In 1941, forrest Mars Sr., of the mars candy company, stuck a deal with bruce Murrie,son of famed Hershey president William Murrie, to develop a hard shelled candy with chocolates at center. Mars needed Hershey’s chocolate because he anticipates there would be a chocolate shortage resulting from WWII, which turned out to be correct. As such, the deal gave Murrie a 20% stake in the newly developed M&M ; this stake was bought out by mars when chocolate rationing ended at the end of the war but the named remained M&Ms for “Mars & Murre”.
They originally came in cardboard tubes
It turns out the plastic tubes that M&M’s Minis come in today are the closest thing the company has to its original packaging. The cardboard tubes M&M’s originally came in made them easy to pour and ship, and it added to their durability. They were a hit with World War II soldiers, many of whom carried them around in their rations and remained loyal after the war was over. Not until 1948 did Mars come out with the dark brown bags that are used today.
Peanut flavored M&M’S came out in 1954.
Nowadays M&M’s are available in everything from dark chocolate to pretzel varieties, and in sizes that range from mega to mini. But the first spin-off was the tried-and-true peanut M&M, developed by Mars less than 15 years after his original candies began rolling off the production line. They were only available in tan at first, than in 1960 came available in the same colors as the plain variety. Fun fact: Mars was actually allergic to peanuts, and so he never actually got to taste his creation.
Staff Contributor
Rabia Arshad
