Pez Candy Facts
Pez is a quarter-inch candy that fits nicely inside of a Pez dispenser. Pez is extremely affordable and comes in a variety of flavors. There are avid Pez dispenser collectors, and there is even a Pez museum. Pez has an interesting history and a big part in popular culture.
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Pez Origins
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Pez was intended to be an adult candy. Pez was invented in 1927 by Eduard Haas III, an Austrian who was a pioneer in the antismoking cause. Haas' Pez prototypes were all mint, intended to curb cigarette cravings. The first Pez dispenser was invented by Oskar Uxa, who was a Pez employee. The first dispensers were shaped like a cigarette lighter. The word Pez is actually an anagram for the German word pfefferminz, or mints in English.
Production
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Haas Food Manufacturing Corporation of Vienna, Austria, manufactured and sold Pez until 1952. It was during this time that U.S. patent 2,620,061 was issued to Haas and Uxa, and the Pez Corporation was born. Pez quickly swept the nation as a candy marketed toward children. The cigarette lighter dispenser was replaced by a dispenser resembling a character with a head. The first U.S. Pez dispensers were made to look like Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse.
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Pez Factory Today
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The Pez Factory is currently located in Orange, Connecticut. Its doors were opened in 1973. The current president of the Pez Company is Scott McWheenie, who recently reintroduced the mint flavor.
The Pez Museum
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The Pez museum in Burlingame, California, exhibits each of the 692 Pez dispensers ever made. They range in value from $0 to more than $5,000. This museum is owned and operated by Pez enthusiast Gary Doss, who recently completed his collection with a $2,000 pineapple-head dispenser. If you visit the Pez museum, don't miss the world's largest Pez dispenser. It is 12 feet tall.
Pez Trivia
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Urban legend states that entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar created an online auction site so that his girlfriend could sell her Pez dispensers. This site is called eBay.
The most expensive Pez dispenser is the 1982 World's Fair Astronaut B. The simple black astronaut Pez dispenser fetched $32,205 on eBay.
Pez candies have at one time or another been produced in the following flavors: chocolate, coffee, wild cherry, assorted fruit, grape, lemon, orange, strawberry, anise, chlorophyll, eucalyptus, flower flavor, raspberry, hot cinnamon, lime and menthol.
Pez collectors are commonly known as "Pez Heads."
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Resources
- Photo Credit flickr.com/photos/hryckowian/3230793172/
