Obese M&Ms from Defatted Peanuts (M&M's Peanut Butter)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	M&M's Peanut Butter
Date:	19/06/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious salty/sweet combo, jumbo sized candies

Disadvantages: I now want them all day, every day

Remember when the only M&Ms choice you had to make was plain or peanut, brown or yellow packets? It seems that there's been an explosion of M&M varieties in the last few years, and now even in the rather small shop across the road I can choose from dark chocolate, crispy, cherry, almond, mint crisp, dark chocolate peanut. They now have a limited edition Strawberry Peanut Butter variety too. My latest try has been the standard PB ones though, also known as the 'red packet'.

Peanut butter and chocolate are two of my favourite foods, but products combining them have had varying degrees of success. The two main ones are Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, and Peanut Butter Chunky KitKats, neither of which I adore. However, I decided these were worth a try, though I was almost hoping I wouldn't like them and would have to throw half the packet away.

Unfortunately, I loved them.

You can imagine that stuffing an extra ingredient into a normal M&M would alter the size or shape, and you'd be right. These ones look like obese M&Ms, rounder and chunkier than their predecessors. You have the usual crisp sugar shell, and a thin layer of chocolate inside, but right in the middle there is a massive dollop of peanut butter filling.

If you've tried M&Ms you'll know what the first two parts taste like, so let's focus on the final bit. Peanut butter to me is normally thick and creamy. The stuff they've used here is lighter, almost like a peanut mousse or sorts. It's also semi-sweet itself, as is most American peanut butter. But, it has an undeniable peanut taste, and the resulting combination of sweet and salty is scrumptious. Even though they have the chocolate layer on top, and then a crispy candy coating, you can still smell the peanut scent of these, and the packet itself still has a light peanut whiff to it days after I finished off the chocolates.

PB M&Ms are great if you don't like proper solid peanuts, as I don't. You can get a smooth peanut taste without the crunch, and satisfy and sweet/salty cravings in one single product. I think I liked these so much more than other Chocolate/PB combinations because the taste is subtle, and not overpowering. You know you're eating peanut butter, but neither you nor the people you breathe on are then reminded of it for the next few hours. The combination of ingredients is just perfect. I think the sweetness of the peanut butter helps this, and also the decent amount of chocolate, something lacking in Reece's.

There are 240 calories in a pack, which is a few more than the standard 200 calories most pure-chocolate bars come in at. Actually, the Americans say there are 240 calories. The Mexican nutritional info sticker also on the packet says 244.5 which is interesting, and perhaps an indication that we shouldn't rely too heavily on the summaries provided. The rest of the info is also a little off too, with either 14g fat (US) or 13.5g (Mex) and so on.

The bonus of these is that they're chunky and satisfying, so you can just eat a few at a time. I made the packet last two days, taking a couple every time I thought about it, and that seemed a great way to savour them. The packaging accommodates this easily as you can open it just by making a small rip, allowing them to come out one by one, and keeping the others fresh. Bigger packs are also available, but there's no way I'd trust myself with one of them.

Buy on eBay in the UK, or try places like Selfridge's food hall which often stocks imported goodies.

This product contains peanuts, partially defatted peanuts (!) and may also contain almonds, which I guess just means they use the same part of the factory for these and the almond ones.

http://www.mms.com/us/about/products/

Summary: SO much better than Peanut M&Ms, whatever you might think