October 1, 2021 • 45 mins
These chocolate candies in a sugar shell have inspired colorful debate and serious science. Anney and Lauren get the history and culture of M&M’s in the bag.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Favor Protection of My Heart Radio.
I'm Any Rees and I'm Lauren Bolga Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about Eminem's. Yes, Eminem's
not a sponsor, Nope, nope, uh nope. But as this
comes out, it is the first day of October, it is,
and so our Halloween programming has begun. It has commenced.
(00:34):
It never like officially ends. We just kind of, yeah, yeah,
we lessen our our horror episodes and references. But yeah, yeah,
both of us are very much if y'all could not
tell very much, Halloween is everyday kind of humans. So yes, yes,
in a lot of ways, but this is the month
(00:55):
where it's you know, kind of acceptable, so we lean
into it immediately immediately. Yeah, Lauren was on the ball.
She's like, okay, it's October one. Let's come in with
one of your five Halloween candies. You've gotta have um which, yes,
Eminem's and specifically eminem Peanuts Okay, okay, are one of
(01:18):
the five Halloween candies that I have to find. I
cannot purchase them. You have to you have to like
find them in the wild, that they have to come
to you. Yes, they have to arrive in my world naturally. Um.
I can try to hunt them down, I just cannot
purchase them or else. All Right, It's just like a
(01:40):
tradition that I have. It's not Halloween unless I find
these five candies. Um. And then I do love I
love eminem pe nuts especially, And every time I hang out,
I have a group of friends that I've had since
like elementary school, and every time we hang out, somebody
always brings like the most ridiculously large bag, big bag
(02:01):
of Costco purchased peanut Eminem's. And I'm always like, no
way are we going to eat all of those? And
absolutely we do and usually have to go get some more.
Oh my goodness. Wow. Um. And I think I've told
this story too, but I got really into I think
I was in seventh grade when this happened somewhere around there. Um,
(02:22):
when they were like the new color of eminem it
was pink, teal and purple. I want a teal to
get it, but purple one, purple one, And we'll be
discussing that in the street. Um. And then yeah, I've
definitely I've gone. I've done the tourist thing. I've been
to the Eminem store in New York. I've taken the
(02:44):
Eminem test there. I'm a brown Eminem. What is what
does that mean? Oh? I read it and I remember
it being like I haven't seen them with the other
tests like the other colors. Yeah, so I can't say
if they're like very different at all, but this one
was very the puns were the puns were strong with
(03:07):
this one. It was a much like you're sweet, you know,
like a lot of things like that. You've got a
hard shill and sweetness inside, which makes me think they're
all very similar results. Um. And then I do have
a very epic pair of Eminem shorts. I don't know
if you've seen them. I think you have, um, like
my favorite the Jama shorts. Oh sure, yeah, yeah, yeah totally.
(03:31):
And they they feature prominently in many what I consider
infamous pictures that I've been Like, there's one that meet
my friend the same group of friends we take a
family phote every year, and there's one where the Eminem
shorts are, you know, just on full display, and we
recently tried to recreate that photo. It was pretty Anyway,
(03:56):
I love those shorts. Well heck yeah, heck yeah, that's
that's fabulous. Um, I cannot say that I have as
strong of a of a brand loyalty to Eminem's as
you do. Um, They're they're candy. They're fine. Uh. If
I'm going to grab a like candy bar kind of situation, uh,
(04:20):
peanut or almond, Eminem's are probably somewhere on the list
of something that I might describe from a convenient store
because I feel like, because they have actual whole nuts
in them, they're like more of a food, right, I
feel like I'm doing something good for myself. I don't
know if that's yeah, yeah, I'm definitely. One of my
(04:43):
friends from this group has made the argument that it's
like it's like getting her protein and for the day
or something. I'm not sure that's how that works. That okay, no,
but yeah sure yeah. And I mean a lot of
my my candies that are in my Halloween lie and
I do have that kind of elements of its, like peanut, butter,
(05:04):
nuts or something going on in them. Um. And I
don't eat candy very often, which I know I've discussed before,
and some a listener recently reached out to me and
was like, I just need to know more. I need
you to explain what's going on here, and I'm okay,
I'm happy to explain, but it is very exciting. Um.
And that being said, we have done past episodes on chocolate.
(05:27):
Reese's just one of my big candies, kick Cats one
of them, Um, candy corn not one, and the Simpsons
kind of because we talked about Butterfinger babies in there,
and Butterfinger is one of one of my candies, right
right right yeah, um, yeah, I'll also see our episode
about sustainability from our Oahu mini series, um and uh,
(05:53):
our interview with French Broad Chocolates in Asheville. Yeah, fun times,
Oh absolutely, yeah yeah those where Yeah, the sustainability episode
uses chocolate as a sort of case study. UM. And
I will say that, um, the sustainability and labor practices
(06:13):
behind Mars, which is the company that owns Eminem's, are questionable,
but that's not that's not what this episode is about. Today.
We're we're kind of focusing on the brand. Um. We
can we can go into gritty details at a at
a different date in time, yes, but not this state
(06:34):
in time. Yeah, not today, you guys, Yeah, not today.
We did talk about some that seminar chocolate episode is sure,
but for now I guess we should get to right question. Eminem's.
What are they? Well? Uh, Eminem's are a brand of
(06:58):
candy consisting of small, all uniform, individual dabs of chocolate,
sometimes and or other stuff UM encased in a stiff
sugar shells that are brightly colored on the outside and
then stamped with the seraph letter M in edible white
ink um. Each piece will vary a little bit due
to manufacturing, but they're generally oblate spheroids. That is, they're
(07:22):
they're squished spheres that the taper at their rounded edges UM,
that weigh a little bit less than a Graham a
piece and are about a centimeter in diameter. Um. They're Uh,
they're like a They're like a double sided button made
of chocolate and sugar. They're they're like they're like two
tiny frisbees, um, but the frizbees or sugar and then
(07:44):
you fill them with chocolate. I love it. It sounds
like something a very excited child like explaining to me,
you know, like frisbees fill. I feel I felt particularly
ridiculous doing this one because I'm like, you know what
(08:04):
Eminem's are. Everybody knows what eminem's are. I have numbers
about how everyone heck and knows what an eminem is
UM in our number section. But at any rate, Yeah,
that's in case you have just arrived here on this
planet and for some heck and reason, this episode of
Saver is the first thing you're doing. Well. We appreciate
(08:27):
your business for one, and just there's a lot of
other stuff out there, we'll say, but joining us gosh right, Um, okay,
so so Eminem's the base filling is just just solid
milk chocolate, but there are all kinds of varieties UM
(08:48):
inside that candy shell. Right this very moment, from the
Eminem's website, you could obtain um solid milk chocolate, solid
dark chocolate, solid white chocolate, solid mint chocolate, UM. A
whole peanut or almond covered in milk or dark or
white chocolate. A dab of sweetened peanut butter covered in chocolate,
A dab of soft caramels covered in chocolate, A dab
(09:10):
of chewy fudge covered in chocolate. A little bit of
pretzel or crisped rice that's either plain or flavored with
things like cocoa or popcorn, butter, question mark covered in chocolate, um.
They also come in minis, which are like half the
size of a normal eminem maybe a little bit less. Um.
And the company also sells baking bits which are a
(09:32):
little bit smaller than that's still um. Other seasonal flavors
will come up from time to time. I think there's
like a cookies and cream one right now for Halloween.
I've seen like key lime pie or strawberry cheesecake, or
like red velvet stuff like that. Um, these standard shell
colors are currently check me on this. I think this
(09:52):
is accurate. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, and brown. I
believe that is correct. I think that's right. Listeners. Listeners
will let us know if we are ingrid. Yeah, yeah,
I was too lazy to walk down to the convenience
store near me and buy a package of Eminem's to check.
