Candy is a popular treat around the world and PEZ is among the most well-known brands as much for the dispensers as for the candy itself. They are a perennial favorite among collectors and new characters are issued to keep up with the popular trends of the day. Though we are quite familiar with the interactive candy in our society the origin of PEZ is not widely known.

Austrian Edward Haas developed his idea for a peppermint candy in 1927. The German word for peppermint is pfefferminz and he took the first, middle, and last letters of the word to form the name PEZ. Originally it was a breath mint but he decided to market it as an alternative for smoking. It was initially just carried in tin containers and the dispenser was released in 1948 as a more “hygienic’ way of eating the candies. The first dispensers resembled cigarette lighters and were an adult confection but looking to expand their market they brought the candy to the USA in 1952. In order to make the product more appealing to kids, character heads were placed on the dispensers and fruit flavors were introduced. Haas decided on the flavors of cherry, lemon, orange, and strawberry since he thought these would be the flavors kids would most prefer.

The company grew and PEZ candy Inc. took over the manufacturing and sales of the products from Haas Food Manufacturing in 1970 and built their USA based plant in 1973 at Orange, CT. The plant has doubled in size, operates 24 hours per day, and has made in excess of 300

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different types of dispensers. PEZ is available in over 60 countries and produces the 3 billion candies eaten in the USA each year by itself. There is a large collector base for the rare PEZ dispensers of the past and some of them have sold for surprising amounts of money. One of the original types of dispensers sold in 2002 for $6,575 and some varieties routinely sell in excess of $1,000. PEZ has only continued to gain in popularity and shows no signs of slowing down.

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