THE EMPERORS OF CHOCOLATE: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF HERSHEY AND MARS

THE EMPERORS OF CHOCOLATE: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF HERSHEY AND MARS Joel Glenn Brenner (Random House, $25.95) Forrest Mars, founder of the chocolate company that bears his name, was such a tightwad that his own children were not allowed to eat his best-selling M&M candies. He also insisted that employees perform regular taste tests of all company products, even the Kal Kan division's. Milton Hershey made a fortune to rival Rockefeller's with his eponymous chocolate bar, then died penniless after giving it all away. Brenner's history of the candy industry hinges on unprecedented access to Mars, Inc., a company so secretive that CEO John Mars has never signed a hotel registry and owns nothing in his own name. The examples of Mars paranoia are so delicious that they overshadow Hershey and the smaller companies examined here. Still, this is a trenchant account of a fascinating industry -- one that certainly has a generous sprinkling of nuts. B+