(10:16):
I mean, that's a good question, though, I wonder, what
if is it possible to not get one of the
colors in a bag? Well, okay, so statistically speaking, I've
read I've read differing numbers for for what is supposed
to be in every bag versus um what actually winds
up being in every bag. So I'm not sure statistics
(10:39):
is weird. Statistics is is weird wibbly wobbly timey winey
kind of stuff. Um. But so so I didn't. I
didn't pull the numbers for that. It's a question that
is beyond me. Um. Uh. The standard packaging size is
right around like one point seven five ounces. That's right
(10:59):
around fifth Degraham's, which is in competition with the standard
size of chocolate bars in general. But yeah, you can
get much larger bags of loose candies, or you can
get like big bags filled with tiny bags to hand
out at Halloween or whatever. M hm. The company that
makes them, mars Now, offers all kinds of specialty orders
(11:20):
and personalization, including non standard shell colors, um and printed
designs including your own personalized text or line art or
gray scale photos that you can upload and have printed
onto Eminem's um different packaging. Like you know, if you
want special little bags of Eminem's at your party for
whatever occasion, you can do that. Uh. And the candies
(11:42):
are made by first making chocolate, which involves brief rundown
um roasting the seeds of the cacao plant, grinding them
into this oily liquid called chocolate liqueur um, and then
blending that with things like milk and milk products and
stabilizers and cocoa butter and flavorings. That's your milk chocolate. Okay.
(12:03):
You keep this in a in a warm liquid state
and pour it into tiny molds. Um. And then those
little pieces are cooled to firm up. They're tumbled until
they're smooth, and then cooled again to set. Once they're
set there, they're panned in this big rotating drum while
being sprayed with candy coating made of liquid sugar and
(12:24):
corn syrup at timed intervals on again and off again. UM.
The off cycles allow each new spraying of the candy
coating to to to dry and firm up. Several coats
are applied, and then a final coating containing food dye
and some like gloss kind of um is sprayed on
and once that dries, they're sifted onto this conveyor belt
that has a wee little indentation for each piece of candy,
(12:46):
and then their run under these rubber rollers that gently,
gently gently print the m onto each candy. They are
then packaged and sold. I know, right. I also love
that you included the font because I you know, I
love a good font. I love font facts. It's a
(13:07):
weird thing I do when I'm drunk where I'm like,
that's future. I could not I could not find the
name of the designer who came up with the because
because it is it is a specially drawn font that
is used for the ms and and the ampersand um.
But but it is very similar to a font. Oh
(13:29):
and I didn't write it down. Um that Adobe offers anyway,
I'll figure it out, I'll get on. Okay, okay, Well
what about the nutrition. It's it's a candy, it's a treat.
You know. They're kind of nutritionally dense with fats and sugars.
(13:50):
They will fill you up but will not keep you going. Um.
You know, like I said, the ones with peanuts or
almonds and them are a little bit more nutritionally complex.
They've got a little bit of proto and fiber from
the nuts in there. Treats are nice eat treats if
you like them. Yeah, yes, especially around all. Yes, we
(14:11):
do have some numbers for you. Oh we do. This
first one is confusing, though, I know. It's weird and wacky.
So over four million M and m's are made every day.
Are like way more than that. Because I also saw
another number that said two billion every eight hours. Yeah,
(14:34):
so the numbers vary wildly. I suspect either like total
like misreporting shenanigans on that discrepancy, or or that it's
like something like like total possible capacity versus average output
or numbers like before after different factories opened, or maybe
(14:57):
the number that's sold every eight hours for this is
the number that's produced. Um. I also read a hundred
million being produced every every day, but that was I think,
um circle like seven or maybe two thousand, So jury
is out on that. Yeah, there's a lot of Eminem's,
(15:20):
so well we can say that we could say that
safe safely say a bunch yes, more than two more
than two mm hmm. And they were one of the
top ranked candies in the US in breaking in almost
six hundred and eighty nine million dollars worth of sales.
According to candy store dot Com data from twenty nineteen,
(15:44):
Eminem's were the third most popular candy come Halloween. Some
sources report it takes the Mars company two years to
prepare for Halloween, And I'm like, well, then are they
not always just in a professional statu yeah, which they
might be. Um. According to you Gov of Americans recognize
(16:09):
the Eminem's brand and like them. Um and one percent
is like babies or even babies, like I'm not sure.
Uh uh okay, here's here's here's a specific one um.
(16:35):
The volume of your average single piece of of of
milk chocolate eminem um is zero point six three six
cubic centimeters. And when you pour a bunch of these randomly,
just just just pour him into a container, they will
fill approximately of that container space. So if you were
(17:01):
ever trying to guess the number of eminem's in a container,
you can estimate the volume of the container, put that
into cubic centimeters, multiply that by point six eight, and
then divide it by point six three six Easy, easy, easy.
I love it. I love someone figured this out. This
(17:22):
is the guy I've said, this is what I used
to do. I did it in a much more simple
way that I would count, like around the count how
many up estimate and I usually one? I usually one.
Got to take home a pumpkin that usually rotted because
we did it on October one or whatever year in Georgia. Sure, yeah, well, yes, yes, yes, yes,
(17:49):
oh I didn't want to include this. This is it
kind of cracks me up. And when I was researching this,
it did come up. Um, Eminem's are frequently a part
of celebrities writers, so like a contract or at least
an example of how to make sure people are reading
your contract. And like the example usually given is only
green Eminem's in my dressing room. Yeah, exactly, and then
(18:12):
if they don't read it, it's like a sign that
they haven't read it, if they don't mention the green
eminem thing. But apparently sometimes that's just what got signed
and so it had you had to provide only green
Eminem's for certain celebrities. So well, yeah, I'm yeah, I'm not.
I'm not sure if it's a total urban legend or not.
(18:34):
But if you if you were, if you were finding
it in your reading, then heck yeah. Um. Apparently the
Eminem's store in London is the world's largest candy store,
with four floors and thirty five thousand square feet of space. Dang. Yeah, okay,
(18:57):
all right, well how did we get to Oh there
is a bunch of interesting history and we are going
to get into that after we get back from a
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(19:17):
Thank you. Sponsor, Yes, thank you. Uh so super briefly chocolate. Um,
we have chocolate as we know it today because um.
South and Central Americans developed cacao for millennia, and then
colonizers brought ground cacao back to Europe. And then in
(19:37):
the mid eighteen hundreds, European candy makers developed the process
of separating cacao solids from cow fats and then recombining them,
often with additives like sugar and dairy products, into chocolate. Then,
in the late eighteen hundreds, one Milton Hershey saw a
(19:58):
chocolate statue the three Chicago World Expo and he was
like huh and decided to try manufacturing it himself and
was making chocolate bars by but Eminem's yes. Um, so,
let's start with the ms behind Eminem's Okay okay. Newark
(20:22):
Company founder forrest E Mars and son of Hershey Chocolate's president,
Bruce Murray. So Mars had this big blowout with his father,
who was the founder of the Mars Candy Company, and
so he decided to try to go make it on
his own, leave his dad behind, get his own thing.
Um two, He moved to England with the goal of
(20:45):
starting his own confectionery company Candy Lore tells us that
during a visit to Spain during the Spanish Civil War,
Mars witnessed soldiers eating candies that consisted of chocolate and
cased in a hard sugar che l um and this
intrigued him because chocolate melting during the summer was a
problem for most candy makers, and I know we've talked
(21:06):
about that and a lot of our candy or even
like confection episodes like the tutsi roll episode. Sure um, yeah,
because right like like no one had air conditioning then
refrigeration was still coming up, so it was harder to
make chocolate set up during hot summers, it was hard
to store it. Um sales dropped every year during the
warm seasons for these reasons. Yeah, which is fascinating now
(21:27):
because to me that's like you know, prime kids or
on the beach or whatever. So Mars took and or
stole this idea, depending on who's writing reporting it um
and ran with it. Because also English company Round Trees
of York released hard shelled Smarties in ninety seven, so
(21:51):
some people think that might have been the inspiration and
maybe he kind of stole the idea from from them, Um,
whatever the case. In the nineteen forties, Mars returned to
the US and founded M and M's Limited in Newark,
New Jersey, building a factory, refining the process and patenting it.
