Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, by all indications, Peeps marshmallow candies are here to stay.
But after more than half a century, this divisive Easter candy has got to have its fair share
of fun facts and interesting history.
Let's dive into the untold truth of Peeps.
Today, Peeps chicks are produced at a breakneck speed of six minutes each.
If six minutes for one marshmallow doesn't sound all that impressive, it's because you
don't know how long the process used to take.
In 1953, Just Born, the candy company who made Peeps a household name, was looking to
acquire the Rodda Candy Company, mostly because of its jelly bean technology.
But on a tour of the factory, the Born family noticed something that piqued their interest
and had nothing to do with jelly beans.
Just Born vice president Matt Pye told USA Today,
"… while the family was touring the Rodda Candy Company, in the back part of the factory
were these women with pastry tubes squirting these marshmallow chicks by hand."
But this was no quick process, and it took 27 hours from start to finish to make these
marshmallow chicks.
Why so long?
It was all thanks to the very lengthy cooling time required before the candy could be packaged.
Once Just Born acquired the company, they immediately set about automating the Peeps-making
process, which included a faster dry time, and have managed to shave more than 21 hours
off the operation.
Now that you have all the facts, six minutes seems party darn fast, doesn't it?
The Peeps website lists the candy's ingredients as: sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, and small
amounts of other things like different types of food dyes.
What's all that mean?
You're basically looking mostly at gelatin, sugar, sugar, and more sugar, with a few incidentals,
but are any of these incidentals cause for concern?
You be the judge.
Potassium sorbate is an FDA-approved preservative, and it keeps those squishy marshmallows squishy
longer.
Honestly, Peeps without this preservative probably wouldn't be great.
Food dyes, though also approved for use by the FDA, have long been controversial, and
studies have suggested the possibility of some links between them and hyperactivity
in children.
Overall though, food dye has not been proven to be dangerous to most people.
How about these mysterious "natural flavors"?
An expert at the Environmental Working Group told Women's Health that this doesn't necessarily
refer to "real" flavors, saying,
"Whether they are natural or artificial flavors doesn't matter; we consider them the same.
It's often a secret mixture of chemicals that manipulate the taste of food.
There are problems with lack of disclosure from companies about what's really in them…"
Did you really think Peeps wouldn't contain some chemicals?
Sure, but what about those rumors?
You know the ones.
You may have heard a rumor that carnauba wax, one of those ingredients of Peeps, is the
very same ingredient used in car wax.
And this is one rumor that's more than urban legend, because it's true.
However, it's probably not as bad as it sounds.
Not only is carnauba wax approved by the FDA for human consumption, but according to Snopes,
the amount used in candy is fairly minuscule.
Despite what it might sound like, it's got nothing in common with taking down a spoonful
of Turtle Wax.
"Wax on, right hand.
Wax off, left hand.
Wax on, wax off."
And because of its high melting point, it's actually not even absorbed by our bodies,
but that leads us to one slightly creepy issue.
Carnauba wax is typically used to give candy a sheen or a hard shiny surface, and in Peeps
it's what makes those brown eyes so shiny.
When a pair of Emory scientists put the candy through a barrage of tests to determine its
indestructibility, they stumbled onto something disconcerting about those eyes.
After taking an hour-long bath in phenol, a protein-dissolving solvent, the marshmallow
was all but gone.
The only thing that remained?
A pair of wax eyes, bobbing in the phenol, intact.
The same eyes that will travel through your digestive system, also still intact.
So while that wax may not be as harmful as you might have thought, it's a whole lot more
nightmarish.
Curious about how Peeps are made?
Since the factory isn't open for public tours, we'll need a little help with this one.
Today got a look behind the scenes at the Peeps factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
and followed the marshmallow chicks on their journey from start to finish.
In just those few minutes, the ingredients get mixed together in huge drums, and it's
then pumped with air to ensure a fluffy result.
The mixture is then extruded onto conveyor belts in their familiar shapes before passing
through a shower of colored sugar.
After the sugar shower, a special laser passes above the candy, adding eyes in just the right
spot, and then it's into the packages they go.
The entire six-minute process is automated, and because it's so fast, Just Born is able
to produce an average of 5.5 million Peeps a day.
As you might have guessed, with numbers like that, the marshmallow treat has held the title
of number one non-chocolate Easter candy for more than 20 years.
Believe it or not, fresh-from-the-package Peeps aren't for everyone, and there are more
fans of stale Peeps out there than you might think.
According to Just Born VP Matthew Pye, between 25 and 30 percent of consumers actually prefer
to have their Peeps when they're a little stale.
With those kinds of numbers, should we expect aged marshmallows to hit shelves soon?
Nope, says Pye.
They can't afford to disappoint that 70 to 75 percent of customers who prefer them fresh.
"If we were to produce a stale Peep, we couldn't satisfy what the people want.
We let the consumer do it themselves."
"Are they from God?"
"Yes, they're from God, yes."
"Thank you."
Peeps contain gelatin, and that shouldn't be news to anyone who has ever eaten a marshmallow.
