Apparently 2014 and 2015 are going to be known forevermore as the Years All Your Favorite Discontinued Junk Foods Came Back to Life: According to BuzzFeed, Mars, Inc. has big plans to bring back Crispy M&M’s in January 2015. The revival of this most fabled of melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand chocolate treats comes hot on the heels of Coca-Cola’s decision to raise Surge from the dead. Does this trend mean that '90s and early 2000s nostalgia has reached its peak? Or more optimistically, is it proof that the Internet can accomplish anything if it sets its collective mind to the task?
Although M&M’s themselves have been around since 1941, Crispy M&M’s didn’t hit the scene until 1999. Like Peanut M&M’s, they were a little bit bigger than their regular milk chocolate counterparts; they also featured a crisped-rice center, giving each bite-size candy piece a delightful crunch. Alas, though, despite their popularity, they were discontinued in the United States in 2005, leaving legions of today’s twentysomethings bereft of their chocolate-y, well-textured goodness. In the intervening years, they remained available in Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia — but anyone stateside who lacked connections in those markets had to go without.
Seth Klugherz, senior director of M&M’s Chocolate Candies, told BuzzFeed news that the company receives requests to bring back Crispy M&M’s “nearly daily” via Facebook, calls to the customer service hotline, and online petitions. Interestingly, though, it looks like the plan to begin producing them again has been in the works for a while: According to Klugherz, it usually takes anywhere between a year and a year and a half to bring a product to market — which means the Crispy M&M’s revival had likely been decided upon long before Surge’s.
In any event, the Internet is over the proverbial moon about the Crispy M&M’s news; Twitter, in particular, can barely contain itself, as evinced by this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And oh so many more. Not only that, but it’s giving hope to thousands of others clamoring for the return of their favorite snack foods: 3D Doritos, Magic Middles, Butterfinger BBs, and so on. It looks like the dreamers win this round — if Surge and Crispy M&Ms can return from the dead, so can all those other awful-for-you treats. Congratulations, Team Crispy M&M’s! You did it!