By one the public could get their hands on Eminem's
(22:12):
playing chocolate candies. Um ah, yeah they could, but it
was a bit a bit of a mass and we'll
get into that in a second. Um. He made a
strategic decision to join forces with Bruce Murray, taking into
account his connections to the Hershey Chocolate Company, which turned
out to be wise during World War Two when there's
chocolate rationing and Hershey dominated the chocolate market. The candies
(22:35):
were made with Hershey chocolate, and Mary got a steak
until Mars bottom out in nineteen nine for one million dollars.
So the candy first came in an easily transportable cardboard
tube and they were seen as a way to eat
chocolate and harsher conditions. Um, just like warmer conditions. But
um yeah, first they were primarily only available to American
(22:58):
soldiers because it's like ninety one, and then this chocolate
rationing hits, then we've got soldiers over there. So the
Newark factory produced about two hundred thousand pounds per week
when this was all happening, and a lot of that
did go overseas two soldiers and because of that, Eminem's
gained a following amongst American soldiers fighting in World War Two,
(23:20):
and they brought that loyalty and love back with them
when they returned home after the war. And then after
that Eminem's became once again more available at large. And
then you've got like these soldiers talking it up and
people really into the M and m's and they Eminem's
(23:40):
became so popular by the nineteen fifties that the company
came up with the idea of putting a stamp of
authenticity on each candy so you would know the real
eminem um a black M with and they had this
whole slogan called look for the M on every piece
as part of this campaign. In nineteen fifty four, the
(24:05):
M changed from black to white and eminem peanut chocolate
candies were introduced. The first animated eminem characters appeared that
year as well, and the slogan melts in your mouth,
not your hands also appeared. Yeah Yeah. In the nineteen sixties,
the brand developed Eminem's fruit shooes, which later developed into Starburst.
(24:27):
Oh interesting, um that all. Also in that decade, they
were offered in red, green, and yellow, but I did
I think it gets all. Once again, depending on what
source you're reading, this color conundrum can get quite drunky.
Yeah mm hmm. And speaking of yes, red Eminem's went
(24:50):
by the wayside in the nineteen seventies after a Russian
study suggested red dye number two with carcinogenic. Following tests
failed to proved this out, but still the FDA bandit.
In nineteen seventy six, and even though red Eminem's actually
didn't contain red diet number two, the company swapped out
Red Eminem's with orange ones. Red Eminem's didn't return onto
(25:16):
the scene until when a University of Tennessee undergrad named
Paul Heffman created the Society for the Restoration and Preservation
of Red Eminem's. This sounds like something I would do,
twist and fills, Oh gosh, yes, And it involved a
whole spoof junk mail campaign telling recipients that a lifetime
(25:39):
membership would cost only and only. A year after that,
Heffman got a letter from the pr manager at Eminem's
Mars at Eminem Mars. Yeah. Four years after that, red
Eminem's were back in circulation. The orange did not go away. Huh. Okay, okay.
(26:01):
Eminem's were the first candy to go to space. In
the nineteen eighties. Both the plane and peanut varieties were
chosen as the official snack foods of the Olympic Games
in nineteen eighty four. Eminem's went international in the eighties
as well. In President Ronald Reagan wrote the Mars company
requesting custom boxes, and his request was granted. And I
(26:24):
found that fact as a part of a larger article
asking why Eminem's were such a big deal at the
White House, and I read it and I decided not
to expound upon it. But this is still a thing.
So custom eminem peanut butter Eminem's were introduced in Night
nine tan Eminem's. Okay. This this is what confused me
(26:46):
because I found a lot of nostalgic articles for tan
Eminem's and then I couldn't really figure out when they
were introduced or when they were right. Yeah, yeah, so okay,
but but but they were removed in yes, and they
were replaced with blue. But yeah, these people are like
almost with the red Eminem kind of a similar thing,
(27:08):
like bring bring back my tan Eminem's. Yeah, but I
don't like I was alive when they were tan Eminem's
and I don't remember. I I remember them, and I
remember the hubbub when they were taken away. Oh really,
yeah hubub saying oh yeah, yeah, hot hot, debates in
(27:31):
the lunch room. Oh no, I'm sure. I'm sure. Well,
for some reason, this color thing really doesn't seem to
draw a lot of attention. Iron and passion. Um eminem
Minis were introduced in the first Eminem's world a K.
I think most people are maybe I call it the
eminem Store. UM opened that year as well. The Times
(27:56):
Square location opened to two thousand six, which, for some reason,
I just thought it's always been there. Are like, at
least I don't know longer than that. I mean, I
guess it's a decent amount of time, but huh uh. Yes,
and several other locations followed after that, including in Orlando
and London. The animated characters we know UM were introduced
(28:18):
in a more consistent manner, in part to jump start
the candies flagging popularity. In perhaps again one of those years,
UM the Red, Yellow, Blue, and green characters all debuted
at the same time. All but Green were male and
Green was sexy. Yeah yeah, yep, yep. And apparently this
(28:44):
is in part due to a nineteen seventies rumor that
green Eminem's were an afrodisiac. I think this is like
an urban legend more than like an actual rumor. But
I don't know. I wasn't there. I couldn't tell you.
Um Stoop's article if you want to look into the listeners. UM.
(29:05):
This modern iteration of the Eminem's animated characters were originally
a Red and Yellow are the two main characters, and
originally John Lovitts and John Goodman voiced them respectively. UM.
Later the roles were taken over by Billy West and J. K. Simmons. West,
if you're unfamiliar with his name, is a voice of
(29:28):
like everyone on Futurama basically, and also like everyone on
Redd and Stimpy, UM, lots of other things. Simmons has
long been j Jonah Jamison on screen, UM, and lots
of other film and voice work you wanted you want
an oscar in, I believe, which I think makes him
the only eminem two have won an Oscar Wow about times.
(29:54):
It wasn't for his work, as I'm sure it helped.
I'm sure it helped of course. Yeah, yes, Mars died
a billionaire in oh And that vote for the new
color of M and M's that I mentioned, that took
place in two thousand two. Over ten million people cast
(30:19):
their votes between purple, aqua and pink. Purple was the winner,
pretty pretty decent margin in then aqua and then pink. Also,
like that is a big number. But if my memory serves,
you could vote like once a day, and I was voting,
And if I'm also not mistaken, there is no longer
(30:40):
a purple eminem right, So we got all into it
and then it's it's it survives as one of those
like specialty colors that you can speciate, but no, it's
not in the main mix. That's yeah, that's true. I
mean they do change up the colors for like you
can get those pastel Easter one, yeah, your Halloween one.
That's true. But I remember I was mad about us,
(31:02):
like what we voted, we voted, it was a whole thing.
It turns out it was marketing all along. It was
marketing all along, and I fell for it a fine
and sinker every day on my slow internet connection. Come
on anyway, My M and M's launched in two four
(31:24):
which is this online service that allows folks to choose
custom messages to print on Eminem's. Yes. They up to
the game even more in two eight UM when they
launched my Faces, allowing for uploaded images to be printed
on M and m's um. And then also in two
thousand four UM, when my em and M's was launching this,
(31:47):
this paper came out in the journal Science that bear
with me for a second. It explored how spheroids and
ellipsoids are much better at packing into a space randomly
than perfect spheres are. I bring this up because the
research was directly inspired by Eminem's. Oh I'm I'm all
(32:09):
in okay, all about this? All right, all right, Well
you're in luck because I have a long tangent um. Yes, okay. So,
so the way that particles and larger objects fit into
spaces has been of scientific curiosity for for centuries um,
both on a on a macro like practical level of
figuring out how to package stuff for for storage and
(32:32):
transport and sale like um like say, storing grain and
a silo or in barrels or in soft bags. All right, um,
But also on the more micro level of observing how
molecules interact with each other in say glass or ceramics
or or heck and like in like catch up or
shampoo bottles. So when poured randomly into a container, um,
(32:56):
not like carefully fit in there, just poured randomly on
in its fears will slide around each other and occupy
about six of the space of the container. Mm hmm.
This study found that eminem's, which are again an oblate
spheroid um, when poured randomly, will occupy about sixty eight
percent of a container. Then these researchers modeled out an
(33:20):
ellipsoid sort of like an almond eminem, and it occupied
over seventy of the space when randomly poured. If you're
working with perfect spheres and you pack them into a
space in a perfect ordered crystalline arrangement, you only get
seventy four percent of the space filled. Oh my goodness, Kepler,
(33:44):
none less than Kepler predicted that in the fift hundreds.
