M&M's - Dark Chocolate   Yes M&M's are already out in the UK but not in these flavours! Candy coated shells filled with dark chocolate. The official M&M's website states the idea for M&M's came from the Spanish Civil War: "Legend has it that, while on a trip to Spain, Forrest Mars Sr. encountered soldiers who were eating pellets of chocolate encased in a hard sugary coating. This prevented it from melting. Inspired by this idea, Mr. Mars went back to his kitchen and invented the recipe for M&M'S® Plain Chocolate Candies." Our Price: £1.05

Taken from my website www.chocolatemission.blogspot.com .... check it out for more great reviews:

Kcal 240 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 33.0g

As I said above these are currently only avalible in the US and came to me in a plentiful 47.9g packet. This was a larger serving size than any of the other single serving variants packets.. which was slighty suprising as you would expect with a dark chocolate product that the flavour would be richer - therefore meaning you would want slightly less...as you can guess the large sized pack made for a hunger fufiling product.

I think we have established now that im a fan of the look of M&M's...these looked exactly the same as the original chocoate variant though with the slight edition of the word 'dark' which was printed under the familiar 'M'.

I found the smell of these disappointing in that it wasnt any different from the original M&Ms - a very faint sweet cocoa smell but that aside no noticeable 'dark chocolate' distinguishable aroma.

Though the ingredient list didnt specify a solids level the chocolate is described as 'semi sweet' and this was exaclty how it tasted. The chocolate was ever so slightly more bitter and when combined with the sugar coating had a slight nutty note. Texturewise the difference in chocolate type didnt affect the melting point of the inside chocolate and these still melted at a nice rate in the mouth.

Overall these wernt quite the dark chocolate experience I was quite hoping for. I personally would have preffered the flavour to be richer and more cocoa based, though I can understand to a certain extent to why this has been limited in this product...to make a broader consumer based frendlier product...if it was darker in flavour it would probably be too niche for a mass market confectionary product. These are a nice variation from the original...which I personally prefer...they are a different proposition and worth a look at it.

7.5 out of 10