Bar Form Is Not An Improvement

I have yet to taste an M&Ms (or any candy coated chocolate treat) bar that's actually an improvement. It seems like an odd thing to do if you think about it. You take a colourful candy and hide it in brown. It's like building a giant colourful sign for your business, then building a building right in front of it. It even ruins the eating experience as well. For some reason when you put candies like this in a chocolate bar, the candy coating turns into a gritty texture after a few bites. I'm glad they're trying new things, but I'm not sure this is really working.

Check out my latest M&Ms bar review to see why it doesn't work.

Candy Commercials?

 I've been sharing candy commercials on this blog for years, and I've realized that there really not making many candy commercials anymore. It's too bad.

I Both Love and Hate the M&M's Stores

 

On a recent trip to London, Allison and I decided to visit the M&M’s store near Piccadilly Circus. I’ve visited a few M&M’s stores in the past, but for some reason this visit made me think a little bit more about these stores. Who came up with the idea of building a store dedicated to one particular candy? Why do they sell more merchandise than candy itself? Are these stores even run by the candy company?

I’ve personally had love/hate relationship with these stores. I’ll be honest, I like M&M’s, but they’re nowhere near my favourite candy. One of the issues is I feel like there’s a great potential to offer a bunch of different versions of this simple treat. While they have a few different varieties, there are many other candies out in the world with many more varieties, like Kit Kat or Pocky. There was a short period where M&M’s did go a little crazy with alternate varieties, but they really only have a handful of standard flavours out there. All of this can also be considered unimportant since when you visit an M&M’s store you’re sure to notice that they don’t actually sell much candy.

This is where things get a little odd for me. I’m a little turned off by the lack of candy at most M&M’s stores. While they do offer some treats for sale, it’s not the main focus of the store. The main focus is candy themed merchandise. Strangely, I would argue that there’s a good percentage of merchandise at these stores that isn’t even really themed to the candy itself. At almost all of the M&M’s stores I’ve visited, I’ve found a lot of merchandise that’s themed to the store itself and its geographic location. I know that places like Hard Rock Cafe have built a brand based on shirts featuring the various locations of their stores, but I feel like there’s something more to them. Most of the tourist themed merchandise at the M&M’s stores just feels really disconnected from the namesake candy.

The part that’s odd for me is the fact that while I don’t like the fact that the M&M’s store sells more merchandise than candy, I personally own several pieces of merchandise. I’ve even been known to purchase some of the more tourist heavy stuff. While I wish there was more candy at these stores, I really like some of the merchandise that they sell. The great thing about M&M’s over other candy companies for merchandise is the fact that one of the key features of the candy is the colours. They’ve managed even to transfer the colours into characters. So this allows for some really fun merchandise.  I’ll also say that all (or at least most) of the merchandise I’ve ever purchased at an M&M’s store has lasted me a pretty long time.

I also don’t mind the decorations at many M&M’s stores. I think it follows the same rules as the merchandise in that the candy offers many colours, so it allows the store designers to be colourful as well. The pallet of colours and design of the candy are simple and kind of beautiful (just look at a bowl of M&M’s and tell me you’re not impressed).  The M&M’s mascots also give the store some appeal, creating fun little scenarios as well as photo opportunities.

I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t mind the M&M’s stores at all, but I wish they sold more candy. It would be great if the stores offered some limited or exclusive flavours of M&M’s. As it stands, many of the stores offer a variety of colours, but very limited flavours.

I also haven’t answered the question about who might actually be running these stores. I assume that it’s Mars (the manufacturers of M&M’s), but I also imagine that this is something that could be licensed to outside retailers. I could dig deeper, but honestly I don’t know if it’s that big a deal. I don’t feel like the people who run these stores are doing a particularly bad job, I just wish they could include a little more room for candy, and maybe work with the candy makers for exclusive products.

There's Something Wrong With These M&M's

Keep in mind that I'm not a legal expert, but I feel like a line or two might have been crossed.

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Makin' M&Ms

 I wonder if the people working at this factory get sick of seeing pretty colours all day?

If you like learning about candy and snacks, make sure to pick up a collection or a single issue of my comic called Snack Facts.

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Another Classic Christmas Candy Commercial

It's not as charming as last week's Hershey's Kiss Bell commercial, but I think this M&Ms commercial is still pretty cute.