It took us until prove him right. And all of
this is so fascinating because like, well, all right, all right,
On one level, you might be thinking, well, sure, spheres
are kind of awkward shape to pack into anything. Of course,
something with sort of stretched corners is going to pack
(34:04):
into a space better. But having the math to prove
it is really cool, um, because this research helped us
understand how particles with these different shapes slide and push
around each other like like little levers, and and then
settle up next to each other with lots of points
of contact with their surrounding neighbors. And this has implications
(34:26):
for everything from from how you get a non Newtonian
fluid like catchup out of a bottle um to how
you make a stronger, less porous ceramic material. And this
is a food show. Um. The research was inspired by
this physics professor at Princeton who tended to have for
(34:49):
his lunch a bag of M and m's and a
cup of coffee instead of a real lunch. And it
became like this running joke with his students, like at
one point he was surprised with a fifty five gallon
drum mostly filled with eminem's in his office. Uh. And
one day he created this apparatus to measure house fears
pack into things, and he asked one of his students
(35:11):
to try it with Eminem's and they did it better
than Speares, And like they did an m R I
of the container to make sure that there wasn't like
accidental crystalline structures forming. They created the software to model
out different shapes. It is. It is delightful. That is
so wonderful. I love like this just curiosity of that
(35:33):
kind of intersection of science and curiosity were like, huh,
what about what about m R I. I gotta get
to the bottom of this. Oh, it's so cool. Um.
The press release about all of this from Princeton contained
the disclaimer um Eminem is a registered trademark of Mars Incorporated.
(35:57):
The company has no financial ties to the research all
the It did donate a hundred and twenty pounds of
almond Eminem's to the professor. It was all a plan,
a scheme to get some Eminem's. I see you respect.
I feel like that would be so great. If you're
(36:19):
watching something like True Detective and Matthew McConaughey starts talking
about oblate serrois or something, and then it takes you
like a full minute before you were like, are you
talking about eminem? Are you talking about heck and Eminem's,
my dude, and he's like yes, and then explains how
it relates to the meaningless of the life in our universe.
(36:43):
Let me just eat my M and m's and peace.
Ah oh my goodness. Um m hm uh. Back to
our timeline and two eight, Eminem's brand started sponsoring a
(37:04):
NASCAR team. Yes, I believe I have seen that car
brightly colored Eminem's on it. It does, it does? Uh huh.
The Eminem character Mrs Brown made her big debut during
the twelve Super Bowl. Ms Brown, I believe, oh excuse me,
(37:27):
voice by no less than Vanessa Williams in eminem Caramel
candies were launched, so there's still yeah, innovation. Sure what
they can put in Eminem Well watch the future with excitement.
(37:51):
Absolutely absolutely. Maybe one day my peanut Eminem's will be dethroned,
but I doubt it. A big part of candy is nostalgia, absolutely, yeah,
especially surrounding like a holiday like Halloween. Yeah yeah. And
I was just thinking about how a lot of the
candies I like that I liked from a kid, and
that are the ones I tried to get now are
all very brightly colored in their packaging. Um. And and
(38:16):
it's interesting with Eminem's because it's like the peanut ones
has the yellow package and the regular ones as the
brown package, and you know they just separate for me.
It's that like yellow package. Yeah. No, it's very it's
very flashy. Those ah, those marketing kids knew what they
were doing. They did. They did once again, hooked line
and sinker. They got me, They got me. I was burned,
(38:39):
and yet I didn't learn my lesson once again. Oh well,
I suppose that's what we have to say about Eminem's
for now. It is. It is um. We do have
some listener mail for you, though, we do, but first
we have one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you.
(39:08):
We're back with listen following the Dark Night, the Chill
in the Air, My horror movie rotation is already like
taken off. Goodness. I mean, I kinda I kind of
(39:30):
never stopped, but yeah, I don't either, but I do
have you know, the classics Halloween. Sure, I see you
all right, m hmm. Lida wrote, I was listening to
your episode about Marlow and the listener mail about a pancake.
Corn Dog unlocked a memory for me. In elementary school,
(39:51):
we would get breakfast for lunch a few times a week.
Sometimes it was French toe sticks. Once a month would
get a funnel cake. Really not sure how that was allowed,
but a lot of times it was the breakfast version
of a corn dog. Like the listener mail, the outside
was a pancake, but the inside was a breakfast sausage
instead of a hot dog. We would dip the whole
thing in syrup. It was amazing. Would definitely recommend. Also,
(40:17):
as I listened to the corn Dog episode, one phrase
popped into my mind corn dog nuggets. I went to
Virginia Tech and one of the dining halls deats was
open late at night and they had corn dog nuckets.
It's basically what it sounds like, bite sized versions of
a corn dog, but without the sticks. Definitely one of
those things you get at one am after enjoying some beverages.
(40:40):
I like them on occasion, but my friends were obsessed. Anyways,
Thanks for prompting me on a trip down memory lane. Ah.
I love how again these foods have the It does
so often take you back to a specific time and place. Yeah, Yeah, yeah,
I feel like I've seen that kind of pancake breakfast
(41:03):
soft it's syrup thing at like fast food places to
be wrong. Um. And also yeah, my I love these
foods that get a cult following at uh like college camp. Sure,
but there was one at Georgia Tech called Chocolate Love.
And I mean you would hear the whispers in the air,
(41:25):
Lauren when Chocolate Love was being served, everyone like make
their way to the dining a. What was Chocolate Love?
It was like it was just kind of a but
it was like what I would call almost um, a
caramel chocolate turtle, so like pecans and caramel and chocolate,
(41:46):
but it was layered so almost like it was a
weird combination of like that minus the fudge plus the
chocolate cake. It was good, but it was a lot. Yeah,
I might be misremembering, so if anyone happens to know
what I'm talking about, because I'm not that huge into
(42:08):
sweets and I don't like caramel, so chocolate look like
I was all for it, but I was, yeah, usually
was going for But I bet if anybody went to
check it, if you can tell us what it is,
I would love. There's like one person that made it too.
She's working tonight, maybe she's chocolate love. Huh. Yeah. I
(42:30):
missed out on a lot of that culture because I
never never had a meal plan um in college. Um.
And I never had the school lunch in in high school.
So um uh yeah, I never I never gained those
you know, personal affiliations with those kinds of foods. Um.
But huh indeed, Yeah, when I do love a corn puff,
(42:54):
um that those corn dog nuggets uh round round about
here or at least where I have them, They're usually
called corn pups, and uh for some reason, like a
whole corn dog. I'm like, are you kidding? Why would
I want that? Like maybe three corn pups. I'm like, definitely,
I will eat that. I wonder if it has something
(43:16):
to do with like the ratio going on. I'm sure
I'm positive there's something like that, or or right right,
the different levels of crispiness, or like the surface area
and the dip ability. I'm not sure. I'm not sure
the factors. Well, um Bob wrote, I'm back in the UK,
(43:37):
and yesterday, when my plans for paragliding in the south
of England were thwarted by the weather there, I elected
instead to travel to the west from London to Reading
in search of the Foroberry Park mulberry tree that Lauren
mentioned in your Mulberry episode to find out what had
become of it, hoping to be able to send her
happy news and photos of it having been saved after
its collapse. Alas this was not the case. Attack instead
(44:00):
are some pictures of its remains. Sorry, Lauren. Indeed, so
the pictures are like a just kind of husk of
a tree trunk, got like a fence around. It looks nice.
It's got a little memorial plot. Well, it lives on.
(44:24):
It lives on. I went looking for for pictures. This
was so long ago. I went looking for some pictures.
I'll maybe I'll post some memorial pictures on yes to
the mulberry tree on social media somewhere. Um yeah, well,
thank you, thank you for looking, Bob, I appreciate that. Yes, yes, um,
(44:47):
And thanks to both of them for writing to us.
If you would like to write to us, we would
love to hear from you our emails Hello at Savior
pod dot com. And you can find us on the
aforementioned social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at savor pod.
