Editor’s observe, April 4, 2026, 6 am ET: This story was final up to date on March 30, 2018, and we’re revisiting it for this Easter.
Easter season is upon us, and when you’re like a majority of Individuals who have fun the vacation, you’ll most likely buy some sweet for the event. And that stash will doubtless embody the neon-sugar-coated hallmark of the season: Peeps.
However whereas their blobby shapes and vibrant colours are simply recognizable, their backstory won’t be so acquainted — or as easy as you’d assume. Learn on to search out out extra about these squishy harbingers of spring.
Mmm, sugar-coated marshmallows with eyes
Of their conventional kind, Peeps are formed like child chickens and product of a tender marshmallow rolled in coloured sugar, with eyes product of edible wax. They’re sometimes bought in packs of 5 conjoined marshmallows. One serving of Peeps (5 items) accommodates 140 energy, no fats, and 34 grams of sugar, which is sensible since their two major elements are sugar and corn syrup. Peeps additionally comprise gelatin, which makes them unsuitable for vegans.
Peeps are manufactured by the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Simply Born sweet firm, which was based in 1910 by a Russian immigrant named Sam Born and in addition manufactures such trick-or-treating offenses as Mike & Ikes and Scorching Tamales.
In response to Simply Born’s firm historical past, Born is to thank for a number of confectionary feats we now take as a right, together with producing chocolate sprinkles and that kind of chocolate sauce that hardens right into a crunchy shell when it hits ice cream; he additionally invented a machine to place sticks into lollipops, with out which our nationwide lollipop sport can be sadly poor.
In 1953, Simply Born purchased the Rodda sweet firm, which was based mostly in close by Lancaster and produced jelly beans in addition to a line of handmade, chick-shaped marshmallows. Born’s son Bob Born discovered the best way to mechanize the marshmallow creation course of, which shortened the manufacturing time from almost 27 hours to 6 minutes. (Bob additionally ditched the wings that was piped onto every Peep, which additional streamlined the method.)
Not only for Easter anymore
Very similar to that different tooth-achingly candy seasonal deal with sweet corn, Peeps have expanded past their unique restricted availability to turn out to be a year-round candy. They arrive in numerous colours (blue, pink, lavender), flavors (cotton sweet, gingerbread, “lemon delight,” chocolate-covered, sweet cane), and shapes — Peeps bunnies have been launched within the Nineteen Eighties, and now the road contains hearts, pumpkins, Minions, and extra.
However the unique yellow chicks (whose taste is just “sugar”) are nonetheless the most well-liked, and the sweet remains to be mostly related to Easter. The web site WalletHub estimates that greater than 1.5 billion Peeps are eaten each Easter.
Nonetheless, Peeps are moderately divisive. Whereas they’ve their die-hard followers, many others dedicate an astonishing quantity of power to railing towards them. Take, as an illustration, the 2012 Guardian article “Sorry, however Peeps are disgusting,” or the Fb teams devoted to Peep hate. Angela Hill of the Oakland Tribune finds them unsettling:
I dislike them intensely. And so they understand it, which merely bolsters their resolve. I can see it of their beady little food-colored eyes — their defiance, their sheer pluck. You’ll be able to’t get only one Peep, you already know, and that’s no accident. They arrive in packs. One would possibly even say, battalions.
After which there’s this vivid description of consuming a Peep, courtesy of the Dallas Observer: “It’s like consuming a tablespoon of sugar lovingly dusted atop a mouthful of your gramma’s cellulite.”
Peeps are as versatile as their taste is one-note. In the event you’re a Peep purist, you may simply eat them straight from the package deal — both recent or stale and barely crunchy, as some individuals want. (Matthew Pye, Simply Born’s VP of commerce relations and company affairs, advised HuffPost that 70 to 75 % of individuals want “recent” Peeps, which nonetheless leaves a large portion of Peep eaters who choose to eat them on the crunchier aspect of the sell-by date.) In the event you’re of authorized ingesting age, you may pair them with wine or beer.
If you wish to get artistic, Peeps-centric recipes abound, from the comparatively innocuous (Peeps Krispies treats) to the frilly (a Peeps sunflower cake) to the straight-up revolting (“Peepza“ — actually simply Peeps on a pizza — and ”Peepshi,” a Willy Wonka fever dream whereby fake sushi is constructed from Peeps, Nerds, Fruit by the Foot, and many others.). Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi suggests skewering them to roast over a hearth or flattening them and drying them within the oven to make “Peep chips.”
However when you’d moderately not eat them in any respect, you may nonetheless experiment with Peeps within the title of science. One time-honored custom is to place them within the microwave to see what occurs. (Spoiler alert: They get large. Like, actually large.) This observe has additionally led to the unique sport often known as Peep jousting:
In 1999, Emory College researchers Gary Falcon and James Zimring carried out maybe probably the most exhaustive Peeps testing in human historical past, exploring the candies’ sturdiness within the face of quite a lot of substances. In response to the Emory Report:
To check Peep solubility, they started with easy faucet water, then moved on to boiling water, then to acetone, sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, however have been left dumbfounded by Peeps’ obvious invulnerability to every.
