M&M’s Just Got More Colorful

The popular chocolate candy morsel M&M’s just announced they are adding a brand new color to the M&M candy mix.

M&M’s New Color

M&M, distributed under Mars Wrigley, just added the color purple to their peanut candy mix.

The new purple peanut M&M character is female – she sings, wears lace-up white boots, and is the newest character in 10 years.

Jane Hwang, Global Vice President of M&M’S, said, “Purple has been in the works for a very long time, for years. This was about ensuring that the entire crew, the entire cast of spokescandies, were reflecting the world that we’re living in.”

The new peanut M&M character is quirky, confident, and has a bit of an awkward personality. She just debuted her new song, “I’m Just Gonna Be Me,” which you can listen to on Spotify and Apple Music.

It’s Not Purple’s First Rodeo

Mar’s candy originally included purple in their first lineup of colors but decided to do away with it in 1949 when the royal hue color got ditched and switched out for a tan-colored M&M.

Later, in 1995, the tan M&M was voted out and replaced by blue. Then, in 2002 M&M held a global voting contest open to the public, and purple was voted in, but just for a short period of time.

The History Behind M&M’s

In 1941, during World War I, Forrest E. Mars, son of the maker of Milky Way chocolate bars, introduced plain chocolate M&M’s after returning to the US to Newark, New Jersey. Mars wanted a candy that wouldn’t melt in your hand when holding it and came up with the idea of the hard candy shell. 

By the 1950s, M&M’s became very popular, and the well-known “M” started being printed on the chocolate shell candy. Soon after, in 1954, Mars introduced peanut M&M’s.

Many people aren’t aware that Starbursts were originally created after a failed attempt at an M&M fruit chew in the 1960s.

Orange-colored M&M’s were introduced in 1976. Later in the 1980s, both plain and peanut M&M’s became the official candy snack for the 1984 Olympic games.

Later that decade, M&M’s expanded their customer base into Asia, Australia, Europe, and Russia.

The tan color was eliminated in 1995 and replaced by blue. In 1997 Mars began production of mini-M&M’s. In 2002, purple was introduced again, but for a limited time, until today in 2022.

The original 1941 M&M colors included brown, yellow, green, red, and purple.

Get the news you need at It’s On News.