And we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
(45:07):
you can visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Favor Protection of My Heart Radio.
I'm Any Rees and I'm Lauren Bolga Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about Eminem's. Yes, Eminem's
not a sponsor, Nope, nope, uh nope. But as this
comes out, it is the first day of October, it is,
and so our Halloween programming has begun. It has commenced.
(00:34):
It never like officially ends. We just kind of, yeah, yeah,
we lessen our our horror episodes and references. But yeah, yeah,
both of us are very much if y'all could not
tell very much, Halloween is everyday kind of humans. So yes, yes,
in a lot of ways, but this is the month
(00:55):
where it's you know, kind of acceptable, so we lean
into it immediately immediately. Yeah, Lauren was on the ball.
She's like, okay, it's October one. Let's come in with
one of your five Halloween candies. You've gotta have um which, yes,
Eminem's and specifically eminem Peanuts Okay, okay, are one of
(01:18):
the five Halloween candies that I have to find. I
cannot purchase them. You have to you have to like
find them in the wild, that they have to come
to you. Yes, they have to arrive in my world naturally. Um.
I can try to hunt them down, I just cannot
purchase them or else. All Right, It's just like a
(01:40):
tradition that I have. It's not Halloween unless I find
these five candies. Um. And then I do love I
love eminem pe nuts especially, And every time I hang out,
I have a group of friends that I've had since
like elementary school, and every time we hang out, somebody
always brings like the most ridiculously large bag, big bag
(02:01):
of Costco purchased peanut Eminem's. And I'm always like, no
way are we going to eat all of those? And
absolutely we do and usually have to go get some more.
Oh my goodness. Wow. Um. And I think I've told
this story too, but I got really into I think
I was in seventh grade when this happened somewhere around there. Um,
(02:22):
when they were like the new color of eminem it
was pink, teal and purple. I want a teal to
get it, but purple one, purple one, And we'll be
discussing that in the street. Um. And then yeah, I've
definitely I've gone. I've done the tourist thing. I've been
to the Eminem store in New York. I've taken the
(02:44):
Eminem test there. I'm a brown Eminem. What is what
does that mean? Oh? I read it and I remember
it being like I haven't seen them with the other
tests like the other colors. Yeah, so I can't say
if they're like very different at all, but this one
was very the puns were the puns were strong with
(03:07):
this one. It was a much like you're sweet, you know,
like a lot of things like that. You've got a
hard shill and sweetness inside, which makes me think they're
all very similar results. Um. And then I do have
a very epic pair of Eminem shorts. I don't know
if you've seen them. I think you have, um, like
my favorite the Jama shorts. Oh sure, yeah, yeah, yeah totally.
(03:31):
And they they feature prominently in many what I consider
infamous pictures that I've been Like, there's one that meet
my friend the same group of friends we take a
family phote every year, and there's one where the Eminem
shorts are, you know, just on full display, and we
recently tried to recreate that photo. It was pretty Anyway,
(03:56):
I love those shorts. Well heck yeah, heck yeah, that's
that's fabulous. Um, I cannot say that I have as
strong of a of a brand loyalty to Eminem's as
you do. Um, They're they're candy. They're fine. Uh. If
I'm going to grab a like candy bar kind of situation, uh,
(04:20):
peanut or almond, Eminem's are probably somewhere on the list
of something that I might describe from a convenient store
because I feel like, because they have actual whole nuts
in them, they're like more of a food, right, I
feel like I'm doing something good for myself. I don't
know if that's yeah, yeah, I'm definitely. One of my
(04:43):
friends from this group has made the argument that it's
like it's like getting her protein and for the day
or something. I'm not sure that's how that works. That okay, no,
but yeah sure yeah. And I mean a lot of
my my candies that are in my Halloween lie and
I do have that kind of elements of its, like peanut, butter,
(05:04):
nuts or something going on in them. Um. And I
don't eat candy very often, which I know I've discussed before,
and some a listener recently reached out to me and
was like, I just need to know more. I need
you to explain what's going on here, and I'm okay,
I'm happy to explain, but it is very exciting. Um.
And that being said, we have done past episodes on chocolate.
(05:27):
Reese's just one of my big candies, kick Cats one
of them, Um, candy corn not one, and the Simpsons
kind of because we talked about Butterfinger babies in there,
and Butterfinger is one of one of my candies, right
right right yeah, um, yeah, I'll also see our episode
about sustainability from our Oahu mini series, um and uh,
(05:53):
our interview with French Broad Chocolates in Asheville. Yeah, fun times,
Oh absolutely, yeah yeah those where Yeah, the sustainability episode
uses chocolate as a sort of case study. UM. And
I will say that, um, the sustainability and labor practices
(06:13):
behind Mars, which is the company that owns Eminem's, are questionable,
but that's not that's not what this episode is about. Today.
We're we're kind of focusing on the brand. Um. We
can we can go into gritty details at a at
a different date in time, yes, but not this state
(06:34):
in time. Yeah, not today, you guys, Yeah, not today.
We did talk about some that seminar chocolate episode is sure,
but for now I guess we should get to right question. Eminem's.
What are they? Well? Uh, Eminem's are a brand of
(06:58):
candy consisting of small, all uniform, individual dabs of chocolate,
sometimes and or other stuff UM encased in a stiff
sugar shells that are brightly colored on the outside and
then stamped with the seraph letter M in edible white
ink um. Each piece will vary a little bit due
to manufacturing, but they're generally oblate spheroids. That is, they're
(07:22):
they're squished spheres that the taper at their rounded edges UM,
that weigh a little bit less than a Graham a
piece and are about a centimeter in diameter. Um. They're Uh,
they're like a They're like a double sided button made
of chocolate and sugar. They're they're like they're like two
tiny frisbees, um, but the frizbees or sugar and then
(07:44):
you fill them with chocolate. I love it. It sounds
like something a very excited child like explaining to me,
you know, like frisbees fill. I feel I felt particularly
ridiculous doing this one because I'm like, you know what
(08:04):
Eminem's are. Everybody knows what eminem's are. I have numbers
about how everyone heck and knows what an eminem is
UM in our number section. But at any rate, Yeah,
that's in case you have just arrived here on this
planet and for some heck and reason, this episode of
Saver is the first thing you're doing. Well. We appreciate
(08:27):
your business for one, and just there's a lot of
other stuff out there, we'll say, but joining us gosh right, Um, okay,
so so Eminem's the base filling is just just solid
milk chocolate, but there are all kinds of varieties UM
(08:48):
inside that candy shell. Right this very moment, from the
Eminem's website, you could obtain um solid milk chocolate, solid
dark chocolate, solid white chocolate, solid mint chocolate, UM. A
whole peanut or almond covered in milk or dark or
white chocolate. A dab of sweetened peanut butter covered in chocolate,
A dab of soft caramels covered in chocolate, A dab
(09:10):
of chewy fudge covered in chocolate. A little bit of
pretzel or crisped rice that's either plain or flavored with
things like cocoa or popcorn, butter, question mark covered in chocolate, um.
They also come in minis, which are like half the
size of a normal eminem maybe a little bit less. Um.
And the company also sells baking bits which are a
(09:32):
little bit smaller than that's still um. Other seasonal flavors
will come up from time to time. I think there's
like a cookies and cream one right now for Halloween.
I've seen like key lime pie or strawberry cheesecake, or
like red velvet stuff like that. Um, these standard shell
colors are currently check me on this. I think this
(09:52):
is accurate. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, and brown. I
believe that is correct. I think that's right. Listeners. Listeners
will let us know if we are ingrid. Yeah, yeah,
I was too lazy to walk down to the convenience
store near me and buy a package of Eminem's to check.
