How M&M's Became a Force by Not Melting!

By anon -
M&M's are part of the main operational food ration for the US Armed Forces. The candies have been part of NASA's every space shuttle mission since Columbia 1981 and are also on the International Space Station menu.

Do you know why?

Because the candy "melts in your mouth--not in your hand!" 

In 1932, confectioner Forrest Mars Sr. moved to England and began manufacturing the Mars bar for troops in the United Kingdom. He was looking to solve a key consumer problem of the time before air-conditioning: chocolate bars melted in the heat, so Americans stopped buying them. During the Spanish Civil War, he saw soldiers eating the British made Smarties, a color-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery, as part of their rations. Mars was thrilled by the unique construct of these candies and knew it to be the perfect solution to the sales slump that hit the family business every summer. He returned to the United States and obtained a patent for M&M's manufacturing process in March 1941. The M&M’S Plain Chocolate Candies, packed in cardboard tubes, were launched in the US market that same year, with brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and violet coating.

M&M's turned 76 this year. With more than 400 million individual M&M's produced every day, they are the leading chocolate candy brand in the US today.

Supplement with:
Brands that get it: M&M's by Danielle Moore
Untold War Stories: Mars and M&M's Military History by Oliver Neiburg

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