Thanks to the kind of gelatin Just Born uses though, vegans and vegetarians will want to
steer clear of the Easter treat.
According to the company's website,
"Gelatin is a protein rich gelling agent obtained by partial hydrolysis of collagen.
It is derived from the skin, connective tissue, and bones of animals…
We use pork derived gelatin in our Peeps marshmallow to achieve a light, soft texture."
But with the advent of vegan- and vegetarian-friendly gelatins now available, why hasn't Just Born
at least put out an alternative Peeps product for their plant-based fans?
That's one of the frequently asked questions the company receives, but they explain that
they just haven't found an alternative that keeps Peeps unchanged.
Maybe next year?
Maybe this isn't something you've ever wondered; maybe it is.
The good news is, unless you really want to, you don't have to find out for yourself how
many Peeps a human can fit inside their mouth at once, because someone did it for you.
World record website RecordSetter, which tracks some, shall we say… unique, achievements,
has been tracking attempts at Most Peeps Fit In Open Mouth since 2012.
The original record holder managed to cram 10 Peeps into his mouth, but that record has
since been broken in 2017, when the number was upped to 14.
And speaking of Peeps-eating records, 2017 was the same year professional competitive
eater Matt Stonie broke the world record at the World Peeps Eating Championship by taking
down 255 of the marshmallow candies in just five minutes.
Considering it might take some people five minutes to choke down one, that's an impressive
feat.
Nobody has lukewarm feelings about Peeps.
You either salivate at the very thought of the sugar-coated marshmallows, or you're filled
with instant rage.
And those who fall into the latter camp let the world know it.
It's like clockwork, and the moment the seasons change, you'll see a certain meme start making
the rounds: "How to eat Peeps?
Throw them in the trash can."
And there are plenty of Peeps-hating hashtags to choose from for your caption, #peepsmassacre,
#deathtopeeps, #ihatepeeps, all dedicated to showcasing the many ways you can decapitate,
mutilate, or otherwise maim those oh-so-adorable chicks and bunnies.
From a simple death to elaborate scenes of Peep carnage, Peeps-haters seem to get into
it with more zeal than others do with your usual maligned snacks.
When was the last time you saw someone get so worked up over circus peanuts or candy
corn?
What do you get when you throw some Peeps onto an unsuspecting pizza?
Peepza, otherwise known as the pizza absolutely nobody asked for ever.
It seems like every Easter someone on the internet "discovers" Peepza, but to properly
lay the blame and/or credit, we have to go back to 2010, when Serious Eats columnist
Adam Kuban debuted his springtime mashup.
The Peepza is exactly what it looks like: A plain cheese pizza, cooked almost completely,
then topped with Peeps and cooked for another minute to get the marshmallows nice and melty.
If we're to believe Kuban, it isn't nearly as terrible as those Peep-haters might believe.
What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, though.
In 2017, SBNation's Charlotte Wilder decided to hop on the Peepza bandwagon, and her review
was decidedly less enthusiastic than Kuban's.
She said:
"It tasted exactly like you think it would: A Peep on top of pizza, which is disgusting."
When limited edition Peeps Oreos, complete with neon pink marshmallow-flavored creme,
hit the shelves the 2017, fans of the Easter candy were quick to gobble them up.
But it didn't take long before an unsettling trend was noticed.
Turns out the bright pink creme had a surprising side effect: Bright pink poop.
Those experiencing this phenomenon took to Twitter to air their dirty laundry, along
with others who didn't have that particular issue, but experienced other side effects,
like a stained pink tongue and Pepto-Bismol-hued spit.
Can hot pink Oreos really have this effect on our bodies?
According to LiveScience they can, thanks to the red #3 food dye used in the creme,
which gastroenterologist Dr. Ian Lustbader says doesn't get broken down in the body during
digestion.
While the colored poop indicates nothing serious health-wise, for someone to actually see this
startling side effect, they'd have to eat a lot of cookies.
He says that's more than one or two, but let's be honest: has anyone ever in the history
of the world only eaten one or two Oreos in a sitting?
What's better than chewy room temperature marshmallows?
Warm, gooey marshmallows, of course.
Just because you're chowing down on Peeps doesn't mean you can't fulfill your melty
marshmallow dreams.
If you've never microwaved Peeps, now is the time.
Even if you don't want a melty marshmallow, you should consider microwaving a few Peeps,
simply to witness their transformation.
Consider it an important science experiment.
In 30 seconds, you'll see those Peeps expand about four sizes right in front of your eyes.
And then just like that, they're reduced to a puddle.
So what gives?
According to Decoding Delicious, when you microwave a marshmallow, the water molecules
in the syrup turn to steam, and that steam fills the air bubbles causing a spectacular
expansion.
But here's where you need to be careful.
If you're planning on digging into those super-heated Peeps, the center is likely to be molten.
That's because the dehydrated sugar syrup that remains once the steam is gone gets very
hot and may even caramelize.
Proceed with caution if you're eating your science experiment, but don't wait too long
if you want ooey-gooey Peeps.
The longer it sits, the more taffy-like it becomes.
And that's the one way to ruin a perfectly good Peep.
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