(10:16):
I mean, that's a good question, though, I wonder, what
if is it possible to not get one of the
colors in a bag? Well, okay, so statistically speaking, I've
read I've read differing numbers for for what is supposed
to be in every bag versus um what actually winds
up being in every bag. So I'm not sure statistics
(10:39):
is weird. Statistics is is weird wibbly wobbly timey winey
kind of stuff. Um. But so so I didn't. I
didn't pull the numbers for that. It's a question that
is beyond me. Um. Uh. The standard packaging size is
right around like one point seven five ounces. That's right
(10:59):
around fifth Degraham's, which is in competition with the standard
size of chocolate bars in general. But yeah, you can
get much larger bags of loose candies, or you can
get like big bags filled with tiny bags to hand
out at Halloween or whatever. M hm. The company that
makes them, mars Now, offers all kinds of specialty orders
(11:20):
and personalization, including non standard shell colors, um and printed
designs including your own personalized text or line art or
gray scale photos that you can upload and have printed
onto Eminem's um different packaging. Like you know, if you
want special little bags of Eminem's at your party for
whatever occasion, you can do that. Uh. And the candies
(11:42):
are made by first making chocolate, which involves brief rundown
um roasting the seeds of the cacao plant, grinding them
into this oily liquid called chocolate liqueur um, and then
blending that with things like milk and milk products and
stabilizers and cocoa butter and flavorings. That's your milk chocolate. Okay.
(12:03):
You keep this in a in a warm liquid state
and pour it into tiny molds. Um. And then those
little pieces are cooled to firm up. They're tumbled until
they're smooth, and then cooled again to set. Once they're
set there, they're panned in this big rotating drum while
being sprayed with candy coating made of liquid sugar and
(12:24):
corn syrup at timed intervals on again and off again. UM.
The off cycles allow each new spraying of the candy
coating to to to dry and firm up. Several coats
are applied, and then a final coating containing food dye
and some like gloss kind of um is sprayed on
and once that dries, they're sifted onto this conveyor belt
that has a wee little indentation for each piece of candy,
(12:46):
and then their run under these rubber rollers that gently,
gently gently print the m onto each candy. They are
then packaged and sold. I know, right. I also love
that you included the font because I you know, I
love a good font. I love font facts. It's a
(13:07):
weird thing I do when I'm drunk where I'm like,
that's future. I could not I could not find the
name of the designer who came up with the because
because it is it is a specially drawn font that
is used for the ms and and the ampersand um.
But but it is very similar to a font. Oh
(13:29):
and I didn't write it down. Um that Adobe offers anyway,
I'll figure it out, I'll get on. Okay, okay, Well
what about the nutrition. It's it's a candy, it's a treat.
You know. They're kind of nutritionally dense with fats and sugars.
(13:50):
They will fill you up but will not keep you going. Um.
You know, like I said, the ones with peanuts or
almonds and them are a little bit more nutritionally complex.
They've got a little bit of proto and fiber from
the nuts in there. Treats are nice eat treats if
you like them. Yeah, yes, especially around all. Yes, we
(14:11):
do have some numbers for you. Oh we do. This
first one is confusing, though, I know. It's weird and wacky.
So over four million M and m's are made every day.
Are like way more than that. Because I also saw
another number that said two billion every eight hours. Yeah,
(14:34):
so the numbers vary wildly. I suspect either like total
like misreporting shenanigans on that discrepancy, or or that it's
like something like like total possible capacity versus average output
or numbers like before after different factories opened, or maybe
(14:57):
the number that's sold every eight hours for this is
the number that's produced. Um. I also read a hundred
million being produced every every day, but that was I think,
um circle like seven or maybe two thousand, So jury
is out on that. Yeah, there's a lot of Eminem's,
(15:20):
so well we can say that we could say that
safe safely say a bunch yes, more than two more
than two mm hmm. And they were one of the
top ranked candies in the US in breaking in almost
six hundred and eighty nine million dollars worth of sales.
According to candy store dot Com data from twenty nineteen,
(15:44):
Eminem's were the third most popular candy come Halloween. Some
sources report it takes the Mars company two years to
prepare for Halloween, And I'm like, well, then are they
not always just in a professional statu yeah, which they
might be. Um. According to you Gov of Americans recognize
(16:09):
the Eminem's brand and like them. Um and one percent
is like babies or even babies, like I'm not sure.
Uh uh okay, here's here's here's a specific one um.
(16:35):
The volume of your average single piece of of of
milk chocolate eminem um is zero point six three six
cubic centimeters. And when you pour a bunch of these randomly,
just just just pour him into a container, they will
fill approximately of that container space. So if you were
(17:01):
ever trying to guess the number of eminem's in a container,
you can estimate the volume of the container, put that
into cubic centimeters, multiply that by point six eight, and
then divide it by point six three six Easy, easy, easy.
I love it. I love someone figured this out. This
(17:22):
is the guy I've said, this is what I used
to do. I did it in a much more simple
way that I would count, like around the count how
many up estimate and I usually one? I usually one.
Got to take home a pumpkin that usually rotted because
we did it on October one or whatever year in Georgia. Sure, yeah, well, yes, yes, yes, yes,
(17:49):
oh I didn't want to include this. This is it
kind of cracks me up. And when I was researching this,
it did come up. Um, Eminem's are frequently a part
of celebrities writers, so like a contract or at least
an example of how to make sure people are reading
your contract. And like the example usually given is only
green Eminem's in my dressing room. Yeah, exactly, and then
(18:12):
if they don't read it, it's like a sign that
they haven't read it, if they don't mention the green
eminem thing. But apparently sometimes that's just what got signed
and so it had you had to provide only green
Eminem's for certain celebrities. So well, yeah, I'm yeah, I'm not.
I'm not sure if it's a total urban legend or not.
(18:34):
But if you if you were, if you were finding
it in your reading, then heck yeah. Um. Apparently the
Eminem's store in London is the world's largest candy store,
with four floors and thirty five thousand square feet of space. Dang. Yeah, okay,
(18:57):
all right, well how did we get to Oh there
is a bunch of interesting history and we are going
to get into that after we get back from a
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(19:17):
Thank you. Sponsor, Yes, thank you. Uh so super briefly chocolate. Um,
we have chocolate as we know it today because um.
South and Central Americans developed cacao for millennia, and then
colonizers brought ground cacao back to Europe. And then in
(19:37):
the mid eighteen hundreds, European candy makers developed the process
of separating cacao solids from cow fats and then recombining them,
often with additives like sugar and dairy products, into chocolate. Then,
in the late eighteen hundreds, one Milton Hershey saw a
(19:58):
chocolate statue the three Chicago World Expo and he was
like huh and decided to try manufacturing it himself and
was making chocolate bars by but Eminem's yes. Um, so,
let's start with the ms behind Eminem's Okay okay. Newark
(20:22):
Company founder forrest E Mars and son of Hershey Chocolate's president,
Bruce Murray. So Mars had this big blowout with his father,
who was the founder of the Mars Candy Company, and
so he decided to try to go make it on
his own, leave his dad behind, get his own thing.
Um two, He moved to England with the goal of
(20:45):
starting his own confectionery company Candy Lore tells us that
during a visit to Spain during the Spanish Civil War,
Mars witnessed soldiers eating candies that consisted of chocolate and
cased in a hard sugar che l um and this
intrigued him because chocolate melting during the summer was a
problem for most candy makers, and I know we've talked
(21:06):
about that and a lot of our candy or even
like confection episodes like the tutsi roll episode. Sure um, yeah,
because right like like no one had air conditioning then
refrigeration was still coming up, so it was harder to
make chocolate set up during hot summers, it was hard
to store it. Um sales dropped every year during the
warm seasons for these reasons. Yeah, which is fascinating now
(21:27):
because to me that's like you know, prime kids or
on the beach or whatever. So Mars took and or
stole this idea, depending on who's writing reporting it um
and ran with it. Because also English company Round Trees
of York released hard shelled Smarties in ninety seven, so
(21:51):
some people think that might have been the inspiration and
maybe he kind of stole the idea from from them, Um,
whatever the case. In the nineteen forties, Mars returned to
the US and founded M and M's Limited in Newark,
New Jersey, building a factory, refining the process and patenting it.
By one the public could get their hands on Eminem's
(22:12):
playing chocolate candies. Um ah, yeah they could, but it
was a bit a bit of a mass and we'll
get into that in a second. Um. He made a
strategic decision to join forces with Bruce Murray, taking into
account his connections to the Hershey Chocolate Company, which turned
out to be wise during World War Two when there's
chocolate rationing and Hershey dominated the chocolate market. The candies
(22:35):
were made with Hershey chocolate, and Mary got a steak
until Mars bottom out in nineteen nine for one million dollars.
