Dork Digestion: Pretzel M&M's (Mars)

With all the commercials featuring Pretzel M&M's that have been flooding the airwaves recently, I've had a serious hankering to give these things a try. Pretzels and M&M's are always a fun combination for party munchies, so pretzels within M&M's should be a no-brainer. But distribution of new candy bars can be spotty, so I went on the M&M's website to track them down. It turns out that candy fanatics like me can search for the nearest store that stocks a specific type of M&M's. Now THAT'S a cool feature for a candy website. Anyway, let's scarf some Pretzel M&M's and see how they stand!

APPEARANCE 
I prefer my M&M's to have a consistent size and shape. The nut-based M&M's like Peanut and Almond have a tendency to have a range of size variation, which can lead to some disappointment if you get more than a few shrimps in the batch. Fortunately, Pretzel M&M's are all the same size and shape, but the surface isn't as smooth as the Milk Chocolate variety.

TASTE
I would have thought that M&M-covered pretzels would be a perfect combination, soon to be recorded in the annals of candy greatness along with Reese's chocolate and peanut butter. Tragically, the taste of Pretzel M&M's isn't nearly as interesting as I hoped. That characteristically delicious M&M candy shell and milk chocolate is there, surrounding a spherical pretzel core. But the pretzel taste is totally overwhelmed by the candy and chocolate so you don't taste much of the pretzel. That might be because the candy and chocolate are so strong that it's difficult to single-out the pretzel. Or, maybe because you taste the candy and chocolate first you don't taste much of the following pretzel. If they somehow made M&M's covered by pretzels, the taste would probably work better because you taste the weaker flavor first. Or, they could try increasing the ratio of pretzel to M&M. But as it stands, the pretzel taste is lacking.

TEXTURE 
When you munch on a Pretzel M&M, you first encounter the hard candy shell. A little force breaks into the interior chocolate and pretzel. Unlike the nut-based M&M's, the pretzel is significantly softer than the shell, which doesn't do much for fun crunchy texture.

ORIGINALITY
The concept of candy-covered pretzels has been done before, both with traditional chocolate-covered pretzels and Hershey's Take 5 candy bar. It's a cool idea, and the chocolate and pretzel tastes often work well together. If Pretzel M&M's sell well, I suspect we'll see more pretzel-candy combos in the future.

OVERALL 
Pretzel M&M's have a great concept that just doesn't quite fly. The pretzel taste is mostly overwhelmed by the M&M taste, and the texture isn't nearly as fun as the nut-based M&M's. Still, the chocolate-covered pretzel concept isn't particularly wide-spread (at least, among the major candy makers like Mars and Hershey's), so if you're looking for a new taste, you could give them a try. Just don't expect much pretzel in your M&M's.

Nutrition Facts for Pretzel M&M's