As a subject matter expert on the history of candies, I can tell you that the original M&M's, which were introduced in 1941, were available in a variety of colors. However, the original colors of M&M's were brown, red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. It wasn't until 1949 that the color palette was revised to exclude blue and replace it with tan. This change was made because the blue color was not as appealing to consumers at the time, and the tan color was thought to be more appetizing.

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In 1995, the Mars candy company decided that having two shades of brown M&Ms were unnecessary, so they did away with the light brown ones, leaving only the colors red, yellow, green, dark brown and orange.read more >>