Less Than It Ought To Be On The Flavor Front, Raspberry M&M’s Are A Bit Of A Letdown.

The Good: Decent bulk package, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Comparatively more expensive, Not overly flavored like raspberry or dark chocolate.
The Basics: The new Raspberry M & M's are a not strong enough on the flavor front to endorse.


Recently while traveling, I made a stop at Target where I found resealable bag of M&M’s that instantly intrigued me. They were Raspberry M&M’s with Dark Chocolate and when I picked them up, I was undeniably biased toward them. Unfortunately for me, these M&M’s are one of the lesser experiments by M&M’s/MARS. Those who like fruit and dark chocolate will find these M&M’s to be less fruity and not as powerfully dark as fans would like. Are they bad? No. But for those looking for M&M’s, there will be less expensive options that deliver at least as much flavor as these do.

Basics

M & M's Raspberry are a new bagged M & M's product, designed to appeal to all consumers. The 8.0 ounce bag is lavender with a picture of an M & M character (Blue) on it, holding a raspberry! Inside, the round chocolates are red, lavender and pink. The Raspberry flavored M & M’s follow essentially the same formula as regular M & M's in that each candy is about 5/8" 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 Raspberry 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 Raspberry come ready-to-eat and require no preparation save removal from the bag. The 8.0 oz. bag is resealable and it looks good.

Taste

M & M’s Raspberry flavored chocolates have a pretty vague fruity aroma to them. The scent is not distinctly raspberry and, instead, the scent of the chocolate is stronger than the fruit smell. This prepared me for a candy that had a real dark chocolate flavor to it.

Instead, when I placed the Raspberry Chocolate M & M on my tongue, I was surprised how they were neither strongly dark chocolate flavored or raspberry flavored. The sweet candy shell pretty much negates the initial dark chocolate flavor and the taste of raspberry is pretty much relegated to the scent. That means that the Raspberry Dark Chocolate M&M’s are not strongly raspberry flavored and the fruit taste is vague and quickly undone by the chocolate flavor. The aftertaste of the dark chocolate is just that; an aftertaste. The initial flavor is much too sweet and light, much more of a milk chocolate taste than a rich, full, uncompromising dark chocolate.

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 five servings in it. With the standard recommended serving size, the 210 calorie snack has 10 grams of fat! That's 15% of the RDA of fat, with 30% of the RDA coming from the six grams of saturated fat! While there is 2% 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, semisweet chocolate and sugar. These are made on machines which may also work on peanuts, almonds and wheat, so those with allergies are duly warned.

Storage/Clean-up

Just as with the preparation, M & M's Raspberry 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 a limited shelf life; the package I picked up last week had an expiration date of April 2013. 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 Raspberry 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 Raspberry M & M's should wipe right off non-porous surfaces with a warm, wet cloth.

Overall

Raspberry M & M's are lighter than I would like and anyone who enjoys raspberry flavored chocolate is likely to be as disappointed as I was.

For other M & M’s candy reviews, please visit my takes on:
M & M's Chocolate Mint
Limited Edition Cherry Cordial M & M's
Pretzel M & M's

4/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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