This Is What Lucky Charms Marshmallows Are Really Called

Anyone who's eaten Lucky Charms knows the best part of the entire bowl is always the colorful marshmallow pieces floating around. It wouldn't be surprising at all to find that's why the cereal brand followed the latest pouch trend by releasing their own pouch of nothing but marshmallows (via Food Business News). While you might think the Lucky Charms marshmallows are nothing beyond what meets the eye, there's actually a larger picture that they fit into.

According to Smithsonian, the four kinds of dried, patented marshmallows that first accompanied the shaped oat cereal pieces in 1964 are known as "marbits." HuffPost breaks it down even further by showing readers that the affectionate name is actually a portmanteau of "marshmallows" and "bits." Lucky Charms simply pushed the two words together. Though the original marbits only came in green clovers, pink hearts, yellow moons, and orange stars, they have undergone quite a few changes over the years.

Today, the marbits are far from the four single-colored marshmallows that first appeared in the boxes, according to Smithsonian. Instead, HuffPost revealed that there is only one original marshmallow remaining in the lineup, the pink heart. A General Mills spokesperson even told the publication that the addition of the blue diamond in 1975 increased sales by over 30 percent.

Over the years, the marshmallow shapes and colors have evolved to include rainbows, clovers, hearts, balloons, horseshoes, shooting stars, and blue moons among others. But for the first time in 10 years, General Mills changed up the marshmallows in 2018 to include a blue- and purple-maned unicorn (via USA Today). The shape that got the boot was an hourglass.

So no matter what your favorite marshmallow shape is (and hopefully it's still one of the eight in the boxes today), you'll likely never be able to just call them marshmallows again. Besides, it's more fun to call them marbits.