Snack Review – M&M Premiums

Let’s face it, part of getting through a night of any heavy tech work (coding, editing, or DVD authoring) is good snack options. When I see something new it’s in my nature to want to try it out. And from time to time a snack shows up that has a little bit of technology inside of it. So when I noticed an over-priced premium version of M&M’s in the snack aisle I was curious.  What could possibly make a 6 oz package of M&M’s worth $4? Once they went on sale 2 for 1, I was overtaken by temptation and bought a couple of boxes.  oooohhhh.. look a the pretty package.  (UPDATED)

Well, the bottom line is that the pretty package is about all they have going for them. I’m not impressed. They’re basically mediocre chocolate candy and there is no reasonable excuse for them to be priced so high. Even at “half-price” they’re priced too high.  And they are NOT really M&M’s, they are just called M&M’s. To explain my point, first we should to examine the 1940’s technology behind the original M&M’s candy which is described in this thrilling commercial:

In case you’re unaware, M&M’s is a candy that melts in your mouth and not in your hands.  This is accomplished by wrapping the chocolate in a hard candy shell – which has a higher melting temperature than chocolate.  The candy shell is actually my favorite part of the M&M – which is why I like the original Hershey’s Kissables, which have a thicker candy coating than M&M’s.

But these Premium M&M’s don’t have any candy coating. They have a very interesting looking marbling coating which seems to be printed on. But it’s not a hard candy shell and therefore they are not really M&M’s!  Who’s idea was this? Having various flavors of premium M&M’s isn’t such a bad idea, but at least keep them in the M&M family.  These most certainly will melt in your hands – therefore NOT M&M’s.  (ok, maybe that point is made).

What about the flavor? I bought Chocolate Almond and Triple Chocolate. They’re good – “they don’t suck” – but nothing really all that premium about them except that the marbled exteriors look a bit rich.  For flavor I’d rather just get the regular Almond M&M’s or maybe it’s time to buy a bag of Kissables.  (unless this is true).

UPDATE:

While I stand by my assessment of the so called premium – so called M&M’s. I couldn’t help but go pick up a bag of Kissables and see if they actually did change the formula, or if that article (link) is just bogus. Turns out my bag (purchased at Walgreen’s in Vegas) is in fact the same old recipe and has not been replaced with a waxy replicant of chocolate.  As far as I can tell the candyblog article is just not true.  Or possibly it’s just trolling by the M&M/Mars company.