My relationship with Peeps is a complicated one.
On one hand, it’s a small, animal-shaped thing, dusted with colorful sugar. It is boundlessly charming in that it has no reason to be shaped like a chick or a bunny, and yet it is. And they’re squishy. So squishy!
On the other hand? They’re marshmallows. Unforgivable!
If you don’t know me well, you might not know my hatred of marshmallows. They’re just slimy little regret blobs in a cuppa cocoa. They never did any favors to the candy world, chocolate-coated or not. S’mores are a scourge upon our society. (I prefer S’ums, toasting graham crackers and Hershey bars. People love me around their campfire because I will perfectly toast a marshmallow to your exacting preferences – and feed it to you.)
The fact that I insist every Easter basket I build contain at least a tray of Peeps is probably confusing.
Like many of the weirdest parts of my psyche, it started with my mom.
Every year, there would be Peeps in our Easter baskets without fail. The fact that I didn’t like them didn’t slow her roll one bit: everyone else liked them, so it was a communal treat, yet it brought a lot to the Easter basket.
First: cute, obvs.
But second? Height. A lot of Easter treats sit low in the basket. The only things standing would be the pack of Peeps and the chocolate bunny, perhaps the occasional toy. Got to have that bi-level effect. It’s just good basketing. (My mom would often split a pack of Peeps and wrap each tray in Saran wrap. Not the sexiest, but it did the trick. I think they sell smaller packs and even Peeps “Pops” now, fortunately.)
The history of Peeps is actually interesting, as candy goes. They were first made by a little company called Rodda. The company knew that in order to make a name for themselves, they had to stand out for something. To appeal to the local German population, they picked Easter, creating religious iconography from candy made using a plant native to Germany and the northeastern US: marshmallow. They would squeeze marshmallow from a piping bag by hand, painstakingly crafting the little chicks, bunnies, crosses and more.
A rival Pennsylvania candy company called Just Born (named after founder Sam Born) was fascinated with the little creations – and the chicks were kinda perfect for their company umbrella name – so upon the death of Rodda’s founder, they bought the little company in 1953. Just Born perfected a mechanized process for making the chicks, allowing them to do in just 6 minutes what had previously taken 27 hours.
KathyRo was surprised by the Root Beer Float Peeps I included in my root beer post. It might surprise y’all to know that there are 10 current “flavored” Peeps on the official Peeps store (Donut Shop coffee, cotton candy, Hot Tamales, party cake, sour watermelon, fruit punch, tropical burst, ~sparkly~ wild berry, chocolate pudding and Froot Loops, and that’s in addition to the chocolate-dipped originals) while I have previously spotted various others that may be location-exclusive or simply discontinued (blue raspberry, root beer float, pancakes and syrup, coconut, caramel and strawberry.)
According to a 2013 survey, about two thirds of people eat Peeps by biting the head off first. I mean, I guess it would be weird to always go for the tail first, but… yikes bikes, guys.
There's an official Peeps store??!! 🤯
I do love marshmallows and may have to try some new Peeps, despite the fact I gave up Peeps *decades* ago due to extended Peep disappointment in my childhood. Maybe if I get them directly from the source they won't be hard nuggets of denial and anguish.