Today, hundreds of millions of people the world over are celebrating Easter, a celebration of the ascension of Jesus Christ, savior, fulfilling prophecy and saving us from our sins so that we may one day join him in the kingdom of heaven. However, today also marks the purchasing and consuming of over two billion dollars worth of candy. On the forefront of this deluge of sweets, are the iconic marshmallow chicks, Peeps. Since it is the season, I decided to look into the history of this holiday confectionery.
Not much information is provided about Sam Born, founder of Just Born, the company that produces Peeps, Mike and Ikes, and Hot Tamales brand candies, other than he was a Russian-born American candy-maker, who was awarded the key to the city of San Francisco in the 1920's for inventing a machine which puts the sticks into lollipops. According to the Wiki page, Sam founded Just Born in 1923. It was thirty years later when the company acquired the rights to produce Peeps, creating a factory to pump out the chicks in mass quantities, rather than the individually handmade variety which came before.
Not much information is provided about Sam Born, founder of Just Born, the company that produces Peeps, Mike and Ikes, and Hot Tamales brand candies, other than he was a Russian-born American candy-maker, who was awarded the key to the city of San Francisco in the 1920's for inventing a machine which puts the sticks into lollipops. According to the Wiki page, Sam founded Just Born in 1923. It was thirty years later when the company acquired the rights to produce Peeps, creating a factory to pump out the chicks in mass quantities, rather than the individually handmade variety which came before. Since then, Peeps have been produced in a variety of shapes and colors, representing shapes for all holidays, from pumpkins and ghosts to trees and reindeer. There are now chocolate covered Peeps and Peeps Popsicles "for the Peeps on the go!" As of 2010, Peeps stores have been popping up across the country so that you can buy any material product with the Peeps logo on it. Closer to home, I saw an advertisement at T-Spoons Coffee for a 'Peeps Latte' which I was tempted, but ultimately to scared, to ask if they literally place the marshmallow bird into their drinks.
According to infoplease.com, Just Born can produce 4.2 million Peeps a day, with other sources saying that 700 million Peeps are bought each Easter. It's no wonder that the time-honored, first-world eating contest has been opening itself up to Peep Eating Contests around the US. Luckily, there are those out there who are conducting brilliant research on Peeps and will let us know if our insane consumption of them will ever cause us problems.
With all the numbers and figures on our obsession with Peeps, I begin to wonder if Sam Born was actually a cult leader in disguise, a tasty, sticky, yellow-dyed, bite-sized disguise.
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