Then they tried Phenol, a protein-dissolving solvent deadly to people in quantities as small as a single gram. Peeps proved mortal to such a substance — nicely, nearly. One hour after plunging an unlucky Peep into its grisly demise, all that remained within the beaker was a pair of brown carnauba wax eyes floating in a purple Phenol soup.
In the event you’re extra of a right-brained soul, you would possibly think about using the confections to create a creative masterpiece. In 2006, the Washington Publish launched an annual “Peep Present” diorama contest, asking entrants to create a 3D scene through which all of the characters are Peeps. The competition generally drew a number of hundred contributors, whose submissions ranged from a Peep van Gogh to a Peepified scene from the film Up. (You’ll be able to see previous winners of the diorama contest right here.) The competitors was such a cult favourite that when in 2017 the Publish determined to discontinue it, the fantastic of us at Washington Metropolis Paper took it upon themselves to maintain the custom going. (You’ll be able to see the winners of 2018’s contest on-line, together with an ode to the 12 months’s Finest Image winner titled “The Form of Sugar.”)
However the Publish wasn’t even the primary newspaper to carry a Peeps contest — that honor goes to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, whose employees author Richard Chin dreamed up the competitors in 2004. And the New Yorker argues that the custom of sugar-based dioramas goes again a lot additional, to the seventeenth century:
By the early Renaissance, creative European court docket confectioners have been crafting elaborate sculptures for particular meals, typically designed to echo or praise the themes of the musical or theatrical entertainments that will accompany a banquet. These may be allegorical in nature, depicting spiritual scenes or commemorating navy victories. On the wedding ceremony of Maria de Medici to Henri IV, in Florence, in 1600, the groom was not in attendance, however he was represented by a formidable sugar sculpture depicting him on horseback.
In a much less, uh, suave contest, in 2016 Maryland’s Nationwide Harbor hosted the primary World Peeps Consuming Championship. The winner, Matt Stonie of San Jose, took house $3,500 for consuming a formidable (or disturbing) 200 Peeps in 5 minutes.
Issues have soured a bit for the sugary sweet recently. In recent times, Peep-maker Simply Born has been mired in a sticky authorized battle with its union workforce over the corporate’s longtime pension plan. This fascinating Washington Publish article goes into it in depth (and is price studying in full when you’ve made it this far into an article about Peeps), however I’ll clarify it briefly right here.
Simply Born has what’s known as a multiemployer pension program, which permits staff enrolled in this system to maneuver amongst collaborating corporations and carry their advantages with them. In 2016, citing rising labor prices, Simply Born tried to bar all new staff from becoming a member of the pension plan, funneling them to the 401(ok) program as an alternative whereas sidestepping a $60 million charge required by federal legislation to make the transfer. The union staff went on strike (adopting the totally excellent chant “No justice, no Peeps!”); the strike got here to a messy finish 4 weeks later after a number of staff crossed the picket line and the remainder ultimately went again to work for concern of shedding their jobs.
Then the tangled authorized bit started. Per the Publish:
The pension, which is run by a gaggle of labor officers and company executives from the 200 collaborating corporations, has sued the corporate, alleging it improperly tried to cease enrolling new staff within the pension with out paying the withdrawal charge. The corporate has sued the union, demanding “financial damages” and alleging the strike was unlawful.
The result of the case might have large ramifications for corporations with multiemployer pension applications and the almost 10 million American staff these applications cowl. If Simply Born manages to get out of that $60 million charge, different corporations might comply with in its footsteps, placing the advantages payouts for tens of millions of American works unsure.
Once more, the Publish article is price studying in full — however relaxation assured that regardless of the corporate’s authorized troubles, you don’t want to begin stockpiling Peeps simply but.
The place do Peeps fall within the Easter sweet hierarchy?
The web site Ranker maintains a fluctuating listing of the highest Easter candies, which confusingly contains each “chocolate-covered marshmallow Peeps” and “bunny Peeps” as separate objects. Nevertheless, that listing additionally considers the unholy monstrosities often known as Jordan almonds and thus have to be discounted totally.
However just one Easter sweet has the excellence of that includes within the premiere of the controversial Roseanne revival, whose first episode sees major character (and famous Trump supporter) Roseanne Conner chowing down on some Peeps for breakfast. Which, no matter your politics, looks like a dangerous transfer from a dietary and dental well being perspective.
Replace, April 4, 2026, 6 am ET: This text was initially printed on March 30, 2018, and up to date to mirror up to date data the place obtainable.
