Review of the New 'M&M's Premiums': Fancy-Pants, Expensive, and Kinda Gross
Do you find M&M's annoyingly lowbrow? You're in luck! Mars has launched a posh line of M&M's called M&M's Premiums that they hope will "attract a young, fashion-conscious consumer to the product," the New York Times reports. The candies will even make an appearance at New York Fashion Week in September.
These novel M&M's bear scant resemblance to the originals. They are made from an entirely different chocolate recipe and sport a speckled metallic skin instead of the famous uniform-colored M&M candy shell. That means there's no crunch, just an exterior sheen.
They come in five flavors—mint chocolate, mocha, triple chocolate, raspberry almond, and chocolate almond. We tried mint chocolate ("sinfully good white chocolate mint wrapped in dark chocolate") and triple chocolate ("truly tempting layers of milk chocolate, white chocolate and dark chocolate").
Inside a mint chocolate M&M and a triple M&M.
Truly tempting they are not. The newfangled candy has an unappealingly viscous mouthfeel and none of that lovely crunch that make original M&M's so fun to eat. They are also cloyingly sweet and completely one-dimensional in flavor.
The quality of the chocolate is too lackluster to warrant its "premium" label and price—a six-ounce package of upscale M&M's costs $3.99, or more than $10 a pound. For that price, I want damn good chocolate. Instead, I got cheap Easter candy-quality chocolate.
Will you try them? Have you already?
Previously
Indiana Jones Crisp-Mint M&Ms: Meh
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32 Comments:
Yep, tried the raspberry almond. Very fake raspberry flavor, mushy/chewy chocolate texture AND (horror of horrors) they VERY EASILY melt in your hand!!! I still ate them, because I'll eat almost any chocolate, but they were a real let-down.
peachfish at 3:40PM on 08/11/08
Lame.
JigsawJones at 3:54PM on 08/11/08
The lack of crispy shell (which was a shock to my mouth, by the way) is why I'll never buy these again.
missbhavens at 3:58PM on 08/11/08
Ew. Raspberry almond sounds gross, but I don't like faux raspberry flavor in ANYTHING so I'm not the target market.
They truly look like mistakes. I'm not interested. I'll take the crunchy shell, please.
AuntJone at 3:58PM on 08/11/08
Don't forget to check out the insanely gross nutritional facts as well! It's about 1000 per package, I believe.
capndesign at 4:00PM on 08/11/08
Well, I won't be buyng any now.
Who actually thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the shell? Was there no market-testing of these things at all?
MerMade07 at 4:02PM on 08/11/08
They look like someone left them in the pocket of their jeans then ran them through the washing machine.
Southern_bella at 4:03PM on 08/11/08
I'd try them if someone else offered them to me. But no crunch? Booo!
OneWallKitchen at 4:08PM on 08/11/08
wow, too bad they're gross. but you've just proven that photos do lie, then. because your photo of the candies at the top is AMAZING! wow! i just want to make that my desktop wallpaper!
happygomarni at 4:17PM on 08/11/08
No! The one and only point of M&Ms - peanut - is to consume as many as possible in the pursuit of trying to extract an intact nut from the crunchy coating. And again, and again... :)
sarahdlr at 4:26PM on 08/11/08
I'm quite glad to see this, I saw these at the store this weekend and had considered picking some up next week. I'll be skipping them now :-)
sylphon at 4:34PM on 08/11/08
I liked them quite a bit. I though that the Mocha was the best, but mostly because there are no other easy-to-find Mocha lentils, so it satisfies a gaping hole in my candy repertoire.
Mint was second on my list, the coolness of it and the creaminess, also better ingredients than Andes Mints (which uses hydrogenated oils instead of cocoa butter) ... the others were okay (but I detested the raspberry).
I think the metallic coating is a bit of overkill (they look like eyeshadow samples to me) but I grant that they look different from other M&Ms so there's no confusing them.
I didn't miss the shell, but I wasn't expecting a shell.
cybele at 4:42PM on 08/11/08
I didn't taste any mocha at all, and I would eat the Triples if someone gave them to me, but I wouldn't pay for them again, or bother trying the others.
Cary at 4:50PM on 08/11/08
duh...
ronzoni at 5:03PM on 08/11/08
I was intrigued after reading the review on Candy Blog, and my local Target had them on sale, so I picked up the Triple Chocolate and the Mocha varieties. The mocha wasn't too bad -- while the chocolate was bland and the consistency disturbing (no hard shell? what's the point?), there was a hint of mocha that I enjoyed. Triple chocolate, on the other hand, was simply terrible. It was LESS flavorful than the normal M&Ms, and although the jewel-inspired coating is pretty, its waxy film is almost nauseating. Not only will I not buy them again, I'll use what's left in my boxes to warn others before they sink the cost.
