The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars (1999)

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. Joël Glenn Brenner's history of the candy industry, The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars, 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+