by We had a frenetic visit to the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange, CT. The candies are produced on site, but it’s hardly even a thought during the visit; if you’re so inclined you can look through some windows onto the floor, but with kids running everywhere and a seek-and-find contest to finish, barely a glance was made.
PEZ were first made in 1927 in Austria, marketed as a “compressed peppermint candy” as an alternative to smoking; we’re surprised “compressed” isn’t used in more food campaigns today. The name comes from the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminz = PfeffErminZ. The first dispenser didn’t make its debut, however, until 1949; today there are collectors’ conventions and even PEZ dispensers sold through Christie’s auction house!
The visit is colorful, silly fun for all. There’s lots of displays of PEZ dispensers, an electronic memory game of PEZ dispensers (Jennifer made the top-scorer board!) (it must reset hourly), and more commercial tie-ins than you dreamed possible. The PEZ clothing was a hoot! The seek-and-find contest quickly became our priority, thought it’s clear we could have entered anything and they would have given us a free PEZ dispenser, regardless. You get 50% of your admission as store credit, guaranteeing you’re buying some PEZ on your way out. We got Mr. K at cat PEZ dispenser, which he was completely ungrateful for.
70 million PEZ dispensers and 5 billion candies are distributed each year in 80 countries around the world. The Orange, CT facility opened in 1973.
