M&M’s, the milk chocolate candy that melts in your mouth, not in your hands has been rolling out all kinds of new flavors and now, they’re making every day your birthday with their new Birthday Cake M&M’s.

Forrest Mars, Sr., son of the founder of Mars Candy Company came up with idea for M&M’s in the 1930’s.  He had witnessed Spanish War soldiers eating pieces of chocolate candy with a hard chocolate shell that prevented them from melting.  He decided it would make a great item to sell, got a patent for his version, and M&M’s hit stores in 1941 from a factory in Newark, New Jersey.

Birthday cake M&M’s come in red, yellow, and blue color pieces.

The two M’s in M&M’s represent the names of Forrest Mars, Sr. and Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey’s chocolate company president.  This cemented a partnership with Hershey’s to use their milk chocolate in the candy as Hershey’s had control of all rationed chocolate during World War II.  During the war, the candies were sold only to the military where they became an instant hit.  After the war, demand skyrocketed.

In 1950, each piece was branded with their now signature M for the first time.  However, it was black until 1954.

Also in 1954, Peanut M&M’s were introduced but were only tan in color.

Since 1991, M&M’s have been sold in a variety of flavors with the first being peanut butter.  Now, it seems that a new flavor and special limited editions are hitting stores on a regular basis, with the latest being birthday cake flavor.

Packaged in a light blue bag, the birthday cake M&M’s are only red, yellow, and blue in color.  The size of the candies are a little bigger than a standard M&M, almost as big as the peanut sized version.

The package contained 22 pieces and retailed for $1.42, but was on sale for $1 at CVS.

Cross section of a birthday cake M&M.

Sadly, it’s hard to taste any birthday cake.  The flavor is basically like a regular milk chocolate M&M and the insides are the same color and texture as well.  I’m sure ate side by side there would be a subtle taste difference, but they’re really nothing special (and who would do that, anyway?)

Other current M&M flavors include dark chocolate, pretzel, peanut, peanut butter, raspberry, dark mint, almond, and dark chocolate peanut.

THE 411

Name: birthday cake M&M’s

What: special flavor of M&M’s chocolate candies

Released: February 2014, mass release scheduled May 2014

Website: www.mms.com/

JERSEY JOE RECOMMENDS:

Skip them and buy a standard bag of M&M’s, because they don’t taste any different.  While this product is a good idea, these need to be reformulated with more birthday cake taste.  These probably won’t be around long, once people realize this flavor is just a gimmick.