No. 307 - M&Ms

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating with their friends on Halloween, and brought home lots of candy. I have been doing my part to help reduce the candy stock in the house. Today I had some M&Ms.

I learned that M&Ms were named after the surnames of the company founders - Forrest E. Mars Sr. and William F. R. Murrie.

Mars was founder of the Mars Company, and got the idea for the confection in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting. Murrie was the President of Hershey Chocolates, which had control of the rationed chocolate at the time.

The candies were introduced in 1941 and were served in a cardboard tube (similar to Smarties).