M&M's Mint

Product name: M&M’s Mint
Purchase details: £1.35 for a 42.5g bag (United States Grocery)
Calories: 210 per bag
Country of origin: USA 

I seemed to really get my money’s worth with my Living Social voucher since this bag of M&M’s Mint was another purchase I made on the same trip to United States Grocery.

When I was about 10, I absolutely adored mint-flavoured chocolate, with the peppermint Nestlé Aero bar being my absolute favourite. For some reason, as I’ve got older, mint has been a variety of chocolate I’ve been less inclined to choose, despite still liking it. I think this may partly be down to most mint products using dark chocolate rather than milk but, even then, I still find the combination enjoyable!

Made by Mars, these ‘chocolate candies’ were made with ‘real’ dark chocolate (milk chocolate and semisweet chocolate were mentioned on the ingredients list) and came in a wrapper that was a lovely shade of mid-green that was like spearmint and, therefore, very fitting for the flavour on offer.

The M&M’s themselves came in two different shades of green shells and they looked really attractive – the only downside was that the paler green made the white letter ‘M’ on each candy harder to see. This was obviously only a minor detail, though, and I loved how the sweets were pretty big, containing a lot of deep-coloured chocolate, whilst maintaining a relatively thick shell.

The aroma from this product was incredibly strong and minty but there was a sweetness to it too which differentiated it from, say, the freshness associated with chewing gum. It was quite a standard scent for mint chocolate but that didn’t take away from its pleasantness or strength – it made me want to tuck in!

The mint flavour was located in the chocolate itself and tasted just as powerful as it smelt, to the extent that it made my tongue tingle a little bit, and there was also a slight bitterness from the chocolate. The crispy shells added a little bit of sweetness but, if I’m honest, not quite enough for me as I found the mint a little bit too strong. However, the taste was very similar to after-dinner mints, so it certainly wasn’t unpleasant.

As an alternative, it was also possible to suck on the sweets, resulting in a creamier-tasting chocolate. When eaten this way, the cooling mint element gradually got stronger as I got deeper into each lump of slightly rough chocolate. Personally, though, I found it more enjoyable to crunch on a handful at a time.

These weren’t my favourite variety of M&M’s but they weren’t short of flavour and they were very moreish. There were quite a lot in the pack but I can’t say they lasted long!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10