introduced in the USA in 1941, the colours were red, yellow, green, brown, orange and violet. In 1949 tan replaced violet. The colour blue replaced tan in 1995. "M&M's"® Peanut were introduced in 1954 in all brown and in 1960 red, green, and yellow were added. Orange was added to the "M&M's"® Peanut package in 1976 and replaced with blue in 1995. |
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| "M&M's"® Milk Chocolate : 30% brown, 20% each of yellow and red and 10% each of orange, green and blue. "M&M's"® Peanut Chocolate : 20% each of brown, yellow, red and blue and 10% each of green and orange. |
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After setting up the Mars Confectionery factory in the UK in 1932, a young man called Forrest E. Mars, who specialised in producing chocolate bars returned to America, where he partnered with a young man by the name of Murray who specialised in sugar coating. Together they invented
the chocolate candy we know as M&M's. The product was named after them - Mars & Murray. |
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| The trademark "m" is put on the "M&M's"® Chocolate with a machine designed especially for us, calibrated so the candy shell will not crack during the process. The process is very similar to offset printing. The "m" was first imprinted on "M&M's"® Milk Chocolate in black. And, in 1954 the imprinted "m" on each candy piece was changed from black to white. |
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| The colour from the candy shells has no taste. It's the delicious milk chocolate (and inclusions like peanuts and crisped rice) inside, with the crisp sugar shells outside, that provide all the taste and texture of "M&M's"® Chocolate. While there is no difference in taste due to the different colours, consumers do eat their "M&M's"® in a variety of different ways, i.e., sorting the colours out separately and eating one colour at a time, allowing the colour to dissolve from the candy shell in their mouths prior to chewing the candy, and of course just enjoying them one by one. |
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| As you can imagine, there are millions of "M&M's"® Chocolate made and consumed every day. There are over 400 million produced each day across the world. |
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| Quality and safety are of the utmost importance to us in ensuring the product meets our strictest standards, therefore, we do not offer tours to the general public. |
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If you have any questions or comments about the "M&M's"® please go to the Contact Us section of the website, or write to:
- Consumer Relations
- Masterfoods
- Melton Mowbray
- Leicestershire
- LE13 0BR |
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This product is made by our sister company in Hackettstown, New Jersey, USA, and is only for sale in the USA. We do not have any plans to launch peanut butter M&Ms in the UK at the moment, but will continue
to monitor consumer demand for this type of product. We are sorry but we do not currently have a mail order service for confectionery from the USA. |
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| We regret we do not operate a mail order service for any of these items in the UK at present. They are generally only available through Duty Free shops or around Christmas or Easter time in selected stores in the UK. |
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| We regret we are unable to be of assistance on this occasion as we are unable to sell single colour packs of M&M's in the UK and we do not operate a mail order service for confectionery. We are sorry for any disappointment this may cause. |
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| Unfortunately, we can't replace as we do not hold stocks of these items but we will refund via postal order. |
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| The slogan 'Melts in the mouth, not in the hand' has been used for both GALAXY MINSTRELS and M&M's chocolate (formerly TREETS). |