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It Depends Where You Are

One of the questions I get from people about doing a website where I review candy is, "Won't you run out of candies to review?". There's an assumption that everything we see on our grocery store shelves is all the candies available in the entire world. This week's review reminded me that even when you have the "same candy" it's not always exactly the same. There are plenty of candies to taste, and even those classic candies might not be the same from place to place. So don't worry, I don't see myself running out of candies to review anytime soon.

Click here to find out if M&Ms are the same everywhere.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all my new candy finds.

You can also follow me on Patreon to if you want to sample a few yourself.

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I Feel Dirty

I feel like the slide when the peanut is jumping into the pool is kind of X-rated.

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It's Time To Look Back At A Couple of Classic Candies

Normally for In Hindsight I re-taste a candy I reviewed a while back and see if I still think it's the same. Today I've decided to not only taste a couple of classic candies I've already reviewed, but also compare them to each other to find out which one is better.

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The M&Ms Dream

When I was a kid, I really wished that this is was how M&Ms were made. Now I wish it even more.

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Time To Mix It Up

Over the years I've had a love/hate relationship with candy varieties. In the early creation of this site I was always disappointed when a candy company came out with a different version of a classic candy. Today I'm a little more hopeful and excited. I feel like candy companies have become better at creating different versions of their classic treats. I feel like in the past the variations would always be really simple, like slapping a bit of caramel on it, or making it dark instead of milk chocolate. Today these versions are much more sophisticated, and I give a lot of credit to the Kit Kat bar. Specifically the folks at Kit Kat Japan who broke the mold when it comes to changing up a classic.

Click here to read about the latest M&M's variation.

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That Kid Has An Eating Problem

I've eaten some messy candy in my day, but this kid takes the cake.

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M&Ms Perform a Service

I think I've been called "Mr Chocolate Mess" before in my life.

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M&M's Super Bowl Commercial Was Pretty Good

I don't always enjoy Super Bowl commercials, but this one made me smile.

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Insane Candy In The Media - M&M's Does It Again

I think that the M&M's characters (in their newest 3D animation form) are one of the best current mascots for any candy. They shine particularly strong during any holiday season.

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Candy In The Media - There Are So Many Things That Disturbe Me About This Commercial

Don't get me wrong, I think this commercial is funny, and I think it sells M&Ms fairly well. You just can't get around how weird it is. It starts off with a weird premise, I mean who in the world is going to the mall to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap?

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Candy In The Media - Christmas Edition

This is one of the most clever looks at the existence of Santa Clause, or the M&M guys.

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Best Variety - M&Ms

All this month we're looking at some different treats that offer interesting variations.  Last week we looked at Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, and before that we looked at Pocky and Kit Kats.  Today we're looking at a fairly unique treat, that's been around so long we might forget how unique it is, M&Ms.  Unfortunately M&Ms are a copycat candy, they likely were inspired by the British Smarties.  Smarties are a candy coated chocolate that was created several years before the M&M.  The real difference in the two candies is the choice of colours (although with custom M&Ms this might not be true), thickness of the shell, and in some cases the flavour.  M&Ms have also branched out a lot more than Smarties.

Smarties have really only come out with one variety, and that's putting their popular candy into a chocolate bar.  M&Ms on the other hand have branched out a great deal.  M&M's might also be considered one of the first candy companies to produce a variation.  M&Ms peanut came out in 1954, just under 15 years after the original "plain" M&Ms came out.  This variety proved to be very popular, and today is considered just as original as the milk chocolate filled variety.  While M&Ms diversified fairly early on, they didn't get extremely experimental till much more recently.

In the last 15 or 20 years there has been a renaissance in the M&Ms variety world.  It started with adding a few different nuts to the center, and has expanded ever since. Similar to the Kit Kat, M&Ms have two different kinds of variations, long term and limited edition.  Since starting out with variations M&Ms have introduced a few varieties that have stuck around.  Peanut butter, Almond, and crispy M&Ms are still around, and are likely not going anywhere soon.  There have also been a few varieties that are limited edition, and many that seem to be tied in with movies.  Some of  these movie tie-ins make sense, like Ogre sized M&Ms that tie in with the movie Shrek.  However a few of the limited edition movie tie-ins are not so clear, like Peanut Butter and Jam M&Ms tied in with Transformers, and mint crisp M&Ms tied in with Indian Jones.

So far I've tasted 11 different variety of M&Ms, and the one thing I can say about almost all of them is that they've never really deviated from their original format.  With some of the other treats I've discussed in this series there have been some variety that are almost so different that you might have a hard time saying they're a variant as opposed to being a completely different treat all together.  M&Ms variants seem to stick to the format, a small candy coated candy, often with chocolate involved.  With this limitation, it's surprising not only the number of variations, but in the diversity of each of these variations.  There are different textures and flavours in most of these treats, and you'd likely have no problem telling them apart in a blind taste test.