So the candy first came in an easily transportable cardboard
tube and they were seen as a way to eat
chocolate and harsher conditions. Um, just like warmer conditions. But
um yeah, first they were primarily only available to American
(22:58):
soldiers because it's like ninety one, and then this chocolate
rationing hits, then we've got soldiers over there. So the
Newark factory produced about two hundred thousand pounds per week
when this was all happening, and a lot of that
did go overseas two soldiers and because of that, Eminem's
gained a following amongst American soldiers fighting in World War Two,
(23:20):
and they brought that loyalty and love back with them
when they returned home after the war. And then after
that Eminem's became once again more available at large. And
then you've got like these soldiers talking it up and
people really into the M and m's and they Eminem's
(23:40):
became so popular by the nineteen fifties that the company
came up with the idea of putting a stamp of
authenticity on each candy so you would know the real
eminem um a black M with and they had this
whole slogan called look for the M on every piece
as part of this campaign. In nineteen fifty four, the
(24:05):
M changed from black to white and eminem peanut chocolate
candies were introduced. The first animated eminem characters appeared that
year as well, and the slogan melts in your mouth,
not your hands also appeared. Yeah Yeah. In the nineteen sixties,
the brand developed Eminem's fruit shooes, which later developed into Starburst.
(24:27):
Oh interesting, um that all. Also in that decade, they
were offered in red, green, and yellow, but I did
I think it gets all. Once again, depending on what
source you're reading, this color conundrum can get quite drunky.
Yeah mm hmm. And speaking of yes, red Eminem's went
(24:50):
by the wayside in the nineteen seventies after a Russian
study suggested red dye number two with carcinogenic. Following tests
failed to proved this out, but still the FDA bandit.
In nineteen seventy six, and even though red Eminem's actually
didn't contain red diet number two, the company swapped out
Red Eminem's with orange ones. Red Eminem's didn't return onto
(25:16):
the scene until when a University of Tennessee undergrad named
Paul Heffman created the Society for the Restoration and Preservation
of Red Eminem's. This sounds like something I would do,
twist and fills, Oh gosh, yes, And it involved a
whole spoof junk mail campaign telling recipients that a lifetime
(25:39):
membership would cost only and only. A year after that,
Heffman got a letter from the pr manager at Eminem's
Mars at Eminem Mars. Yeah. Four years after that, red
Eminem's were back in circulation. The orange did not go away. Huh. Okay, okay.
(26:01):
Eminem's were the first candy to go to space. In
the nineteen eighties. Both the plane and peanut varieties were
chosen as the official snack foods of the Olympic Games
in nineteen eighty four. Eminem's went international in the eighties
as well. In President Ronald Reagan wrote the Mars company
requesting custom boxes, and his request was granted. And I
(26:24):
found that fact as a part of a larger article
asking why Eminem's were such a big deal at the
White House, and I read it and I decided not
to expound upon it. But this is still a thing.
So custom eminem peanut butter Eminem's were introduced in Night
nine tan Eminem's. Okay. This this is what confused me
(26:46):
because I found a lot of nostalgic articles for tan
Eminem's and then I couldn't really figure out when they
were introduced or when they were right. Yeah, yeah, so okay,
but but but they were removed in yes, and they
were replaced with blue. But yeah, these people are like
almost with the red Eminem kind of a similar thing,
(27:08):
like bring bring back my tan Eminem's. Yeah, but I
don't like I was alive when they were tan Eminem's
and I don't remember. I I remember them, and I
remember the hubbub when they were taken away. Oh really,
yeah hubub saying oh yeah, yeah, hot hot, debates in
(27:31):
the lunch room. Oh no, I'm sure. I'm sure. Well,
for some reason, this color thing really doesn't seem to
draw a lot of attention. Iron and passion. Um eminem
Minis were introduced in the first Eminem's world a K.
I think most people are maybe I call it the
eminem Store. UM opened that year as well. The Times
(27:56):
Square location opened to two thousand six, which, for some reason,
I just thought it's always been there. Are like, at
least I don't know longer than that. I mean, I
guess it's a decent amount of time, but huh uh. Yes,
and several other locations followed after that, including in Orlando
and London. The animated characters we know UM were introduced
(28:18):
in a more consistent manner, in part to jump start
the candies flagging popularity. In perhaps again one of those years,
UM the Red, Yellow, Blue, and green characters all debuted
at the same time. All but Green were male and
Green was sexy. Yeah yeah, yep, yep. And apparently this
(28:44):
is in part due to a nineteen seventies rumor that
green Eminem's were an afrodisiac. I think this is like
an urban legend more than like an actual rumor. But
I don't know. I wasn't there. I couldn't tell you.
Um Stoop's article if you want to look into the listeners. UM.
(29:05):
This modern iteration of the Eminem's animated characters were originally
a Red and Yellow are the two main characters, and
originally John Lovitts and John Goodman voiced them respectively. UM.
Later the roles were taken over by Billy West and J. K. Simmons. West,
if you're unfamiliar with his name, is a voice of
(29:28):
like everyone on Futurama basically, and also like everyone on
Redd and Stimpy, UM, lots of other things. Simmons has
long been j Jonah Jamison on screen, UM, and lots
of other film and voice work you wanted you want
an oscar in, I believe, which I think makes him
the only eminem two have won an Oscar Wow about times.
(29:54):
It wasn't for his work, as I'm sure it helped.
I'm sure it helped of course. Yeah, yes, Mars died
a billionaire in oh And that vote for the new
color of M and M's that I mentioned, that took
place in two thousand two. Over ten million people cast
(30:19):
their votes between purple, aqua and pink. Purple was the winner,
pretty pretty decent margin in then aqua and then pink. Also,
like that is a big number. But if my memory serves,
you could vote like once a day, and I was voting,
And if I'm also not mistaken, there is no longer
(30:40):
a purple eminem right, So we got all into it
and then it's it's it survives as one of those
like specialty colors that you can speciate, but no, it's
not in the main mix. That's yeah, that's true. I
mean they do change up the colors for like you
can get those pastel Easter one, yeah, your Halloween one.
That's true. But I remember I was mad about us,
(31:02):
like what we voted, we voted, it was a whole thing.
It turns out it was marketing all along. It was
marketing all along, and I fell for it a fine
and sinker every day on my slow internet connection. Come
on anyway, My M and M's launched in two four
(31:24):
which is this online service that allows folks to choose
custom messages to print on Eminem's. Yes. They up to
the game even more in two eight UM when they
launched my Faces, allowing for uploaded images to be printed
on M and m's um. And then also in two
thousand four UM, when my em and M's was launching this,
(31:47):
this paper came out in the journal Science that bear
with me for a second. It explored how spheroids and
ellipsoids are much better at packing into a space randomly
than perfect spheres are. I bring this up because the
research was directly inspired by Eminem's. Oh I'm I'm all
(32:09):
in okay, all about this? All right, all right, Well
you're in luck because I have a long tangent um. Yes, okay. So,
so the way that particles and larger objects fit into
spaces has been of scientific curiosity for for centuries um,
both on a on a macro like practical level of
figuring out how to package stuff for for storage and
(32:32):
transport and sale like um like say, storing grain and
a silo or in barrels or in soft bags. All right, um,
But also on the more micro level of observing how
molecules interact with each other in say glass or ceramics
or or heck and like in like catch up or
shampoo bottles. So when poured randomly into a container, um,
(32:56):
not like carefully fit in there, just poured randomly on
in its fears will slide around each other and occupy
about six of the space of the container. Mm hmm.
This study found that eminem's, which are again an oblate
spheroid um, when poured randomly, will occupy about sixty eight
percent of a container. Then these researchers modeled out an
(33:20):
ellipsoid sort of like an almond eminem, and it occupied
over seventy of the space when randomly poured. If you're
working with perfect spheres and you pack them into a
space in a perfect ordered crystalline arrangement, you only get
seventy four percent of the space filled. Oh my goodness, Kepler,
(33:44):
none less than Kepler predicted that in the fift hundreds.
