M&M'S Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
MARS announced its new Halloween lineup for the year which included some old favorites like "Ghoulish Green" Twix and Snickers, as well as some variety packs but one new product is starting an online conversation that caught our attention. They announced they are releasing a new Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Pie M&M, and immediately, the anti-pumpkin squad came out to lament that it's only June and we are already seeing the flavor invade our feeds.
Pumpkin Spice Hype - Love It Or Hate It?
Pumpkin Spice-flavored anything polarizes people into love-it or hate-it camps. Every year after we see the orange gourd's name get slapped onto lattes and desserts we get the memes and comments online that are either singing the flavor's praises or screaming that we have had enough of this pumpkin propaganda. Let's have a peek at this new M&M to see if it will be a new snacking success or just the same old pumpkin prejudice.
No Pumpkin In Pumpkin Spice
The thing about pumpkin-flavored anything is that there is usually no pumpkin in it. The fruit has a very subtle, sweet flavor that pairs nicely with certain seasonings we have come to expect every fall, but it rarely appears as an actual ingredient. What we call "pumpkin spice" is exactly that. The zesty seasonings that work in say, a pumpkin pie. These include ginger, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice, all of which are in this candy's signature crunchy shell. We don't see where you can go wrong with that combo. Add milk chocolate, and you have yourself a slightly spicy sweet that packs some unique new additions into our standard M&M experience. We don't see the problem here. Haters are going to hate no matter what, but that won't keep us from giving this flavor mix a try come Autumn.
Halloween Happy Zoomers
MARS tapped into its audience research to release this new variety. Their Ipsos study showed that GenZ is pretty Halloween-happy and start getting ready for the celebration almost seven weeks before they show off their costumes, so seeding a few new flavors early is an opportunity for MARS to get a jump on their competition and gain more market share. Additionally, Zoomers are saying that they will be more extravagant in their costume and party spending, which implies that purse strings are looser for this year's spooky season than they have been in the past few years. A good 61% of those polled mentioned they'd be dressing up this year, which is a significant jump amongst revelers since Halloween was all but canceled during the COVID lockdown.
Embrace the Debate
Whether you love the warm, inviting flavors of fall or find pumpkin spice over-hyped, there's no denying M&M's will generate some chatter with their new Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Pie candy. We don't really care about the buzz on the socials as much as we do about a fistful of toasty flavors that we've always loved included here, so you can be sure we'll be looking for these little dudes in our trick-or-treat buckets come October. Give them a try this year - they may break you out of that anti-pumpkin bias.
