Unless we're at a great candy shop, the very idea of paying $4 or $5 for six ounces of candy is enough to make us just walk away, and for that reason, we've passed several times on trying Mars' new M&M's Premiums - specially boxed, colored, and flavored versions of the classic M&M's chocolates, designed to appeal to a more discerning consumer. We're not going to go in depth on these candies, as we decided to pick them up only when the local Walgreens dropped them to $2.50 per package; they're worth trying only if you can find them for a similarly low price.
Price aside, M&M's Premiums' only psychological hurdle is their lack of the brand's trademark hard candy coating; these are, in essence, stripped-down M&M's quality chocolate and other ingredients with fancy new exteriors. They're sold in five individual flavor packages - mint chocolate, mocha, triple chocolate, raspberry almond, and chocolate almond - each a plastic bag suspended inside of a cardboard box to create the appearance of added value.
There are no major flavor surprises here. Mint chocolate, triple chocolate, and chocolate almond taste exactly as you'd expect from their names, with raspberry almond adding a hint of discernibly fruity flavor to the standard chocolate almond, and mocha possessing a small infusion of dark coffee to the traditional chocolate M&M. If you've tried Mars' previous M&M's flavors, of which there have been many, recently including cherry and regrettably now omitting the wonderful Dulce de Leche caramel version quietly introduced a number of years ago, subtlety and texture are the only things that are unusual here; the flavors here aren't overwhelming or chemical, and may just be a little too little for some palettes. From a texture standpoint, the satisfying crispy crunch of classic M&M's has given way here to a thin, almost waxy coating that we didn't mind at all, but won't be replacing the old version any time soon.
The one benefit of the new coating is its ability to take on an unusually cool appearance. M&M's Premiums look like dirty pirate treasures, the orange gold mochas, green mints, blue and pink almonds, and rose triple chocolates all polished to an interesting gloss and more than flecked with black imperfections. Contrary to some descriptions of the Premiums, they're not iridescent, but they do look really interesting; between the unique colors, their shine, and their black spots, these are definitely the most eye-catching M&M's we've ever seen - they beg to be spilled out of a candy dish, like doubloons overflowing from chests of stolen booty.
Given how much we paid for our samples - $12.50 for five packets - and that they typically cost around twice us much, we can't say that we'd recommend M&M's Premiums to most readers. They're tasty, but so are lots of chocolates that sell for $10 or more a pound. We consider these an interesting novelty, nothing more.
