M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M's.

In fact, the iconic 'm' stamped in the middle of each candy was to make sure customers could differentiate them from copycats. M&M's were also the first candy in space, chosen by the shuttle astronauts as part of their food supply. Those are just a few of the interesting facts about M&M's.

There are over 400 million produced each day and "M&M's"® Chocolate Candies are made all over the world. In the U.S. they are made in New Jersey and Tennessee.

The idea for M&M came from Forrest Mars Sr. (son of Frank C. Mars, founder of Mars Candy Company) in the 1930s. During this time, he noticed British soldiers eating Smarties - chocolate pellets with a hard shell.

Those tiny letters on the M&M candy are made of edible ink which does not dissolve in water. They are adhered to the candy with an edible glue that dissolves in warm water. Since the letters are less dense than water, the letters peel off and rise to the top as the rest of the candy shell dissolves.

In 1941, he struck a deal for the chocolate with Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey president William Murrie, because he anticipated there would be a chocolate shortage in the pending war. They named the candy M&M, which stood for “Mars & Murrie.”

M&M was quickly adopted by the U.S Army during World War II. The candies were designed for easy transport and consumption on the go, which was a part of its popularity. After the war, M&Ms quickly gained customer attention, especially with the tagline “Melt in your mouth, not in your hand” in 1949.

This increase in surface area/volume ratio is likely why mini M&Ms seem so much sweeter! For each equal amount of candy, your saliva is able to make contact with more candy surface, dissolve more sugar, and deliver more “sweet” taste to your tastebuds!

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder, cocoa butter, lactose, starch, milk fat, palm fat, glucose syrup, shea fat, stabiliser (gum arabic), dextrin, glazing agents (beeswax, carnauba wax), colours (E100, carmine, E132, E133, E150a, E150c, E150d, E153, E160a, E160e, E162, E163, E170), beetroot concentrate, ...

Mars Wrigley Confectionery division M&M's are the flagship product of the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars, Incorporated and they originated over in America. They've been on shelves in the US since 1941 but only came to the UK in the 80s.

1950 1950's. M&M'S had become so popular by 1950 that an ingenious solution for consumers to distinguish the real M&M'S from inferior imitators was to stamp each candy with the now famous "m". The slogan "Look for the m on every piece" was created.