July 16th: M&M's Pretzel

Kcal 150 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 24.0g

When I looked back through the ChocolateMission archive looking for my last M&M's review it came to my surprise that it's nearly been a whole year since I last wrote about the brand (See HERE). In previous years we have all come to expect several limited edition movie themed tie-ins (See Strawberried Peanut Butter, Pirate Pearls etc), but 2010 has been relatively sparse for new M&M's flavours. Well M&M's fans fear not, as Mars have finally launched these Pretzel flavoured M&M's and they were kind enough to send me a few sample bags all the way from the US. On the pack they came described as 'chocolate candy coated pretzels', and boasted about their 'less than 30% fat content'. I have to admit I was pretty startled when I looked at the nutritional information - it was remarkably low for such a product.

These M&M's Pretzels came in a 32.3g bag that contained around 20 or so M&M's pieces. Packaging and presentation wise this was your bog standard M&M's variant. It was slightly disappointing to see Mars use the same blue coloured background as their 'Crispy' variant, but it looked relatively cool nonetheless and the Pretzel theme was communicated relatively effectively. The M&M's themselves were middling in size in that they were smaller than Peanut M&M's, yet twice the size as the standard milk chocolate ones. Again it was somewhat odd to see that these only came in four different colours (blue, orange, brown and green) but this didn't bother me all that much. M&M's have never been the strongest smelling candies, but these Pretzel ones did emanate some minor biscuity scents.

As anyone who has ever tried M&M's before will be aware, the standard of the milk chocolate isn't the greatest, though they always manage to deliver a relatively sound chocolate flavour hit. The sweet sugary flavours of the milk chocolate were again forthcoming and quickly established as soon as the thin candy coatings were breached. Just as the outer shells were, the pretzel centres were equally as crunchy, and the savoury wheat and flour flavours soon surged over that of the chocolate. To be honest at this point these M&M's felt more 'cookie centered' as opposed to 'pretzel centered', but towards the latter stages of chewing my first mouthful I noticed the intermittent salt hints come to the party. These salty flavour bursts made for a nicely contrasting taste that featured both sweet and salt influences. The salty element to the taste made these especially moreish, and it took no time at all for me to finish the single serve bag. The entriety of one bag delivered a a degree of satisfaction, but like I have found with previous M&M's flavours, these weren't the most satisfying of snacks ever and I could have easily eaten more.

Overall as a big fan of pretzels I was really looking forward to trying these, so I'm glad to report that Mars did a pretty decent job. As you may have noticed from my copious reviews of chocolates that have salty enhancing flavours (think Reese's, caramels etc) I'm a real fan of products that have sweet and salt flavour combinations, and these have to go down as another that do it pretty well. The quality of the milk chocolate was again far from sparkling, but lets be honest none of us would expect anything different from the M&M's brand. I guess what was most important with these was how well the inner pretzel constituents was executed, and reality was that they did it pretty well. Perhaps this is me being greedy (or me me being a genius more like!), but wouldn't it be great to see some M&M's Peanut Butter Pretzels!? I think that would be a fantastic synergy of two products that they already make, and it would probably make these Pretzel M&M's all that much better. I would be very interested to hear what my American readers think of these - please share your thoughts.

7.6 out of 10