Coconut M&Ms Review: M&Ms Head for Margaritaville

Hoping to spark new interest beyond the old standby M&Ms Plain and Peanut, Mars has come out with several new varieties of M&Ms recently. A bag of Coconut M&Ms was the latest of the candy coated chocolates to jump into my shopping cart at the checkout counter today.

I like a chunk of coconut in its original form, but I'm particular about things that I like shredded coconut in. I don't like Almond Joy candy bars as there is too much coconut for my taste, so I was leery about making this purchase. After the less than pleasant experience I had with Pretzel M&Ms recently, I decided I'd give M&M/Mars one more chance to redeem themselves with Coconut M&Ms.

Coconut M&Ms are just slightly larger than traditional M&Ms, and maybe just a bit thicker, but nowhere near as round as the Pretzel M&Ms that resembled a gumball. The size and shape of the Coconut M&Ms weren't so far off from the candy that I grew up with that I couldn't tell it was M&Ms; Mars stayed true to their branding with this variety.

I felt the Coconut M&Ms had enough of a chocolate taste that I knew I was eating M&Ms, and the coconut added a nice flavor without being overpowering. If you are a true coconut lover, you may not think there's enough in Coconut M&Ms, but I thought the coconut taste added to rather than detracted from the traditional M&M chocolate flavoring. It didn't take over the true M&M taste.

The 1.5oz bag of Coconut M&Ms claims 210 calories, 9g of fat, and 30g of carbs, making them not the most nutritional snack on the shelf, and I'm sure the 4% iron and 2% calcium isn't redeeming enough to make them a healthy choice. The artificial flavoring listed must provide the coconut flavor as I didn't see coconut as an ingredient on the label, which was a bit disappointing. On closer scrutiny I see that it does say artificially flavored in very fine print directly below the larger word coconut on the front of the package.

M&Ms redeemed themselves today and I will buy the Coconut variety again when I allow myself a treat. The package depicts green, brown and white M&Ms on a tropical beach, complete with palm trees and an M&M-filled coconut shell. While I think Mars missed the boat to the tropics, the hint of coconut flavor docked them pretty close to Margaritaville.

Sources:
Personal Opinion
mms.com