Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Crispy M&Ms (Returning 2015)

Crispy M&MsMars made an exciting announcement earlier this fall that they’re bringing M&Ms Crispy back to American stores starting January 2015.

Some folks at Mars were good enough to send me some samples (though not in the final packaging, so I included the press release version of the package design for reference).

You can read more on Crispy M&Ms in this write up I did a few years ago when I reviewed the European version. Basically, the American version of Crispy M&Ms came out in 1998 and were discontinued in 2005. They had their fans, and current social media allowed them to speak directly with Mars to voice their enthusiasm for the return of the candy.

M&Ms Crispy

The Crispy M&M, if you’ve never heard of them, are described as feature a unique, crispy center covered in creamy milk chocolate, enclosed in a colorful candy shell. The center is like a little cereal puff.

The new package will hold only 1.35 ounces, which is more than the Pretzel M&Ms which are only 1.14 ounces but less than the standard Milk Chocolate M&Ms which is 1.69 ounces.

M&Ms Crispy

The new version comes in the same color array as regular M&Ms: red, orange, yellow, blue, green and brown.

The pieces are much smaller than I expected, since I’ve had the European versions, which are closer to the size of a Peanut M&M. These are a similar diameter to a Milk Chocolate M&M, but puffy. But they’re also quite irregular. They’re lumpy and sometimes close to spherical, while others are long or pointy in spots.

They’re easy to bite and crunch, and extremely light. The center crunch is kind of like the flavor of a corn flake ... very mild with only a hint of salt and malt. But for the most part they’re neutral. The chocolate is sweet, but otherwise generic. The crunchy shell provides a different sweetness compared to the chocolate and a different more brittle crunchy compared to the centers.

Overall, it’s a pleasant snack that I have no trouble scooping by the handful. But it made me wish for something else ... I wanted a Malted Milk M&M. This is not so hard for Mars to manage, they’d just take the Maltesers they make in the UK and give them a colorful candy shell.

Crispy M&Ms
Canadian Crispy M&Ms circa 2006

The earlier versions of Crispy M&Ms used a blue wrapper, but that has since been usurped by the Pretzel M&Ms, so the 2015 version will be in lime green packages. I can’t say for certain that these are better or similar to the originals, as it’s been a long time since I’ve had them. They definitely fit into a niche that’s not well served in the chocolate market right now, which is the crossover with snacks. Here’s what the Crispy M&Ms announcement said about it:

Consumers’ desire for new textures has resulted in the creation of a new Crispy Crunchy Segment within the Chocolate Category. This segment is growing 1.8x the rate of the Chocolate Category and 1.7x the rate of the Non-Chocolate Snack Category with an average of 9.2 percent per year increase in category sales.3 Approximately 40 percent of the Crispy Crunchy Segment growth has been driven by the bite-sized format, of which M&M’S® Brand is the market leader.

M&Ms briefly had Mint Crispy M&Ms as a limited edition.

Yes, Crispy M&Ms
Crispy M&Ms made in France and purchased in Germany circa 2012

The European Crispy M&Ms featured mostly natural colors for the shells, which meant a slightly muted palette. Natural colors can sometimes bring their own flavors, though, so some folks can tell the difference between the colors (I can usually pick out the yellows and oranges by taste). It would have been interesting, though, for Mars to make this revival of Crispy M&Ms with the European colors, just to see if that would catch in the US.

I’m curious to see how Crispy M&Ms do this time around. The survival rate for revived candies isn’t great, but the success rates for completely new candies aren’t any better. I have no stats for that, just personal experience paging through the blog at home many candies I’ve reviewed over the past 9 years that don’t exist any longer. Maybe read about M&Ms Premiums or compare the early Mega M&Ms that were discontinued, and the new version

crispymmsUPDATE December 19, 2014: Yesterday I was in CVS and found the Crispy M&Ms at the checkout stand.

They are far more consistent (less bumpy) than the samples I used for this review. Though they weren’t any smaller than the smallest from my sample, they were all small pieces. This could just be the way that they were packaged, that the weight difference means that the like sized pieces end up on the bagging platform together. I would need to buy more bags to be sure, but it’s something I’ll keep my eye out for in other reviews. I did eat a whole bag and though it’s not very much at 1.35 ounces, it was filling enough.

Related Candies

  1. Trader Joe’s Crispy Rice Milk Chocolate
  2. Peanut M&Ms Intense 65% Cacao
  3. Ghirardelli Milk & Crisp Chocolate Eggs
  4. Crispy M&Ms
  5. Pretzel M&Ms
  6. M&Ms Premiums
  7. Mint Crisp M&Ms (Indiana Jones)
  8. M&Ms Line


Name: M&Ms Crispy
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: samples from Mars
Price: $1.09 retail
Size: 1.35 ounces
Calories per ounce: 130
Categories: Candy, Mars, Chocolate, Cookie, Kosher, M&Ms, 6-Tempting, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:09 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewMarsChocolateCookieKosherM&Ms6-TemptingUnited States

Comments
  1. As far as I’m concerned, all those chocolate products with additional ingredients—aerated, crispy rice, pretzel, peanut, toffee, etc.—are nothing more than an excuse to substitute expensive chocolate for cheaper ingredients and give you less for your money.

    Comment by Midge on 11/13/14 at 8:15 pm #
  2. The colour change of the packet is interesting - here in Australia, our crispy M&M’s have a royal blue packet, while lime green is used for Mix-Ups (a combination of milk, peanut and crispy). We don’t have pretzel M&M’s here though, so that might be why.

    Size-size, it sounds like yours will be similar in size to ours - a little bigger than a milk M&M.

    Comment by Danielle on 11/18/14 at 12:59 am #
  3. Is Canada to be excluded from the resurrection of Crispy M&M’s? Ooo.. Zombie M&M’s. Quick, get your marketing team on that one.

    Comment by Marc Mailhot on 6/09/15 at 6:47 pm #
  4. U FUDGING WHAT M8! (sorry)

    Comment by Sally Sails on 2/25/16 at 6:48 am #
  5. Why are the crispy so expensive?  I can get hand made chocolate candy for less money.  Why?

    Comment by Sue Sullivan on 7/03/17 at 5:25 pm #
  6. Sue Sullivan:
    Most likely it’s because it’s a difference flavor, would be why it’s more expensive. That would be the obvious reason since it’s a “special” flavor.

    Comment by SJCarras on 7/05/17 at 8:01 am #
  7. Different flavor?  They used to be the same cost a few months ago….now they are triple the cost!!!!

    Comment by Sue Sullivan on 7/06/17 at 3:31 am #
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