It’s no surprise to most people that M&M’s milk chocolate candies come in a wide assortment of enticing colors. However, in most cases, the same cannot be said about honey. Recently, beekeepers in the northeastern French region of Alsace have come face-to-face with a rather bizarre outlier to the aforementioned statement.
M&M’s-infused honey. Image by Vincent Kessler via National Geographic
Historically renowned as a major honey-producing region of the country and a viable source of high-quality French honey, Alsace has become the center of attention in the honey industry. Beekeepers in the town of Ribeauvillé have been alarmed by the mysterious, unintended production of multi-colored batches of honey, and a local bio-gas plant may be largely to blame.
M&M’s-infused honey. Image by Vincent Kessler via National Geographic
The culprit biogas plant, operated by Agrivalor and contracted by Mars, Inc. to process waste, has become the go-to source for bees to get their sweet fix. Whereas normal bees around the world rely on nectar collection from local wildflowers to produce their honey, these Alsatian bees fed on carelessly-discarded, readily-available remnants of M&M shells left exposed to the elements. As a result, these lazy bees would carry previously-unidentified colorful substances back to their beehives; facilitating the creation of some rather oddly-colored batches of honey.
M&M’s-infused honey. Image by Vincent Kessler via National Geographic
Despite the fact that these M&M-contaminated batches of Alsatian honey taste no different from regular honey, honey aficionados around the world would be disappointed to know that they won’t be able to grab a jar of their favorite blue or green honey from store shelves anytime soon. Because of the colorful, yet stark deviations that these colorful batches of honey exhibit, local governmental agencies have deemed the unintentional creation unfit for sale or general consumption. Nevertheless, this entire ordeal leaves many to wonder about the possible novelty value these M&M-infused batches of honey could have had on the market.
