# Do you care what color M&Ms you get? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803 "2010-01-05T22:15:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/1 "2010-01-05T22:15:10Z")
They all taste the same. But if someone offers you an M&M, do you feel better if it’s blue, or green, or whatnot? If you were given a bunch of M&Ms of only one color, would you have a preference? I would! I know I’m happier when I get a bluie. And I always giggle when I eat a green ones. The green ones make you…you know…randy. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/2 "2010-01-05T22:22:41Z")
Don’t care. The only important part, the taste, is the same. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/3 "2010-01-05T22:26:10Z")
I don’t like the lazy, drunken green ones but the rest are OK. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/4 "2010-01-05T22:37:04Z")
Yeah, I don’t care for the sour citrous taste of the yellow and green ones, and the brown are just way too redundant. Of course, if my cataracts get much worse, I’ll have to rely on taste alone to tell them apart. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/5 "2010-01-05T22:39:33Z")
Back when I was a kid I saved the red ones for last, the blue ones were eaten second to last. The others it didn’t matter. Now it doesn’t matter at all. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/6 "2010-01-05T22:41:10Z")
Oh, does anyone have any other stereotypes about them? hadn’t heard the drunken lazy stereotype of the green one, but I love it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/7 "2010-01-05T22:46:03Z")
Yellow is the color of happiness, so I eat those first. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/8 "2010-01-05T22:46:28Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Oh, does anyone have any other stereotypes about them? hadn’t heard the drunken lazy stereotype of the green one, but I love it. The green ones are widely rumored to make one horny. I don’t care about colors, but I prefer the ones with dark chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Nene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@El\_Nene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Nene)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/9 "2010-01-05T22:46:34Z")
I like to eat them one color at a time but I don’t eat the colors in a particular order. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/10 "2010-01-05T22:57:28Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Back when I was a kid I saved the red ones for last, the blue ones were eaten second to last. Young whippersnapper! When I was a kid, they didn’t have red, and certainly didn’t have blue, M&M’s. ([cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%26Ms#Color_changes_in_chocolate_M.26M.27s)) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/11 "2010-01-05T23:07:01Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Oh, does anyone have any other stereotypes about them? hadn’t heard the drunken lazy stereotype of the green one, but I love it. You may call it a stereotype but I bet there are no green ones in your packet. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/12 "2010-01-05T23:11:24Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Young whippersnapper! When I was a kid, they didn’t have red, and certainly didn’t have blue, M&M’s. ([cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%26Ms#Color_changes_in_chocolate_M.26M.27s)) When I was young they had red - then stopped it for a while - then it came back. But I am probably misremembering the blue. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/13 "2010-01-06T00:07:17Z")
The brown ones are the ones they give you when they don’t care about you as a person. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/14 "2010-01-06T00:33:49Z")
> [@El\_Nene](#): > > I like to eat them one color at a time but I don’t eat the colors in a particular order. I don’t care what colors I get but I notice that if I have a handful I tend to eat them so that I’ve got one of each color left at some point (as opposed to gobbling up all the browns, then the blues, etc). ---
**Author:** ![MC\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/15 "2010-01-06T00:43:42Z")
I went through a period of time when I had nowhere near enough work to do, so I started tracking the colors of M&M’s in each package. I used Excel and made pie charts in color and everything. Orange was the color that occurred the most, closely followed by yellow and brown in a dead heat. All the remaining colors occurred half as often as those three. The ratios were remarkably consistent across different lot numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/16 "2010-01-06T00:48:59Z")
> [@MC\_E](#): > > I went through a period of time when I had nowhere near enough work to do, so I started tracking the colors of M&M’s in each package. I used Excel and made pie charts in color and everything. > > Orange was the color that occurred the most, closely followed by yellow and brown in a dead heat. All the remaining colors occurred half as often as those three. > > The ratios were remarkably consistent across different lot numbers. Ummm… wow. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/17 "2010-01-06T00:50:13Z")
I like green and blue ones the most, yellow and brown ones the least. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/18 "2010-01-06T01:55:57Z")
The blue ones are unnatural and wrong and I only eat them grudgingly. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Nene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@El\_Nene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Nene)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/19 "2010-01-06T02:34:01Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > I don’t care what colors I get but I notice that if I have a handful I tend to eat them so that I’ve got one of each color left at some point (as opposed to gobbling up all the browns, then the blues, etc). I thought about doing this too because it bothered me when I was left with only two clashing colors. I gave myself a weird look when I typed that. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803/20 "2010-01-06T02:41:32Z")
I’d love to hear some synaesthetes chime in. For me, it doesn’t matter. I love blood oranges, though, and I think it’s because of the color. Blindfolded, I wonder if I could taste the difference. A recent New Yorker article about the science of developing artificial flavors noted how color affects “flavor” psychologically. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-care-what-color-m-ms-you-get/523803.md?page=2)