Every so often, a little curiosity that’s been under your nose for your whole life suddenly materialises as a question: what does M&M stand for?
Whilst hoovering down fistful after fistful, it probably doesn’t feel like a pertinent question.
Or, perhaps, while you’re trying to create a tower of them. If you haven’t given it a go, it’s as tricky as it sounds.
The Guinness World Record, secured in April 2022 by one competitor, is a paltry seven.
Before you rush off to try your hand at getting into the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, let’s settle the question of what the two Ms of M&M's represent.
TikToker @condimentclaire posed the question before laying out the story behind the sugar-coated chocolate pills and their meteoric rise that culminated in the bizarrely popular shop in Leicester Square.
The story comprises a family feud, wars, and the man behind the Uncle Ben’s brand.
She explains that M&M's were first created by Forrest Edward Mars Sr., son of the Mars Company’s founder. Forrest was a particularly prolific confectionary inventor. We have him to thank for the Milky Way, Snickers, Mars Bar, and Maltesers.
Forrest fell out with his dad over expansion plans for their burgeoning sweets empire, with the son wanting to grow beyond the US while his father, Franklin, wasn’t interested.
Forrest, having been living in Europe during the Spanish Civil War, had seen people eating chocolate encased in hard sugar shells and so brought the idea back to the US.
Whilst in Europe, he had also befriended Erich Huzenlaud, a chemist who had been working on retaining rice’s nutrients levels whilst making it easier to cook and more resistant to weevil beetles. Huzenlaud’s research lead to the creation of Uncle Ben’s rice, sadly not named in homage to Spider-Man’s ill-fated uncle.
Anyway: M&M's. When Forrest brought the idea back to the US, Mars was short on the chocolate required for a new product. To realise the M&M's dream, he teamed up with rival Hershey’s Bruce Murrie to shore up Mars’ chocolate supply and perfect the new recipe.
And that’s where the Ms come from: Mars and Murrie. M&M's were first released in 1941, with the US Army becoming a key customer during its involvement in the Second World War.
The sugar shell meant they were easy to carry around without the chocolate melting, which was ideal for soldiers venturing through warzones with limited food in their packs.
In 1950, M&M's were printed with an M on the shell to distinguish them from imitators, and the sugar-coated chocolate has been a mainstay on supermarket shelves ever since.
So there you have it: a pair of sons of rival chocolate companies came together to spawn an iconic chocolate brand, with their shared Ms adorning the packets and sweets themselves.
Featured Image Credit: DebbiSmirnoff/Getty ImagesTopics: US Food, Social Media, TikTok
Rachael Davis