The Good: Great taste, Decent bulk package
The Bad: Limited availability is somewhat baffling.
The Basics: The Limited Edition Seasonally Available Mint M&M's are arguably the best M&M’s flavor, making one wonder why they are only available around the Christmas holiday!
What happens when you combine two of my favorite things in the world? Usually, it is a spectacular success or a bone-crushing failure. In the case of Mint M&M’s, which combine my love of chocolate mint with my appreciation of seasonally-available, limited edition candies, we have a rousing success that makes me wonder why M&M’s/Mars does not just keep the flavor around the whole year round!
Quite simply, Mint M&M’s are the best flavor the company produces and they ought to be a staple flavor instead of just available for the winter holidays.
Basics
M&M's Mint are a seasonally-available bagged M&M's product, designed to appeal to all consumers. The 9.9 ounce bag is maroon with a picture of an M&M character (Green) dressed in boots and a hat in a snow globe! Inside, the round chocolates are red, white and green. The Mint flavored M&Ms follow essentially the same formula as regular M&M's in that each candy is about 1/2" in diameter, making them more or less bite sized. These differ from the standard M&M's in that they are a bit thicker, about 3/8" as opposed to the standard 1/4" candies.
The Mint M&M's come in only the three colors and have the standard M&M's "M" printed on them.
Ease Of Preparation
These are candies that have been made by the fine folks at M&M's/Mars and as a result, preparing them is as easy as opening the bag and removing the chocolates and putting them in your mouth. It does not need to be any more complicated than that! M&M's Mint come ready-to-eat and require no preparation save removal from the bag.
Taste
M&M’s Mint flavored chocolates are inscrutable when it comes to their scent. They have almost no actual aroma and as such they made me worried initially that they would not live up on the taste front.
Overcoming my trepidations and placing a Mint Chocolate M&M into my mouth, I was soon ecstatic. The sweet, hard shell melted away to present a vibrant, minty flavor to me. The mint flavor is peppermint, cut very nicely by the sweet milk chocolate filling. The two flavors play off one another to create an exceptionally sweet chocolate that is absolutely delightful! If the chocolate were darker, it might accent the chocolate flavor more, but with mint as the dominant flavor, these little candies are quite wonderful!
Nutrition
Obviously, these are candies and the folks at M&M's/MARS do not intend for consumers to live on them. They are a snack and not an overly nutritious one at that. A serving is considered 1.5 oz. and the bag has about seven servings in it. With the standard recommended serving size, the candy has 9 grams of fat! That's 14% of the RDA of fat, with 25% of the RDA coming from the five grams of saturated fat! While there is 4% of the RDA of calcium and two grams of protein, there is no denying that this candy is not good for you and one ought to use it as a dessert occasionally, not a meal ever.
The lack of health benefits ought to be obvious from the ingredients list, which includes a bunch of artificial colors and dyes. Even so, the main ingredients are milk chocolate, sugar and cornstarch. These are made on machines which may also work on peanuts and wheat, so those with allergies are duly warned.
Storage/Clean-up
Just as with the preparation, M&M's Mint candies are low stress when it comes to storage and cleanup. Storage is simple when the candies are kept in their bag at room temperature or cooler. Kept cool and out of direct sunlight, these confections have an indefinite shelf life (there is a production code, but no expiration date on my package). Resealed properly and kept cool, they ought to remain good.
M&M's were made famous by the catchphrase "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" and the M&M's Mint seem to live up to that. As a result, they should not require any cleanup as they are very clean to eat. However, should one melt clothing one is wearing, consult a fabric guide for what removes chocolate from that type of garment. Otherwise, melted Mint M&M's should wipe right off non-porous surfaces with a warm, wet cloth.
Overall
Mint M&M's are light and delicious and easily replace the Premium Mint Chocolate M&M’s (reviewed here!), M&M’s/Mars released once upon a time. Stock up on these while you can; it would be hellish to have to wait a whole year for more!
For other M&M’s candy reviews, please visit my takes on:
Limited Edition Cherry Cordial M&M's
Pretzel M&M's
M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn
9/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment