On The Road Again: PEZ Visitor

PEZ Visitor Center, Orange, Conn. Dateline: Vienna, Austria, 1927

Innovator and confectioner Eduard Haas III (1897-1989), namesake of a grocer father and physician grandfather, develops an anti-smoking breath mint. He is inspired by his success in earning a patent as an adolescent for a light baking powder mix for Gugelhupf, a traditional cake apocryphally attributed to the Three Wise Men.

Infusing a hard powder mixture with peppermint oil, Haas manufactures the small round tablets and sells them in tins (think Altoids). His confection becomes wildly popular throughout Europe and eventually around the globe.

By Ray Balogh | The Municipal

He coins them “PEZ drops,” derived from the first, middle and last letters of “PfeffErminZ,” the German word for peppermint.

In 1935 Haas constructed a new factory in Czechoslovakia to manufacture the candies, which by then had changed to their iconic brick shape, and in 1949 at the Vienna Trade Fair, he officially unveiled the first PEZ dispenser, which held 12 tablets, the same capacity as those sold today.

In 1952 Haas moved to the United States to tap this nation’s prodigious consumer market. He initially set up operations in New York City, and the growing popularity of the mints prompted him to build a manufacturing facility in Orange, Conn., breaking ground in 1973.

The adjoining 4,000-square-foot Visitor Center opened its doors in 2011 and is visited by thousands of PEZ devotees every year. A seemingly endless array of the dispensers are displayed in the center. Also exhibited are a PEZ motorcycle built by Orange County Choppers; the world’s largest PEZ dispenser, which stands two stories tall; an interactive PEZ trivia game; and observation windows into the production facility, which produces 12 million PEZ tablets (1 million dispenser packages) every day. All visits are self-guided, though visitors are not allowed in the manufacturing area.

Regular admission is $5 for adults and $4 for seniors and children aged 3 to 12. Each paid admission merits a $2 credit for same-day purchases in the center’s gift shop. Visitors can also indulge in free samples of a variety of flavors.

Over the decades, PEZ initiated adjustments and improvements to its marketing and its dispensers and added flavors to its repertoire of candies. The first character-shaped dispensers—Santa Claus and a robot—were introduced in 1955. Other character heads were added, and today PEZ boasts an inventory of more than 550 unique dispenser heads with thousands of variations.

Marketing efforts included the creation of PEZ Boy, a fictional lad who solves mysteries while dressing up in various disguises, PEZ candy started in 1927 as a round anti-smoking breath mint. Production is now predominated by fruit-flavored pastel bricks. (Photo by Tobik/Shutterstock.com)

including a policeman, knight and doctor. PEZ Comics were inserted into the packaging of PEZ Pals, which replicate PEZ Boy’s disguises.

To cater to the adult market, the company hired alluring PEZ Girls, who wore PEZ uniforms and handed out free samples at crowded city intersections and major public events. Pin-up girls cooed from their ads, “Already PEZing?”

The peppermint flavor was jettisoned in favor of sweeter alternatives, particularly fruit flavors, such as lemon, orange, cherry, strawberry and raspberry. Current flavors also include grape and banana. Lime made an appearance but has since been retired.

PEZ market analysts have always been scrupulous in ferreting out taste predilections of the public, short-term fads and experimental forays. Some of the more interesting offerings at present are candy corn, vanilla cupcake, sugar

The 4,000-square-foot PEZ Visitor Center in Orange, Conn., opened in 2011 and contains the world’s largest PEZ dispenser collection. Visitors can take self-guided tours and observe the manufacturing process through observation windows. (Photo by Sean Wandzilak/Shutterstock.com)

Images of PEZ candy rolls are evident everywhere, even on the bench at the front entrance to the Visitor Center. (Photo courtesy of PEZ Visitor Center) Pez Super Hero dispensers. (Shutterstock.com)

cookie and cotton candy. Sugar-free and sour varieties are also available.

Retired flavors include apple, cola, licorice, chocolate, chlorophyll, coffee, yogurt, eucalyptus and flower.

PEZ has also been diligent in adding to its repertoire of dispenser designs. “It’s one of those things that has stood the test of time, and we want people to continue to enjoy that,” said Shaw Peterson, PEZ’s direct to consumer business manager. “We still look for what the new, hottest properties are, the trends that are going to hopefully be around for a while, and we try to capture that in a PEZ dispenser.”

The company receives thousands of requests a year for new designs but turns down almost all of them, including a recent request by Kim Kardashian. PEZ has a seldom breached general rule not to create dispenser likenesses of actual people. Visitors are immediately greeted with the world’s largest PEZ dispenser, which stands 20 feet high. (Photo courtesy of PEZ Visitor Center)

PEZ has, however, produced a plethora of images based on characters in movies, such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars”; Pixar films; Looney Tunes; D.C. Comics; Muppets; holidays (Easter, Christmas, Halloween); emergency response personnel; NASCAR and professional and college sports teams; cartoon characters (e.g., Popeye and Olive Oyl, Bullwinkle, Casper the Friendly Ghost, SpongeBob SquarePants, Smurfs and Winnie the Pooh).

The process to make one batch of PEZ begins with 600 pounds of granulated table sugar crushed into powder between rollers, to which corn syrup and flavoring are added in precise amounts. The mixture then goes through a tablet press, which tightly compacts the material into their patented rectangular shape.

The tablets are doled onto a conveyor belt in rows of 12 to the wrapping room, where a high-speed process wraps, folds and cuts a continuous sheet of pre-printed foil packaging to make the rolls of 12 candies, ready for shipping and ultimately loading into a dispenser.

Though all PEZ candies are made in the United States, none of the dispensers are. They are manufactured and shipped in from Hungary, China and Vietnam.

The PEZ Visitor Center is located at 35 Prindle Hill Road, Orange, Conn., and is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

For more information, call (203) 298-0201 or visit us.pez.com.