In 1999, Crispy M&M’s were born. They were great! The concept wasn’t too innovative, but they were crispy and everybody loved them. So Mars discontinued them in 2006 because “Haha F- you everybody!” Diehards like me bitched and moaned for a comeback, and Mars finally ended its cruel joke a decade later. Crispy M&M’s made headlines with their re-launch in 2015.

Here’s the thing, though. After years and years of Orange Creamsicle Oreos and Sprinkled Donut Crunches, Crispy M&M’s felt too boring… too vanilla. They satisfied my nostalgia craving, but I walked away with no intentions to purchase Crispy M&M’s ever again. Well this is certainly not the case any longer. At the risk of sounding like somebody you wouldn’t let your kids near, Crispy M&M’s finally got HOT after 17 years. S’mores Crispy M&M’s are here!

S’mores Crispy M&M’s

Given that s’mores is now a primary food group, we all should have seen this coming. Except nobody saw this coming… not with Crispy M&M’s, as S’mores Crispy M&M’s are the first crispy flavor variant since the doesn’t-even-count Indiana Jones Mint Crisp M&M’s came out while regular Crispy M&M’s were dead. S’mores Crispy M&M’s were just released without any fanfare whatsoever – no leaks, no Delish.com announcement, nothing. When I was doing research on S’mores Crispy M&M’s, the only thing I found was this article that some fat, excited idiot wrote. It’s almost as if Mars is trying to make up for their ill-advised decision to discontinue Crispy M&M’s in 2006 by giving us the sexy flavor that everybody wanted. You know how too much of a good thing can be a bad thing? This will never be the case with s’mores.

S’mores Crispy M&M’s feature milk chocolate, a crispy rice center, and artificial flavoring. The million dollar question is whether the chocolate is flavored with both marshmallow and graham flavor, or if it’s just marshmallow flavoring and the crispy center will emulate crunchy graham crackers. Tonight we find out, aka I get fat for science. Opening the bag, I’m instantly confident we’re on to something. These could be Graham Slam, because the graham scent is massive. And fake butter for some reason. WHY HAVEN’T I BEEN PUTTING BUTTER ON MY S’MORES?

Just kidding; I butter them all the time.

With eager, fat hands, I grabbed a handful of S’mores Crispy M&M’s and noted that these suffer from the same “Some-of-Them-Look-Like-Butts Syndrome” that the M&M’s Malt Mini Eggs do. The shapes and sizes are playfully inconsistent. My first bite was but a temporary disappointment. When I hit the crisp rice, my brain automatically thought they tasted like regular crispy M&M’s. This doesn’t last long. A few seconds later, I was in Graham City and every bite thereafter contained it. Specifically, the flavor is that of honey-flavored graham crackers, layered on top of milk chocolate. The crispy rice crunch works wonders in emulating the snap of an actual graham cracker. I isolated the chocolate from the center, and confirmed the chocolate is where this entire graham flavor lies.

I have yet to use the word marshmallow because I don’t think S’mores Crispy M&M’s have a distinct marshmallow flavor. That’s not to say this candy doesn’t remind me of s’mores, because it does. The flavor profile has a mild, creamy sweetness to it just like a marshmallow does, but I didn’t think they nailed this part of the artificial flavoring. I feel like the creaminess is native to the milk chocolate in its raw form, and the sweetness in the artificial flavoring is more aligned with that honey graham piece. I would have needed a minor vanilla component to think “marshmallow,” but I never got it. In some respects, the flavoring in S’mores Crispy M&M’s draws comparisons to the flavoring in the recently released Honey Nut M&M’s. Imagine the peanut being replaced with a rice center, and you’re in the ballpark. More graham though.

Bottom Line: S’mores Crispy M&M’s may not be a perfect product, but they are a damn tasty addition to the lineup. Highly addictive, too, because I just ate half the bag. That makes me qualified to say that the marshmallow element needs some work. What it doesn’t suffer from is a lack of graham flavor, and this combines with the creamy milk chocolate and the satisfying crunch from the rice center to create a quality s’mores replication and an exciting new Crispy M&M’s flavor. Hey Mars – I officially forgive you. Now please don’t discontinue these, too.

How Certain I Am That Mars Will Discontinue These Rating: 8 out of 10
How Much I Still Kind of Think These Are A Hoax Rating: 4 out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10

A HUGE special thank you to Junk Banter reader Nicole for sending me these S’mores Crispy M&M’s that she found at a Cub Foods in Minnesota – a store that doesn’t even exist. She rated these a 9/10, which is significant because she’s a total s’mores whore. Thanks Nicole!

Nicole also helped our friends at Snack Cellar track down S’mores Crispy M&M’s. Find out what they thought here: Review via Snack Cellar

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