Man opts to save the surprise in his M&Ms

It’s something Russ Cole of Lexington Park, Maryland, does two to three times a week. The configuration manager for Sabre Systems stops by a vending machine at the building where he works at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, and he puts in the coins to buy a bag of peanut M&Ms. He says the yellow bag of multicolored candies are the most popular item in that machine. And he’s one of the reasons why.

Cole is one of those people who has a system as to how he eats M&Ms. He’s not one who casually pops the candy into his mouth. He’s a divider. After sorting all the colors into their respective groups, “I get rid of brown first, then yellows, reds, oranges, blues and lastly, green, my favorite color,” Cole explained. But on Tuesday last week, Cole got a surprise in his afternoon treat. He poured out the M&Ms and discovered one that didn’t fit in his traditional M&M-eating system. The bag included a white M&M.

It was a bright spot in his day, he said. “I am not the luckiest of people, but there was something about seeing that white M&M fall out of the pack that was like better than the prize in a Cracker Jack box,” he said. “If something puts a smile on your face to think about, you know it is too good to eat it.” Although others have suggested he put the albino M&M on eBay, Cole is saving the find in his freezer. “It makes me smile,” he said.

Erin Cole, his wife, contacted Mars, the company that makes M&Ms, to report the white candy. “Apparently, they are pretty rare,” she said. The Mars representative took down the location where the albino M&M was purchased, the bag’s lot number, time of purchase and said they would report the information to three departments. In addition, the representative said they will send Cole coupons for more M&Ms. Cole said he plans to put the bonus M&Ms out next to the water cooler at work so everyone can celebrate.