The sticky and sugary story of Peeps

Editor’s note, April 4, 2026, 6 am ET: This story was last updated on March 30, 2018, and we’re revisiting it this Easter.

The season of Easter is upon us, and if you are like the majority of Americans who celebrate the holiday, you probably buy a candy for the occasion. And that stash will likely include the neon sugar-coated sign of the season: Peeps.

But while their blobby shapes and bright colors are easily recognizable, their story may not be as familiar – or as straightforward as you think. Read on to learn more about these squishy harbingers of spring.

Mmm, sugary marshmallows with eyes

In their traditional form, Peeps are shaped like chickens and made of a soft marshmallow rolled in colored sugar, with eyes made of edible wax. They are typically sold in packages of five marshmallows put together. One serving of Peeps (five pieces) contains 140 calories, no fat, and 34 grams of sugar, which makes sense since their two main ingredients are sugar and corn syrup. Peeps also contain gelatin, which makes them unsuitable for vegans.

Peeps are manufactured by the Just Born candy company, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1910 by a Russian immigrant named Sam Born and also produces such joke offenses as Mike & Ikes and Hot Tamales.

According to The history of the Just Born companyBorn is to thank for many pastry projects that we now take for granted, including the production of chocolate sprinkles and that kind of chocolate sauce that hardens into a crunchy shell when you hit the ice cream; he also invented a machine for putting sticks into lollipops, without which our national lollipop game would be woefully deficient.

In 1953, Just Born bought the Rodda candy company, which was based in nearby Lancaster and produced jelly beans as well as a line of handmade, chick-shaped marshmallows. Born’s son, Bob Born, figured out how to mechanize the marshmallow-making process, which shortened the manufacturing time by almost. 27 hours at six minutes. (Bob also ditched the wings that were previously piped onto each Peep, which simplified the process even more.)

It’s not just for Easter anymore

Much like that other sweet toothsome seasonal treat candy cornPeeps have expanded beyond their original limited availability to become an annual sweet. They come in many colors (blue, pink, lavender), flavors (cotton candy, gingerbread, “lemon delight”, chocolate-covered, candy cane), and shapes – Peeps bunnies were introduced in the 1980s, and now the line includes hearts, pumpkins, Minions, and more.

But the original yellow chicks (whose taste is simply “sugar”) are still the most popular, and sweets are still more commonly associated with Easter. The website WalletHub estimates that over 1.5 billion Peeps are eaten every Easter.

Still, Peeps are rather divisive. While they have their die-hard fans, many others devote an astonishing amount of energy to railing against them. Take, for example, the 2012 Guardian article “Sorry, but Peeps are disgusting“, or him Facebook groups dedicated to Peep hate. Angela Hill of the Oakland Tribune find the disturbing ones:

I am deeply sorry. And he knows it, which only strengthens his determination. I can see it in her little food-colored eyes – her defiance, her purity. You can’t just get a Peep, you know, and it’s no accident. They come in packs. You can also say, battalions.

And then there’s this vivid description of consuming a Peep, courtesy of the The Dallas Observer: “It’s like eating a spoonful of sugar sprinkled with love on your gram’s cellulite mouth.”

Peeps are as versatile as their flavor is. If you’re a Peep purist, you can just eat them straight from the package – either fresh or stale and slightly crunchy, as some prefer. (Matthew Pye, vice president of business relations and corporate affairs at Just Born, said HuffPost that 70 to 75 percent of people prefer “fresh” Peeps, which still leaves a sizable portion of Peep eaters who opt to consume them on the crisper side of the sell-by date). wine o beer.

If you want to get creative, Peeps-centric recipes abound, from the relatively harmless (Peeps Krispies treats) to the elaboration (a Peeps sunflower cake) to direct revolt (“peeps“- Literally just Peeps on a pizza – and”Peepshi“A Willy Wonka fever dream where fake sushi is built from Peeps, Nerds, Fruit by the Foot, etc.). Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar. suggests skewering them to roast over the fire or flattening them and drying them in the oven to make “Peep chips”.

But if you’d rather not eat them at all, you can always experiment with Peeps in the name of science. A traditional tradition is to put it in the microwave to see what happens. (Spoiler alert: They get big. As well as, really great.) This practice also led to the exotic sport known as Peep jousting:

In 1999, Emory University researchers Gary Falcon and James Zimring conducted perhaps the most exhaustive Peeps test in human history, exploring the candy’s durability in the face of a variety of substances. According to the Emory Report: :

To test Peep’s solubility, they started with simple tap water, then moved to boiling water, then acetone, sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide, but were amazed by Peeps’ apparent invulnerability to each.