One last note: My dog watched my husband eating a handful of these last night, and actually barked EACH TIME he lifted on to his mouth. I think it was her attempt at a warning.
krissyc at 5:47PM on 08/11/08
I like M&M's as they are and have always been and think of them as classic rather than lowbrow. The crunchy coating is part of their understated charm. :)
holdthemayo at 6:43PM on 08/11/08
Target was sampling them one Saturday and we tried the triple chocolate. We had the same reaction. "Where's the crispy shell?" and "Chocolate chips taste better than this."
valarie at 7:18PM on 08/11/08
I feel that if they wanted to market to "young, fashion-conscious consumers" they would just start selling bags containing only one color. That way they can just get their favorite color.
Just make sure not to accidentally mix one wrong one in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgR-l3fhygw
wunami at 10:42PM on 08/11/08
Pfffffft. M&Ms already reached their apex with the dark chocolate + almond version.
piccola at 10:56PM on 08/11/08
I thought that the triple chocolate ones were not too horrible. They looked nice, and they were (I thought) a bit better than a plain M&M, but not worth the extra money.
sidebernie at 9:20PM on 08/12/08
What a GREAT idea...being able to purchase a whole bag of your favorite color of M&M's, why aren't you doing marketing for Mars? :)
I was going to purchase these new "designer" candies and opted not to because I thought my kids would not be at all to happy with the "adult" flavors, and after reading these comments I am all to happy I stuck with the classic!
BarbaraCrabtree at 11:17PM on 08/14/08
You can order M&M colors to order...just click the link on the main M&M site. OR, more fun, go to the M&M factory/showroom in Vegas.
DeepCreekPagan at 1:24PM on 08/15/08
I add my vote to the Yucky column. I purchased these and was very disappointed in the lack of the candy coating. And the amount of coloring used to make the outer shell look so fancy tastes nasty. As someone already mentioned it is waxy, but it also has a distinct "coloring" taste like you get if you put too much food coloring in frosting or something.
I am kind of amazed at how bad of a miss this product is coming from such a major company.
vox8ight at 5:06PM on 08/15/08
I'm not much of a chocolate fan but I do enjoy M&Ms. These look strange and after reading all the comments, I won't even waste my money or my chewing time on these lol.
sassylady at 11:06PM on 08/15/08
I love iridescence on some things. Dunno about food.
That's too bad that these were gross. I *really* enjoy the regular, nonposh versions of cherry M&Ms, as well as the mint chocolate M&Ms. Figured the raspberry ones would be just as good, if not better. :(
Cassaendra at 6:17AM on 08/16/08
Where doi= cherry M&Ms conme from Cassaendra? I assume it is not just that they are red. I love cherry flavor usually. Although today I sampled some cherry tea from the new tea store in the mall and it really did taste like that childhood medicine my mother gave me - nasty.
JohnFred at 7:59PM on 08/17/08
I am very much a chocolate snob, and I have this to say, M&Ms, plain, or peanut butter, are some of the very few "cheap chocolates" I will eat. I find them to be quite simple, delightful, and not too sweet. When I heard of this new "Premium M&M" I was very excited.. now I am very disappointed to see that they are disliked so much. I have not tried them but The shell was deff overkill.
I believe Mars made a large blunder with all the white chocolate. Most are looking more towards dark chocolate because of the health benefits and it's not as sweet. They should have done different levels of dark chocolate, made them less sweet, I would have eaten some of these, but I don't like white chocolate, it must be a very high quality for me to even try it.
I don't think M&M's should give up on this. They should give it another try, or make different flavors.
Hazim at 2:22AM on 08/18/08
I really like the raspberry almond ones & I frankly didn't notice there wasn't any shell. They are fun and different & I don't expect them to be like regular m & m's just because they are made by the same company.
kdroste at 8:12AM on 08/18/08
that's like the stupidest thing i've ever heard of, M&Ms for fashion conscious people, WTF??? most fashion conscious people don't even eat chocolate or anything else that has more than 10 calories!
They're M&Ms not a car! how can a candy be "low-brow" that doesn't even make any sense!
anniehall4000 at 10:52AM on 08/18/08
you guys are crazy these new M&M's are awesome! I especially like the minty ones. Better than Andes!
DINOTHEGREAT at 2:29PM on 08/29/08
I thought the mocha ones were pretty tasty, but like many others; I was also expecting the candy shell. You can buy them at Walmart for $2.00, not the $3.99 suggested retail price...
supernova187 at 11:01AM on 08/30/08
i just bought the M&M premium chocolate almond candies and i have to say they are better then a hershys chocolate bar with almonds.
you get a full almond in every one and they are sooooooooo very addicting.
now if they would only bring back the WHITE CHOCOLATE M&Ms back!!!!!!
joe0967 at 11:03PM on 09/06/08