13 Things You Never Knew About Peeps
For chick lovers with a serious sweet tooth, springtime means one thing: Peeps.
The colored-sugar-covered marshmallow birdies and bunnies — made by Just Born, the family-owned company (founded in 1923 in New York, but since 1932 based, appropriately, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) also behind Mike & Ikes, Hot Tamales and Peanut Chews — are an Easter-basket staple. We all know that.
Recently the Peeps people taught us a few things you may not know about the seasonal sweets. Peep all the fun facts below.
1: The Peeps brand, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2013, has been the best-selling non-chocolate Easter candy for more two decades.
2: Although Peeps Chicks and Bunnies come in many different colors, yellow is the biggest seller, followed by pink, then blue. (Yellow and white Peeps were the original colors — pink, lavender, blue, green and orange came later.)
3: Four out of every five Peeps purchased are Chicks (original, flavored, dipped in chocolate or covered in chocolate). (Sorry, Bunnies.)
4: Just Born is so named not because its flagship product is a newly hatched bird, but because its founder, Sam Born, displayed a sign in the window of his store advertising “candy so fresh it’s as if it was just born.”
5: Back in 1953, when Peeps were first introduced, each Peeps Marshmallow Chick took 27 hours to make by hand using a pastry tube. Today, thanks to technology, it takes about six minutes to be produced.
6: Just Born also introduced the chocolate “Jimmies” we sprinkle on ice cream. They’re named after the employee who invented them. (Thanks, Jimmy.)
7: In 1955, Just Born “clipped” the wings on Peeps Chicks to make them look sleeker and more modern.
8: Every 8 seconds, one baby is born in the United States — and 509 Peeps candies are hatched. (On average about 5.5 million Peeps are produced every day.)
9: Every year, about 2 billion Peeps candies are produced. That’s enough to circle the earth two and a half times.
10: You would need about 7,000 Peeps Bunnies stacked toe to ear to reach the top of the Empire State Building, more than 87 million Peeps to stretch continuously from New York City to Los Angeles, about 430 million Peeps bunnies to circle the moon and about 127 quadrillion Peeps to fill the Grand Canyon.
11: Around Easter, Peeps come in more than a dozen different flavors; the most popular are Party Cake, Fruit Punch and Sour Watermelon.
12: This year, Just Born is introducing a new line of Peeps candies: Peeps Delights, which feature its signature Chicks dipped in chocolate or fudge. Sold in packs of three in a variety of flavors, ranging from Vanilla and Chocolate Mousse to Lemon, Orange, Blueberry and Coconut.
13: The company is also introducing two flavors of Peeps Filled Delights Chicks (available only at Target) for Easter 2017: Triple Chocolate (a chocolate-dipped, chocolate-ganache-filled, chocolate-flavored marshmallow) and Vanilla Caramel Brownie (a milk-chocolate-dipped, caramel-filled, vanilla-flavored marshmallow).
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Photos courtesy of Peeps
