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

M&M's Cookies: Bite size

Product name: M&M’s Cookies: Bite size
Purchase details: £1.49 for a 51g bag (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 250 per bag
Country of origin: USA 

These M&M’s Cookies: Bite size were made by the Stauffer Biscuit Company and came in a cool metallic brown bag containing decent pictures of the biscuits within, along with a couple of the M&M’s characters. 

From the feel of the bag, I suspected that it didn’t contain many cookies and, on opening, I found this to be true. However, they were bigger than I expected and so I didn’t really feel short-changed by this.

These biscuits were basically mini cookies filled with M&M’s rather than chocolate chips – simples! In fact, I have a memory of baking something very similar in Food Technology back in the day. Understandably, these golden, knobbly cookies were very colourful, with a few M&M’s in each one. This colour spread, though, and so each sweet dyed the bits of biscuits in the immediate vicinity, and tiny flecks of colour also dusted the entire surface of each cookie. Although the chocolate in this product was encased in sugar shells, I was pleased to see that, in places, this had leaked out and looked delicious.

These Bite size biscuits had a decent cookie aroma and were really crunchy, and the size meant it was easy to properly munch on one before reaching for the next. The cookies themselves just tasted like standard shop-bought ones, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could taste a specific flavour from the M&M’s. I’d been expecting a generic chocolate taste but I found that it was a noticeable M&M’s one and I could also detect the sugar shells which added an extra sweetness.

This product provided a general cookie experience with an occasional chocolate hit that offered some softness and moisture. The idea was so simple but the result was so good and addictive – just what you’d want from this kind of product. 

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

M&M's Chocolate Bar

Product name: M&M’s Chocolate Bar
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 42.5g bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I’m starting this review with an apology to M&M’s. You see, I’ve always thought they’d fallen into the dreaded trap of using an apostrophe incorrectly. However, it turns out that they’re named after their creators (Mars and Murrie) which, therefore, makes the product their possession and voila – all is good in the world!

Anyway, on to one of the few things I consider to be more important than good grammar: chocolate! This M&M’s Chocolate Bar was a simple but yummy-looking concept of milk chocolate filled with M&M’s Minis and it was ‘distributed by Mars Chocolate North America’.

I loved the design of this bar. Given the variety of colours associated with the M&M’s brand, it was evident that this would be a pretty colourful bar and, sure enough, the bright candy shells (of which there were a lot) could be seen breaking through the chocolate’s surface. In addition, I adored the cute image that was imprinted on the chocolate’s surface as it was something fun and a bit different. The bar also snapped nicely along its perforated edges (although my picture shows a diagonal break due to unfortunate pre-opening damage!).

I was slightly disconcerted when I realised that the bar smelt more like dark chocolate than milk and I would be interested to know what the cocoa content was. However, it definitely tasted of milk chocolate, although it wasn’t overly sweet. The strong chocolate taste on offer was nicer than expected and left a really creamy aftertaste in the mouth.

Texturally, the chocolate melted well but the M&M’s Minis were a bit hard so I preferred to chew the bar. Really, it was a standard chocolate experience with added crispy bits. 

As much as I wanted to try this bar, in reality, I didn’t expect it to be anything special. I maintain that it wasn’t a sensational product, but the double-chocolate experience offered by the bar itself and the M&M’s, meant it was very enjoyable and a good addition to the brand. 

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