The Discontinued M&M's That We Are Desperately Missing

What's better than a plain old bag of M&M's? Just about any one of the brand's many, many spin-offs. Even diehard fans of the regular milk chocolate flavor have to admit that the pretzel M&M, the now-classic peanut M&M, or the newbie PB&J M&M variations are just more exciting than your bog standard M&M's. Don't get me wrong: I like the milk chocolate ones! They're a fun snack, and a stone cold classic celebrated since World War II. But the pure decadence of something like a dark chocolate or fudge brownie M&M can't be denied. There's something special going on there, and in the late '90s, candymaker Mars introduced a twist on its flagship treat with the beloved — and sorely missed — Crispy M&M's.

That's right: crispy. Rather than the soft, melt-on-your-tongue milk chocolate packed into your default M&M candy, Crispy M&M's were filled with a rice-based wafer center. I had them back during their initial run, which spanned from around 1999 to their discontinuation about five or six years later. Personally, this was my favorite variation of M&M's — the typical thin chocolate shell wasn't overwhelmed by the chocolate inside anymore, and they popped in my mouth like Whoppers (the malted milk balls, not the burger). Crispy M&M's were light and airy, which you never expect M&M's to be.

Crispy M&M's remain a fan favorite, which is probably why Mars brought them back in 2015 for another half-decade-or-so run. Though they've been discontinued a second time, they're not gone for good.

Crispy M&M's have spent about 10 years total on store shelves, and though they've been pulled from your typical retail spaces, you can still order a bag from Amazon. If you're really craving them, and $15 means nothing to you, go for it. But keep in mind, there are other ways to get that crispy crunch in your M&M's.

Mars never truly gave up on this variation's unique texture. It turns out that the company has been surreptitiously rebranding the crispy candies under new names and flavors. One candy-loving blogger has uploaded snaphots of vintage 2000s packages of vanilla crisp and mint crisp flavors which use the same rice-based filling. Plain Crispy varieties have appeared internationally, too.

But where Crispy M&M's truly live on, in the United States at least, is in the newer Crunchy Cookie M&M's. M&M fans online are convinced this flavor is the true successor to the Crispy M&M, and it's hard to argue with them. The ingredients list for Crunchy Cookie mentions "crisp rice," which certainly sounds similar to what was in the original crispy candies. It's not the exact same thing, but it just might hit the spot if, like me, you miss that crispy crunch from back in the day.