I know: these M&M’s are not a cereal.

And despite all the bowlfuls of M&M’s Minis I’ve sucked down over the years, M&M’s never have been a cereal, either.

But before you report me to the cops for reviewing something on this blog wholly unrelated to breakfast, hear me out. When I say “Honey Nut,” what’s the first snack you think of?

If you said anything but “Honey Nut Cheerios,” maybe those cops should be on the lookout for a pair of pants on fire instead. Yeah, yeah, there are other acceptable answers, like Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and Honey Nut Chex, but my point still stands:

Breakfast cereal runs the Honey Nut game, so a new Honey Nut M&M’s flavor should be legally considered a cereal, just like how pizza can legally be considered a vegetable.

Whether you agree with me or not, I’m gonna review these bad boys. And whether your eyes are ready for it or not, I’m even gonna try them with milk.

These M&M’s are one of three new varieties released as part of the brand’s “Flavor Vote” promotion. Between Honey Nut, Coffee Nut, and Chili Nut, candy-munchers nationwide are encouraged to try each and vote for their favorite.

But since tying in Coffee Nut or Chili Nut into a breakfast blog would be a little too hard even for me (uhh, Chili’s has a breakfast menu, right?), here I sit with my tri-colored Honey Nut M&M’s. Each peanut-stuffed morsel is massive—a standard Milk Chocolate M&M could orbit it like a small moon or Death Star.

I’m guessing the yellow represents peanuts, and the light orange means honey. But I’m stumped on the black. A bee’s stinger? The dark maw of my open mouth? The black void of the candy coma I’ll soon be eating myself into?

Oh well. They all turn into a brown milk chocolate goop when I chew them, anyway. Speaking of which, the chocolate does take a backseat to the honey flavor, which in turn takes a backseat to the nut flavor. These are M&M’s for sophisticated palates, because they taste a lot like plain Peanut M&M’s on first bite.

But after several M&M’s, the delectable nuances start to emerge. Tendrils of sugary and syrupy honey slowly emerge from the deep, dairy murk of the milk chocolate. Meanwhile, the expected salty and peanutty flavor develops a thin glaze of golden buttery almond, just like you’d find on any Honey Nut Cheerio.

But it’s still much subtler than a Honey Nut Cheerio. Side-by-side comparison reveals that the Cheerios have a much more toasty almond oil sheen. But for an M&M that’s trying to cram peanut, chocolate, honey, toasted almond, and candy shell flavors into a singular oblong nugget, these Honey Nut M&M’s play a pretty good game of taste Tetris.

That being said, there is only one thing left to do. I’ve got milk in hand and an “In Case of Emergency” contact in my phone that leads to Mars Chocolate’s corporate office. If this kills me, I want someone to thank them for giving me a happy last memory.

I certainly can’t recommend pouring milk onto Honey Nut M&M’s from a dietary standpoint, but as a fan of silly food experimentation, I can’t not recommend it, either. The taste was pretty much what I expected: a richer, creamier, and more decadent milk chocolate with a very sticky, syrupy, and artificial honey nut flavor that just keeps getting syrupier over time.

What I didn’t expect was the endmilk.

Each candy quickly oozed off its artificial colors upon contact with milk. I was soon left with a bowl of sad, withered chocolate orbs bathing in their own milky blood. This situation was already disturbing, so of course I tasted a little. Despite its tempting sweetness, the liquefied synthetic honey had my stomach (and my ancestors) begging for mercy in no time.

Wow, this review escalated quickly.

All honey syrup slurping aside, these M&M’s deserve praise. They’re not the most unique M&M’s, but they are pretty much cereal in candy form. So if you’ve ever felt weird about placing bowls of Cheerios around your house as party snacks, these will do the trick. I still wish Mars would try M&M’s candy in cereal form, though—I’m imagining a smooth chocolate filling inside rounded, Frosted Flake-esque shells.

But for now, I’ll just keep shotgunning tube after tube of M&M’s Minis. That’s the only way to eat them, right?

 

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The “Bowl:” Honey Nut M&M’s

The Breakdown: They’re not a cereal, but with a complex (yet unfortunately subtle) chocolate honey nuttiness, these M&M’s are the closest thing you’ll find to a cereal in the candy aisle.

The Bottom Line: 8.5 M&M Death Stars out of 10

(Quick Nutrition Facts: 220 calories, 2 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein per 1/4 cup serving)

Our friends over at Junk Banter also reviewed all three Flavor Vote M&M’s! You can read their full breakdown here.