Let's Hear It For My Peeps

When you ask people what their favorite Easter candy is, most likely you'll get "jelly beans" or "chocolate bunnies."  If you ask me, I'll say "Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs."  Another candy has gained new popularity in recent years:  Peeps.  Peeps has found their place of prominance among the jelly beans and chocolate eggs.  They just look fun. I ask you -  what's more fun to eat -- the brown body part off of a chocolate bunny, or a purple Peep chicken? 

A decade or two ago when we first started seeing fat-free foods, Peeps were the the first candy to proclaim itself fat-free.  I think this has caused the popularity to grow.  It's not Atkins-friendly, but if people are on a fat-free diet, they can indulge in some Peeps and not feel guilty.  One Peep is only 32 calories, and zero grams of fat. 

Peeps are made by Just Born, Inc., located in Bethlehem, PA.  The first Peeps were made in 1953.  They were made by hand with a pastry tube, and it took an amazing 27 hours to make just one Peep.  Today, they entire process of making one Peep takes just 6 minutes, and the factory cranks out an impressive 4.2 million a day.  That comes to over 1 billion Peeps a year,  Just Born produces the Peeps year round, so it's a good thing they have a shelf life of 24 months. They're already chewy, so I guess you'd never know if they were stale.  Back in the day, you could only get Peeps during Easter.  They added rabbit and egg Peeps, and then started adding other holiday Peeps - red hearts for Valentine's Day, green Shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, orange pumpkins for Halloween, and white snowmen and green Christmas trees.  If you look in any drugstore, I'm sure you can find some form of Peep year-round. 

People are picky about their Peeps.  A friend here at work likes to eat them stale.  She'll buy a bunch at Easter and open the wrappers and let them get hard.  Another friend of mine will eat then only after he's dunked them in hot chocolate.  Another friend said she likes microwaved Peeps.  She said they expand in the microwave, and you think they're going to explode.  If they did, you'd be cleaning Peep guts from the inside of the microwave for weeks.  One way I don't recommend eating Peeps is to toast them in a firelike regular marshamallows.  The sugar coating will burn and it will be like eating charcoal.  Yes, that is experience talking.