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Tasty facts you might not know about M&M's

M&M’s are one of the world’s most-loved candies. The colourful hard-shell chocolates can be found everywhere from shopping malls to the White House and space. Here are some tasty facts you might not know about the double Ms, including where the idea came from, why the characters had a makeover and how two workers fell into a vat of chocolate.

A chocolatey mishap occurred at the M&M's factory

In a turn of events that could’ve been lifted straight from the Seventies classic film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, two workers found themselves stuck fast after they fell into a vat of chocolate at the Mars M&M factory in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. The waist-high (Augustus) gloop was so thick that lifting them out the way they came in proved impossible. A fire crew had to resort to cutting a hole in the side of the tank to rescue the pair, who were sent to hospital for checks.

M&M’s stands for Mars and Murrie

Ever wondered what M&M’s stands for? The answer is Mars and Murrie, referring to Forrest Mars (the son of the founder of Mars, Frank Mars) and Bruce Murrie (the son of longtime Hershey President William Murrie). The unlikely pair went into business together at the start of the Second World War in 1939. Nowadays, the brands are archrivals.

M&M’s used to contain Hershey chocolate

In the beginning the little candies were made with Hershey chocolate. Murrie was able to promise Mars a reliable cocoa supply despite wartime rationing, so the duo agreed to collaborate. However, post-war Mars bought back Murrie’s 20% share and eventually stopped using Hershey chocolate.

The idea for M&M’s came from Spain

To understand where the idea came from, we have to rewind a few years. Fed up with his father, Forrest Mars moved to Europe to set up his own business and, on a trip to Southern Spain (possibly accompanied by Rowntree who launched Smarties) he saw soldiers eating chocolate. At the time, warm weather was a problem for the chocolate industry, but these candies had sugar shells that prevented them from melting. This is where Mars got the ingenious idea from and the slogan “melts in your mouth, not in your hand”.

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