M&M's Trivia
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38 free M&M's trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
44 free M&M's trivia questions with answers. M&M's have been around since 1941, and eighty-odd years of candy history leave a lot to ask about. This quiz covers the origin story (Forrest Mars, Bruce Murrie and a wartime Army contract), every colour change from the disappearance of red to the blue vote and the arrival of purple, the spokescandies and the actors behind them, and the pop-culture moments: the E.T. snub, Van Halen's brown-M&M rider, the Super Bowl stunts and NASCAR. It is a good round for a party, a candy-themed quiz night or a family game, and there is a stretch of harder Mars-family history questions for people who think they know it all. Difficulty runs from easy to hard. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question carries its source, so if a fact surprises you, you can go and read where it came from.
30 of 38 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which New Jersey city did Forrest Mars start making M&M's?
Newark
Newark hosted the first M&M's plant, on Badger Avenue, and soaring demand soon forced the company into bigger quarters across the city.
Q 02Bruce Murrie, the second 'M' in M&M's, was the son of which rival chocolate company's president?
Hershey
Hershey controlled scarce wartime chocolate, so the Murrie deal kept M&M's supplied; once quotas ended, Mars pushed Bruce Murrie out and bought his share.
Q 03Forrest Mars reportedly modelled M&M's on which sweets he saw during the Spanish Civil War?
Smarties
Smarties is the usual answer, though no one knows for sure: a hard sugar shell kept their chocolate from melting in the heat.
Q 04Who was M&M's first big customer?
The US Army
The US Army was the first big buyer: during the Second World War the candies went almost entirely to the military, because the hard shell let soldiers carry chocolate in tropical heat.
Q 05M&M's famous slogan promises the candy melts in your mouth, but not where?
In the hand
In the hand: adman Rosser Reeves wrote the line to sell the candy's sugar shell, which keeps the chocolate from melting in your grip.
Q 06The 'm' stamped on M&M's is white today, but what colour was it at first?
Black
Black was the first colour of the 'm', stamped on to give the candies a trademark of their own before white replaced it.
Q 07Why did Mars drop red M&M's in 1976?
A public scare over red food dyes
A public scare over red food dyes: Red No. 2 was banned in 1976 as a suspected carcinogen, and although M&M's did not use it, Mars dropped red to avoid confusion; orange took its place.
Q 08A joke campaign by a student at which university, home of the Volunteers, helped bring red M&M's back in 1987?
Tennessee
Tennessee freshman Paul Hethmon's spoof 'Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&M's' grew from a joke among friends into a worldwide rally.
Q 09When M&M's fans voted in 1995 on a colour to replace tan, which won with 54 percent of the vote?
Blue
Blue won with 54 percent of more than 10 million votes, and in Australia navy-clad Carlton footballers wore sky blue for a 1997 match to launch it.
Q 10Mars's first 'Global Color Vote' in 2002 added which colour for a limited run?
Purple
Purple beat aqua and pink with 41 percent of the vote, and after its limited run it returned in 2022 as the first new spokescandy in a decade.
Q 11Which New Jersey town has made M&M's since 1958?
Hackettstown
Hackettstown took over M&M's production in 1958 because demand had outgrown the company's old factory.
Q 12In 1982 Mars turned down the chance to put M&M's in which Steven Spielberg film?
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial used Reese's Pieces instead, and with the film's blockbuster success the rival candy's sales soared.
Q 13Which rock band's tour rider famously demanded a bowl of M&M's with all the brown ones removed?
Van Halen
Van Halen's rider banned brown M&M's as a test: brown candies in the bowl meant the promoter had not read the technical rider, so the crew re-checked the staging and rigging.
Q 21Which NASCAR driver's No. 18 car carried M&M's sponsorship from 2008 to 2022, winning two Cup titles?
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch won the 2015 and 2019 Cup titles in the No. 18 M&M's Toyota, and in 2026 M&M's colours returned on a tribute car honouring his legacy.
Q 22The first M&M's World store opened in 1997 in which city?
Las Vegas
Las Vegas: the store opened in 1997 in the Showcase Mall beside the MGM Grand on the Strip; Orlando, New York and London stores followed.
Q 23M&M's styled themselves as the official candy of what in 1998?
The New Millennium
The New Millennium: since MM is the Roman numeral for 2000, Mars declared M&M's 'the official candy of the new millennium' in 1998, two years ahead of the date.
Q 14Which colour M&M was the subject of a 1970s urban legend that it was an aphrodisiac?
Green
Green: Mars later cashed in on the rumour, giving its Green spokescandy a seductive persona and selling all-green bags for Valentine's Day 2008.
Q 15Who created the modern CGI M&M's spokescandies in 1995, having earlier made the California Raisins?
Will Vinton
Will Vinton lost control of his own studio after Nike founder Phil Knight became its biggest shareholder, and it was reborn as Laika.
Q 16Which Saturday Night Live star originally voiced the sardonic Red spokescandy?
Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz voiced Red when the 1995 ads turned mascots who all but begged to be eaten into sarcastic, wisecracking characters.
Q 17Ms. Brown, the spokescandy unveiled in a 2012 Super Bowl ad, is voiced by which actress?
Vanessa Williams
Vanessa Williams voices Ms. Brown, one of the characters whose 2022 makeover drew the backlash that led Mars to 'pause' its spokescandies.
Q 18In a Super Bowl LII ad, Red wished to become human and was played by which actor?
Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito played the human Red, who had used a lucky penny to wish himself inedible so that nobody could eat him any more.
Q 19Which comedian did Mars name as spokesperson when it 'paused' the spokescandies in January 2023?
Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph's reign was a stunt: her Super Bowl ad pitched 'Ma&Ya's' candy-coated clams, and a post-game 'press conference' brought the spokescandies back.
Q 20Which M&M's variety vanished from US shelves in 2005 and came back a decade later?
Crispy
Crispy returned in January 2015 after what Mars called a decade of pleas from fans.
Q 24Which confectionery process builds up the hard sugar shell on M&M's?
Panning
Panning coats each centre in hardened sugar syrup, and in the 1950s the Midwest Research Institute built M&M's a machine that coated 3,300 pounds of centres an hour.
Q 25Presidential M&M's handed to guests on Air Force One took the place of which earlier souvenir?
Cigarettes
Cigarettes gave way after Ronald Reagan asked Mars in 1988 to make custom presidential boxes of M&M's.
Q 26The 'Plain' M&M's variety was renamed what in 2000?
Milk Chocolate
Milk Chocolate replaced 'Plain' after 46 years, and Red announced it in the ads: 'I am not a Plain M&M, I am a Milk Chocolate M&M.'
Q 27Which Petula Clark song did M&M's adopt for its TV ads in 2004?
Colour My World
Colour My World became the jingle, but the ads used newly recorded versions by other singers rather than Petula Clark's own.
Q 28In 2001 dulce de leche M&M's premiered in five heavily Hispanic markets, including which city?
Miami
Miami was a launch market, but the flavour flopped: Hispanic shoppers preferred existing varieties, and it was gone from most areas by 2003.
Q 29Mars, maker of M&M's, is headquartered in which Virginia community, also home to the CIA's headquarters?
McLean
McLean is home to a famously secretive head office: the building carries no company sign, and the Mars family long refused to talk to the press.
Q 30Frank Mars founded the first Mars candy factory in 1911 in which city?
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington, was where Frank Mars's first candy business struggled, before he moved back to Minnesota and started again.