Classic Food Friday: Pez
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Pez, the candy that started as a mint and transformed itself into a sugary pop culture staple. To help Pez collector’s celebrate this anniversary, we are dedicating the Classic Food Friday post to the wonder that is Pez.
Pez was invented in 1927 in Austria as an adult peppermint, and its name is short for pfefferminz which is the German word for peppermint. The creator of Pez quickly expanded the marketing for Pez to advocate sucking on the candies as an alternative to smoking. This seems fairly prophetic, since billions of dollars are now spent on products that claim to help people stop smoking, and only adds to the mysterious aura of Pez.
Perhaps even more famous than the Pez candies are the Pez dispensers, which started as a hygienic way to carry mints and morphed into collector’s items that fascinate consumers the world over. To date approximately 300 different Pez dispensers have been created, and there are avid collectors who have books and conventions on the subject of collecting said dispensers of Pez. At any given time you can find fanatical Pez dispenser trading on Ebay, which has seen a Pez dispenser sell for over $30,000.00 USD. There is even an auction site to help you track your Pez auctions called AuctionPez.com.
If you can’t find what you like in the official Pez dispenser collector community, there is a counterfeit Pez dispenser community that trades “fantasy Pez” dispensers. Basically Pez obsessed folks create Pez-like dispensers for their favorite pop culture icons and then sell them to others. After 80 years in the cut throat candy business, Pez is still going strong.
Pez, Pillsbury Doughboy, Kiss, dispensers, Austria, mints, smoking, collector
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 am
[...] Last week I was in Iowa and spotted these slightly shocking boxes nestled amongst the candies and snack foods in a gift store. Given the national war on smoking, I was surprised to see they made these candies, much less see them placed them at eye level for kids. Apparently my impression that these candies were no longer on the market is a common misconception, as the government has left it up to individual retailers to decide whether they will carry these controversial confections. Given the nature of these novelty items, it seemed natural to choose them as today’s feature for Classic Food Friday. [...]
November 29th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[...] assume they will be there forever. Past editions of Classic Food Friday have included peeks at Pez, Twinkies, Moon Pies, and even Green Giant [...]