Then they tried Phenol, a solvent that dissolves the lethal protein for humans in amounts as small as a single gram. Peeps proved deadly to such a substance – well, almost. An hour after plunging a wretched Peep to its grisly death, all that remained in the glass was a pair of brown carnauba wax eyes floating in a purple phenol soup.

If you are more of a straight-brained soul, you can consider using the confections to create an artistic masterpiece. In 2006, the Washington Post launched a year “Peep Show” diorama contest.asking participants to create a 3D scene in which all the characters are Peeps. The contest sometimes attracted several hundred participants, whose submissions ranged from a Peep van Gogh to a Peepified scene from the movie. Up. (You can see past diorama contest winners here.) The competition was such a cult favorite that when in 2017 the Post decided to discontinue it, the good ones of the Washington City Paper took it upon themselves to maintain the tradition. (You can see the 2018 contest winners online, including an ode to the year’s Best Picture winner titled “The Shape of Sugar.”

But the Post wasn’t even the first newspaper to hold a Peeps contest — that honor goes to the St. Paul Pioneer Pressthat staff writer Richard Chin dreamed up the contest in 2004. And the New Yorker argues that the tradition of sugar-based dioramas goes back much further, to the 17th century:

At the beginning of the Renaissance, inventive European court pastry chefs crafted elaborate sculptures for special meals, often designed to echo or complement the themes of the musical or theatrical entertainment that accompanied a banquet. These could also be allegorical in nature, representing religious scenes or commemorating military victories. At the wedding of Maria de Medici to Henry IV, in Florence, in 1600, the groom was not present, but was represented by an impressive sugar sculpture depicting him on horseback.

In a less, uh, artistic contest, in 2016 Maryland National Harbor hosted the first World Peeps Eating Championship. The winner, Matt Stonie of San Jose, took home $3,500 for consuming an impressive (or disturbing) 200 Peeps in five minutes.

Things have been a little rough for sugary treats lately. In recent years, Peep-maker Just Born has been mired in a sticky legal battle with its unionized workforce over the company’s long-standing pension plan. This fascinating Washington Post article it goes into it in depth (and it’s worth reading in full if you’ve made it this far in an article about Peeps), but I’ll explain briefly here.

Just Born has what is called a multiemployer pension program, which allows employees enrolled in the program to move between participating companies and bring their benefits with them. In 2016, citing rising labor costs, Just Born tried to prevent all new employees from joining the pension plan, channeling it instead to the 401(k) program, while waiving a $60 million fee required by federal law to make the move. Union workers went on strike (adopting the absolutely perfect “No justice, no Peeps!” chant); the strike came to a messy end four weeks later after many workers crossed the picket line and the rest eventually returned to work for fear of losing their jobs.

So began the intricate legal piece. For the Post:

The pension, which is administered by a group of labor officials and corporate executives from the 200 participating companies, sued the company, accusing it of improperly trying to stop new employees from enrolling in the pension without paying the withdrawal fee. The company sued the union, demanding “monetary damages” and claiming the strike was illegal.

The outcome of the case could have major ramifications for companies with multiemployer pension programs and similar 10 million American workers those programs cover. If Just Born manages to get out of that $60 million tax, other companies could follow in its footsteps, calling into question the benefit payments for millions of American works.

Again, the Post article is worth reading in its entirety — but rest assured that, despite the company’s legal troubles, you don’t need to start collecting Peeps.

Where do Peeps fall in the Easter candy hierarchy?

The website Ranker maintains a floating list of early Easter sweets, which confusingly included “chocolate covered marshmallow Peeps” and “bunny Peeps” as separate items. However, this list also considers the impure monstrosities known as Jordan’s tonsils and thus should be discounted entirely.

But only an Easter candy has the distinction of being featured in the premiere of the controversial Roseanne rebirththat first episode sees main character (and Trump supporter) Roseanne Conner chowing down on some Peeps for breakfast. Which, regardless of your politics, seems like a risky move from a nutritional and dental health perspective.

Update, April 4, 2026, 6 am ET: This article was originally published on March 30, 2018, and updated to reflect updated information where available.