[Getting] "m" OFF [an M&M]

[ABareBear]

How can I get the "m" off of an M&M without any trace of the shell?

[Amblydoper]

Nuke it from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

[Larry Mudd]

Rock tumbler, precise timing, and lots of T&E.

[Joey P]

I'd imagine the ink for the 'm' and the color of the shell are both soluble with the same things, so I'm not sure it'll be possible. Having said that, my thoughts would be Vodka (just to avoid using rubbing alcohol) or mineral oil.

Have you considered going to the store and buying some "Candy covered chocolates" AKA generic M&M's?

[Colibri]

Edited one of the more inscrutable thread titles I have ever seen to indicate subject.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[JFLuvly]

Lick it off

[Thudlow Boink]

I once got a defective bag of M&M's.

They were misprints: half of them had W's on them instead.

[Reply]

Heat up the end of a fork, gently use it to melt the chocolate around the M, then smear over it?

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

I once got a defective bag of M&M's.

They were misprints: half of them had W's on them instead.

I had the same problem with a box of nails recently. Half of them had the heads on the wrong end, so I threw them away.

[blondebear]

You could always order some customized M&M's with no lettering.

[t-bonham@scc.net]

It's pretty hard to do and leave it looking untampered.

The M's are sprayed on the candy, then the whole piece is covered with a clear coat (that's what keeps it from "melting in your hand"). So you would have to re-cover the candy with this clear coat after scraping off one M, to make it look the same as it was. Pretty hard to do, undetectably.

[Kevbo]

Scrape the m off with a single edged razor blade.

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

I once got a defective bag of M&M's.

They were misprints: half of them had W's on them instead.

I had a bag where a good portion of them had sigmas instead.

[cochrane]

A good portion of mine had 3's on them.

Also, some of them were brown, so I trashed my place.

[runner pat]

Just turn them over.

[Darth Panda]

Subtraction by addition.

[gotpasswords]

Originally Posted by t-bonham@scc.net

It's pretty hard to do and leave it looking untampered.

The M's are sprayed on the candy, then the whole piece is covered with a clear coat (that's what keeps it from "melting in your hand"). So you would have to re-cover the candy with this clear coat after scraping off one M, to make it look the same as it was. Pretty hard to do, undetectably.

Actually, the candies are stamped, not sprayed. The printing is done after the final glaze, which is applied in a traditional panning process.

If you have confectioner's glaze, it wouldn't be hard to scrape off the m's, then re-glaze the candies, but... WHY?

More on the process is here.

[digs]

Originally Posted by blondebear

You could always order some customized M&M's with no lettering.

They'll also print other letters for you (for some reason I'm picturing you trying to paint little "Q's" on the cleaned-off M&M's).

OR they'll print small phrases (I checked -- you've got room to print "Need some zits?" or "Not fat enough?")

[DanBlather]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

I had the same problem with a box of nails recently. Half of them had the heads on the wrong end, so I threw them away.

Idiot! Those were for the other side of the house.

[sandra_nz]

Are you going to try to replace it with an S?

[LSLGuy]

Yeah, ya got yer roofing nails and yer foundation nails. Don't mix em up.

[Aspidistra]

You can float them off. Or at least you used to be able to do so. We used to do this all the time when bored in restaurants. Some of the candy coating comes off the m&m itself, which ends up looking a little battered, IIRC correctly, but if I'm reading the OP right, you're more interested in the intact m than the left-behind chocolate, correct?

Disclaimer: it's a looooong time since I tried this. Is there a point to this exercise, by the way?

[Gedd]

Originally Posted by DanBlather

Idiot! Those were for the other side of the house.

I've got to be more careful on this website when I'm drinking coffee. Almost just cost me a new monitor.

[Ike Witt]

Just get some Smarties.

[Enright3]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

I had the same problem with a box of nails recently. Half of them had the heads on the wrong end, so I threw them away.

You couldn't use those with either the left handed hammer or the hammer with the head at the wrong end?

[palindromemordnilap]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

I once got a defective bag of M&M's.

They were misprints: half of them had W's on them instead.

Those are supposed to go to the Southern Hemisphere.

[furryman]

I bought a bag that had mixed M's, W's, Sigma's and 3's. I'm selling it on ebay. Any bidders?

[Thin Ice]

The first thing I would try is gently dabbing or rubbing the M.with a trimmed down Q-tip moistened with water.

[skargo]

Originally Posted by cochrane

A good portion of mine had 3's on them.

Also, some of them were brown, so I trashed my place.

Are you DLR?

[tdn]

I'm a little confused. Are you after a collection of m-less candies, or candy-less Ms? If the latter, just eat around the m.

[Disheavel]

Not quite as compelling as the BIL's diary in his wife's underwear drawer, but I really want to know why he wants to remove the lettering.

[Leo Bloom]

Originally Posted by Amblydoper

Nuke it from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

But he's only a grunt!

[Leo Bloom]

Do OP and threadnicks imply generally 1m or "m" if you prefer...or the whole set?

[BigT]

I just love the threadspotting title for this!

[Siam Sam]

Laser?

[elfkin477]

They sell a rotating emery board thingie at Dollar Tree. Maybe you can gently sand it off.

[DrFidelius]

Dremel tool.

With a Dremel, everything is compatible.

[Aspidistra]

My husband just sat down beside me with a bowl of peanut m&ms.

Well, with an opportunity like that, how could I resist?

The M Floats!

The m&m itself, I must admit, did end up rather more battered than I recall. On subsequent consumption by Mr Aspy it was rated "disappointing"

Further experiments will have to await the opening of new m&m packets. Possibly "crispy coating" might fare better?

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by blondebear

You could always order some customized M&M's with no lettering.

Say, I like this idea. I wonder whether they're Unicode-compliant? Then you could get ĉ or ж or even 東 printed on them.

[Snickers]

Can I just say that Aspidistra rocks? That's awesome.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by JFLuvly

Lick it off

Jebus help me, this really was the first thing that occurred to me.