Let Flavour Flood Out!
...with apologies to the Tetley tea folk.
Dave and Carol have been to New York, and they brought us bag some lovely little pressies.
Not least are these M&Ms!
It's really weird that whilst some of the worst abominations of confectionery that I've ever experienced have come from the hands of our friends across the pond (the 'Hershey process' anyone), they've also given me some of the best, and they really do know some clever tricks with a smartie.
Although Rowntree have been knocking them out since 1882, in 1941 the Americans got a piece of the action and started producing their own variants - M&Ms. The Ms represent the surnames of the creators - one was Mr. Mars, the other was a chap from Hershey who was controlling the flow of chocolate which at the time was rationed.
Since then, they've done all sorts of interesting things with them, and this bowl contains pretzel, peanut butter, raspberry and mint M&Ms, all of which are special treats for us Brits.
But on unrelated matters, why, for years, could I only buy altoid mints in America when they were made in bloody Wales? We'll never know... Original public domain image from Flickr