Mars, the parent company of M&Ms, just announced they would be selling caramel M&M’s. The internet went wild with excitement for the latest creation.
There have been many different flavors of M&Ms over the years, but this is a first for the company to add a softer-filled center like caramel.
Hank Izzo, vice president of research and development of parent company Mars Chocolate, said that the brand regularly tries new flavors, but the caramel was of particular interest to the company in recent years.
“It was a big technological challenge for us,” Izzo said. “We never before had an M&M lentil with a true soft center, so we had to figure out how to not make the chocolate too sticky or too soft that it could collapse.”
The caramel-filled M&Ms, which are a bit larger in size than the regular milk chocolate candies, were not only a massive undertaking to create, but was a costly one too.
Izzo and his team of engineers and product development scientists worked on developing machinery just to be able to fill the little hard-shelled candies with caramel. According to CNN Money, the company also invested about $100 million to build a new manufacturing site located in Topeka, Kansas.
With the plans of hire 70 employees to run the new operation, the newest flavor won’t be going away anytime soon. And from the looks of it, that’s exactly how M&Ms fans want it. Because after the news about the new flavor broke last October, the company received more than 75,000 reactions on Facebook between likes, shares, and comments.
So get your taste buds ready, because, in May 2017, they’ll officially become a new permanent member of the M&M family.
And while you wait, here’s a video from CNN Money that’s sure to make your mouth water.
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