In fact that would be really fun.  Take a bag of every variety of M&M ever made and put them in one bowl.  Then spend the night randomly picking out M&Ms and guessing what variety they are.

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Candy in the Media

All this month we're posting videos about my favorite Christmas candies. As an adult, M&Ms became a regular staple of my Christmas collection.

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M&Ms Candle VS Candy

It seems that candle industry has really taken a liking to the candy industry.  With the trend over the last few years of crazy smelling candles candy is a logical step.  Candy provides a familiar smell, and scientifically it's been proven that a smell can bring back memories. By this logic when you burn a Snickers candle you should remember all the times you've eaten a Snickers bar.  It could be a recent memory, or even a childhood memory.  Many candies are also brightly coloured, and this too works with the candle industry.

While this seems like a logical step, and it's truly something I stand behind, the question is how does that candle really compare to the real thing?  For the health conscious that don't want to eat a sweet treat, will the candle fill the gap?  Will a simple candle fill in the craving?  More importantly, can you even match the taste/smell of candy in a candle?  With the recent discovery of these M&Ms candles, I decided to put this to the test.

My first challenge was to decide which candle I would buy.  These M&Ms candles come in the same range of colours that are available in the candies.  There was one difference however, it seemed that the brightly coloured candles were not scented the same as the candies.  The red was cherry, the green was pear (I think), and so on.  This was pretty disappointing, why wouldn't you theme the smells with the various M&Ms flavours.  There's plenty to choose from, and some might make for a unique candle experience.  How about a chocolate pretzel candle, or a peanut butter and chocolate candle?  That would smell great, and keep the theme going with the M&Ms theme.  At this point it seems all we have is a bunch of scented candles with an M&Ms packaging.

Fortunately the brown candle seemed to be chocolate scented.  I considered this fortunate because the store I bought the candle in, also happened to sell plain M&Ms, so it was one stop shopping.  I gave the candle a preliminary sniff and it certainly had a chocolate smell to it.  So the only thing left to figure out is if while burning, the chocolate smell was the same, and just as satisfying as eating plain M&Ms.

That night after dinner I decided to set the mood, I lit the candle and pored my M&Ms into a bowl.  I have to say that eating candy in candle light is really nice.  It adds a certain calmness and relaxation to the whole candy experience.  It seems that the candle might actually be enhancing my experience, although not in the way I thought it would.

I decided to start by letting the candle burn for a while.  I think it's only fair to let the wax melt enough that it's giving off as much scent as possible.  My official starting point would be once more than 75% of the wax on the top of the candle was liquid.  By that point I think most candles are giving off about as much scent as possible.  It took about 10 minutes to get to a stage where I thought it was fair, so I decided to lean over the candle and take a big sniff.

It was very disappointing.  The smell of this particular candle was weak, very weak.  I had to sit over it and breath for a while just to get an idea of the smell.  While this doesn't reflect the entire candy themed candle industry, it does say something about it.  I think candy companies are more than happy to licence their candy to just about anything, even if it doesn't reflect the quality of their candy properly.  It seems that the candy marketing teams don't understand how much better it would be if the candy really came through.  Just because it's chocolate, doesn't mean it's M&Ms.

After a few minutes of sniffing, I decided that I had an idea of the chocolate scent coming off of the candle.  I decided that it was a good time to take a mouth full of M&Ms and see if the chocolate smell was at the very least comparable.  As with the strength of the smell, the comparison was also way off.  The candle smelled like a much sweeter chocolate, while the M&Ms tasted creamier.  There was also the lack of candy coating in the smell of the candle. This is a strong part of the M&Ms flavour, and the sweetness of the chocolate candy didn't match it one bit.

I think expanding the candy industry into other products is a great idea.  With their bright colours, strong flavours, and fun smells, candy has so much you could work with.  I'm not saying that all candy themed items have to fill out all three criteria, in fact my favorite mug and drinking tumbler are both candy related and neither taste or smell like their candy.  I just think that if it's appropriate to match more than one criteria you should.  Lip balm is a great example of how this often works really well.  I'm disappointed at these M&M themed candles because it's obvious that a candle company just bought the rights to use the theme, but didn't even attempt to give the user a decent experience.

If anybody else has had a positive experience with candy themed candles, let me know.  I'd like to know who's doing this right.

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