M&M&M&M&Ms

I suddenly know a whole lot about M&Ms, a subject I'd never given much thought to. But before we flew to Nevada last month, I needed to find something new to carry in my purse.

I'm diabetic, so I carry something sugary with me in case I suddenly experience low blood sugar. I've tried many options, but decided that M&Ms would be the perfect solution. The original milk chocolate ones are sweeter than I like, which is not something you'll hear me say very often. Since I don't like them very much, I figured they would be safe to carry without the danger of my snacking on them at other times. And they would melt in my mouth, not in my bag.

I'm not sure if the size that used to be sold in the candy racks at stores even exists any more. Most seem pretty hefty, even if they aren't labeled "To Share." (Do that many people really want to share their chocolate? Just wondering.) They were all too big for what I needed. Besides, I don't want to be accused of shoplifting if anyone should see the contents of my bag. Like in the airport.

I decided that the snack size was the answer. Of course, finding them immediately became close to impossible. Although I feel as though I'm surrounded by huge bags of candy everywhere I go, now I had a problem. Store after store produced nothing.

Finally, I found a bag of assorted flavors. I ignored the peanuts ones, which I know I love. Caramel was new to me and while the overall flavor was pleasant, I'm not used to having caramel crunch. The peanut butter ones were good too.

Having two new (to me) flavors in the bag made me start thinking of other flavors I'd noticed. Once I saw coconut, and I'm pretty sure they do mint--peppermint at Christmas and green in the spring. My daughter said that she had birthday cake once. I totally missed that one.

I went online and couldn't believe what I found. I'm not going to list all the flavors, but they include: orange vanilla cream, coffee nut, English toffee peanut, and pretzel. In 2022 they are putting out cookie flavors including cookies and cream and chocolate chip.

So now I'm wondering, how do they do it? How do they get a chocolate chip cookie or a birthday cake into one of those little candies? I mean, I know they aren't actually shoving a cake, or even a slice of cake, into the hard candy shell the way the  commercial for the new fudge brownie version shows. But it's a tiny package. Did they stick to the cake alone, or is icing flavor included? What about little drips of candle wax?

Probably not.