M&M's (named after the surnames of Forrest Mars, Sr., & Bruce Murrie of Hershey's) are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated. The candy shells, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case on one side, surround a variety of fillings, including milk chocolate, dark chocolate, crisped rice, mint chocolate, peanuts, almonds, orange chocolate, coconut, pretzel, wild cherry, cinnamon and peanut butter. M&M's originated in the United States in 1941, and are now sold in as many as 100 countries. They are produced in different colors, some of which have changed over the years. Forrest Mars, Sr., the founder of the Mars Company, invented the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting. Mars received a patent for his own process on March 3, 1941. Production began in 1941 in a factory located at 285 Badger Avenue in Clinton Hill, Newark, New Jersey. One M was for Forrest E. Mars Sr., and one for Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey's Chocolate president William F. R. Murrie.[4] Murrie had 20 percent interest in the product. The arrangement allowed the candies to be made with Hershey chocolate which had control of the rationed chocolate. When operations were started, the hard-coated chocolates were made in five colors: red, yellow, brown, green, and violet. They were packaged in a cardboard tube (similar to Smarties). The practicality of the candies during World War II caused an increase in production and its factory moved to bigger quarters at 200 North 12th Street in Newark, New Jersey where they remained until 1958 when it moved to a bigger factory at Hackettstown, New Jersey. During the war, the candies were exclusively sold to the military.
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