It took us until prove him right. And all of
this is so fascinating because like, well, all right, all right,
On one level, you might be thinking, well, sure, spheres
are kind of awkward shape to pack into anything. Of course,
something with sort of stretched corners is going to pack
(34:04):
into a space better. But having the math to prove
it is really cool, um, because this research helped us
understand how particles with these different shapes slide and push
around each other like like little levers, and and then
settle up next to each other with lots of points
of contact with their surrounding neighbors. And this has implications
(34:26):
for everything from from how you get a non Newtonian
fluid like catchup out of a bottle um to how
you make a stronger, less porous ceramic material. And this
is a food show. Um. The research was inspired by
this physics professor at Princeton who tended to have for
(34:49):
his lunch a bag of M and m's and a
cup of coffee instead of a real lunch. And it
became like this running joke with his students, like at
one point he was surprised with a fifty five gallon
drum mostly filled with eminem's in his office. Uh. And
one day he created this apparatus to measure house fears
pack into things, and he asked one of his students
(35:11):
to try it with Eminem's and they did it better
than Speares, And like they did an m R I
of the container to make sure that there wasn't like
accidental crystalline structures forming. They created the software to model
out different shapes. It is. It is delightful. That is
so wonderful. I love like this just curiosity of that
(35:33):
kind of intersection of science and curiosity were like, huh,
what about what about m R I. I gotta get
to the bottom of this. Oh, it's so cool. Um.
The press release about all of this from Princeton contained
the disclaimer um Eminem is a registered trademark of Mars Incorporated.
(35:57):
The company has no financial ties to the research all
the It did donate a hundred and twenty pounds of
almond Eminem's to the professor. It was all a plan,
a scheme to get some Eminem's. I see you respect.
I feel like that would be so great. If you're
(36:19):
watching something like True Detective and Matthew McConaughey starts talking
about oblate serrois or something, and then it takes you
like a full minute before you were like, are you
talking about eminem? Are you talking about heck and Eminem's,
my dude, and he's like yes, and then explains how
it relates to the meaningless of the life in our universe.
(36:43):
Let me just eat my M and m's and peace.
Ah oh my goodness. Um m hm uh. Back to
our timeline and two eight, Eminem's brand started sponsoring a
(37:04):
NASCAR team. Yes, I believe I have seen that car
brightly colored Eminem's on it. It does, it does? Uh huh.
The Eminem character Mrs Brown made her big debut during
the twelve Super Bowl. Ms Brown, I believe, oh excuse me,
(37:27):
voice by no less than Vanessa Williams in eminem Caramel
candies were launched, so there's still yeah, innovation. Sure what
they can put in Eminem Well watch the future with excitement.
(37:51):
Absolutely absolutely. Maybe one day my peanut Eminem's will be dethroned,
but I doubt it. A big part of candy is nostalgia, absolutely, yeah,
especially surrounding like a holiday like Halloween. Yeah yeah. And
I was just thinking about how a lot of the
candies I like that I liked from a kid, and
that are the ones I tried to get now are
all very brightly colored in their packaging. Um. And and
(38:16):
it's interesting with Eminem's because it's like the peanut ones
has the yellow package and the regular ones as the
brown package, and you know they just separate for me.
It's that like yellow package. Yeah. No, it's very it's
very flashy. Those ah, those marketing kids knew what they
were doing. They did. They did once again, hooked line
and sinker. They got me, They got me. I was burned,
(38:39):
and yet I didn't learn my lesson once again. Oh well,
I suppose that's what we have to say about Eminem's
for now. It is. It is um. We do have
some listener mail for you, though, we do, but first
we have one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you.
(39:08):
We're back with listen following the Dark Night, the Chill
in the Air, My horror movie rotation is already like
taken off. Goodness. I mean, I kinda I kind of
(39:30):
never stopped, but yeah, I don't either, but I do
have you know, the classics Halloween. Sure, I see you
all right, m hmm. Lida wrote, I was listening to
your episode about Marlow and the listener mail about a pancake.
Corn Dog unlocked a memory for me. In elementary school,
(39:51):
we would get breakfast for lunch a few times a week.
Sometimes it was French toe sticks. Once a month would
get a funnel cake. Really not sure how that was allowed,
but a lot of times it was the breakfast version
of a corn dog. Like the listener mail, the outside
was a pancake, but the inside was a breakfast sausage
instead of a hot dog. We would dip the whole
thing in syrup. It was amazing. Would definitely recommend. Also,
(40:17):
as I listened to the corn Dog episode, one phrase
popped into my mind corn dog nuggets. I went to
Virginia Tech and one of the dining halls deats was
open late at night and they had corn dog nuckets.
It's basically what it sounds like, bite sized versions of
a corn dog, but without the sticks. Definitely one of
those things you get at one am after enjoying some beverages.
(40:40):
I like them on occasion, but my friends were obsessed. Anyways,
Thanks for prompting me on a trip down memory lane. Ah.
I love how again these foods have the It does
so often take you back to a specific time and place. Yeah, Yeah, yeah,
I feel like I've seen that kind of pancake breakfast
(41:03):
soft it's syrup thing at like fast food places to
be wrong. Um. And also yeah, my I love these
foods that get a cult following at uh like college camp. Sure,
but there was one at Georgia Tech called Chocolate Love.
And I mean you would hear the whispers in the air,
(41:25):
Lauren when Chocolate Love was being served, everyone like make
their way to the dining a. What was Chocolate Love?
It was like it was just kind of a but
it was like what I would call almost um, a
caramel chocolate turtle, so like pecans and caramel and chocolate,
(41:46):
but it was layered so almost like it was a
weird combination of like that minus the fudge plus the
chocolate cake. It was good, but it was a lot. Yeah,
I might be misremembering, so if anyone happens to know
what I'm talking about, because I'm not that huge into
(42:08):
sweets and I don't like caramel, so chocolate look like
I was all for it, but I was, yeah, usually
was going for But I bet if anybody went to
check it, if you can tell us what it is,
I would love. There's like one person that made it too.
She's working tonight, maybe she's chocolate love. Huh. Yeah. I
(42:30):
missed out on a lot of that culture because I
never never had a meal plan um in college. Um.
And I never had the school lunch in in high school.
So um uh yeah, I never I never gained those
you know, personal affiliations with those kinds of foods. Um.
But huh indeed, Yeah, when I do love a corn puff,
(42:54):
um that those corn dog nuggets uh round round about
here or at least where I have them, They're usually
called corn pups, and uh for some reason, like a
whole corn dog. I'm like, are you kidding? Why would
I want that? Like maybe three corn pups. I'm like, definitely,
I will eat that. I wonder if it has something
(43:16):
to do with like the ratio going on. I'm sure
I'm positive there's something like that, or or right right,
the different levels of crispiness, or like the surface area
and the dip ability. I'm not sure. I'm not sure
the factors. Well, um Bob wrote, I'm back in the UK,
(43:37):
and yesterday, when my plans for paragliding in the south
of England were thwarted by the weather there, I elected
instead to travel to the west from London to Reading
in search of the Foroberry Park mulberry tree that Lauren
mentioned in your Mulberry episode to find out what had
become of it, hoping to be able to send her
happy news and photos of it having been saved after
its collapse. Alas this was not the case. Attack instead
(44:00):
are some pictures of its remains. Sorry, Lauren. Indeed, so
the pictures are like a just kind of husk of
a tree trunk, got like a fence around. It looks nice.
It's got a little memorial plot. Well, it lives on.
(44:24):
It lives on. I went looking for for pictures. This
was so long ago. I went looking for some pictures.
I'll maybe I'll post some memorial pictures on yes to
the mulberry tree on social media somewhere. Um yeah, well,
thank you, thank you for looking, Bob, I appreciate that. Yes, yes, um,
(44:47):
And thanks to both of them for writing to us.
If you would like to write to us, we would
love to hear from you our emails Hello at Savior
pod dot com. And you can find us on the
aforementioned social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at savor pod.
And we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
(45:07):
you can visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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