30% Believe This Is The Best Flavor Of M&Ms

When M&Ms candy-coated, milk chocolate candies made their debut in 1941, they were considered a "military ration" (via M&Ms), presumably because their "melts-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hands" design, along with their handy tube packaging, made them the perfect treat for American soldiers to carry with them into battle during World War II. Despite the fact that people may tend to gravitate toward one color or another, M&Ms always came in one flavor and one flavor only, at least until 1954, when M&Ms introduced the peanut variety. That, of course, is not the case today. 

New varieties came slowly after peanut, starting with 1988's introduction of the almond variety, followed by 1991's introduction of the peanut butter variety, and 1998's crispy variety. But starting in the early aughts, M&Ms began taking an increasingly creative, if not fully whimsical approach to marketing by, among other things, regularly coming out with clever and innovative flavors, such as coconut (2009), pretzel (2010), and raspberry dark chocolate (2012), to name just a few. Some have become "permanent" flavors, while others have been relegated to "limited edition" only. That means that it's hard for the average consumer to know which flavors will be available on any given day. What is far more predictable, however, is which flavors consumers love the most. In fact, a full 30% of the respondents to a Mashed survey rated this one flavor as the "best."