3-minute read
Daniel MunozNorthJersey.com
Easter has just passed, but hopefully you still have some leftovers in your Easter basket: Reese’s peanut butter eggs, Peeps (those bird-shaped marshmallows), miniature chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies wrapped in gold-colored foil.
You may even have something with New Jersey roots: M&M’s.
Yes, the classic little chocolate beads originated in the Garden State — Newark specifically.
When did it all begin? The Spanish Civil War, actually, according to History.com.
During the conflict, Forrest Mars Sr. of Mars Candy company made his way to the United Kingdom, where he reportedly witnessed British volunteers “eating small chocolate beads encased in a hard sugar shell.”
“That was a candy that was designed for military use,” said Beth Kimmerle, author of the book “Candy: The Sweet History.”
“It was perfect. It wouldn’t melt, it could travel long distances — even in hot temperatures — that chocolate would stay inside the shell.”
Mars returned to the United States and established M&M Limited in Newark, according to the candy website. The plain chocolate M&M candies were introduced in 1941, and for the duration of World War II, M&M’s were exclusively sold to the U.S. Army, according to a local Newark historian website.
M&M stands for “Mars and Murrie,” named after the chocolate entrepreneur Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey’s Chocolate President William F.R. Murrie. Bruce Murrie had put money behind the startup.
Production started as “M&M’s Ltd Newark NJ” at 285 Badger Ave. in Newark before moving to 200 North 12th Street, where it remained until 1958.
Originally, M&M’s were all brown, but along the way violet, green, red and yellow were added to the mix. Production reached 200,000 pounds of M&M’s a week during the war.
They were packaged in cardboard tubes and incorporated into American GI’s C-rations, given their ability to withstand extreme temperatures, such as the hot tropics of the Pacific Theater. Think of the 1954 slogan, “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
It was not until 1946 that M&M’s became available to the general public again, and in 1948 the packaging was changed from tubes to the cellophane sleeves still in use today.
Distinguishing from copycat competition
As the concept of M&M’s gained rapid popularity, they were eventually branded with an “m” on each piece starting in 1950.
“A lot of candy companies tried to replicate M&M’s,” Kimmerle said. “As a way to differentiate from competition, it was branded with the ‘m’.”
Kimmerle pointed out that there are still similar candy brands out there that follow the candy-coated lentil-shaped concept.
For example, you have Sunridge Farms’ milk chocolate rainbow drops and SunSpire’s milk chocolate SunDrops.
Mars Wrigley, the current producer of M&M’s, said the Newark factory was also the birthplace of peanut M&M’s in 1953.
M&M’s Almond was introduced in 1988, and M&M’s Peanut Butter in 1991. The tube was reintroduced for M&M’s Minis in 1996. Mini and mega-size M&M’s were introduced in 1997 and 2023, respectively.
They even went to space
According to Mars, M&M’s went to space when astronauts took the candies with them aboard the space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.
“They are a perfect fit for the conditions aboard the space station because they’re bite-sized and self-contained,” reads a post from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. “That means that astronauts won’t run the risk of losing stray crumbs while they snack.”
However, the Smithsonian added, NASA does not officially use branded products, and aboard the International Space Station they’re referred to as “candy-coated chocolates.”
Spokescandies for the M&M’s were first introduced in 1960 — the yellow and red ones originally, though over time that expanded to a cast of seven colors: green, red, brown, purple, blue, yellow and orange.
Where M&M's stand in NJ today
Newark is currently home to Mars Wrigley's U.S headquarters. In 1958, production moved to Hackettstown, where operations continue to this day.
Mars Wrigley recently announced that it was spending $70 million to open an innovation lab at its Hackettstown facilities.
"The continued investment in our Hackettstown site reaffirms our commitment to innovation in New Jersey and upskilling our associates with best-in-class facilities to create more moments of everyday happiness for our consumers,” said Anton Vincent, Mars Wrigley’s North American president, in a statement.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email:munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100
