The Strangest Peeps Flavors Ever Made
Aside from colored eggs and chocolate bunnies, there is no food that screams "Easter" more than Peeps. These pudgy little marshmallow chicks covered in colored sugar have been a staple in Easter baskets since they were introduced in 1953. Since then, Just Born, the company that produces Peeps, has expanded on these little goodies to create other shapes like rabbits, bats, pumpkins, gingerbread men, and even Minions. What was once only a seasonal treat can now be enjoyed all year round, but while all that expansion has resulted in some great new flavors, it has also produced some pretty weird ones.
It's not easy to keep things fresh while still staying true to the original form of your product, so Just Born can be excused for getting a bit wild with the experimenting. When those experiments make it to the general public, however, things get a bit strange. In this article, you'll find some of the craziest Peeps flavors ever invented, as well as consumers' reactions to them. Fortunately, many of these were limited-edition flavors and have since been discontinued, but the memory of them may haunt those who tried them forever.
Sour Watermelon
Original Peeps are known for being sugary, sticky, fairly tame little treats with a light flavor that makes them easy to eat and easy to love. There is nothing jarring about them, nothing that will make your mouth pucker or your eyes water. So, naturally, someone came up with an idea to change that.
Sour Watermelon Peeps are a light green color on the outside with an unsettlingly bright pink interior. While some Peeps lovers rejected them based on solely on this appearance (some users on Reddit said they look like they would be wasabi flavored and thus steered clear), others who gave them a try compare the flavor to watermelon Airheads. Still others, however, say their taste is much worse than that. "They're as terrible as you can imagine," writes u/elj415 on Reddit. "Worst thing I've ever put into my mouth." The consensus is that marshmallow doesn't work well with sour flavors, but this doesn't stop Sour Watermelon Peeps from being one of the most popular flavors around Easter each year.
Fruit Punch
Adding one fruit flavor to a marshmallow-based treat is already a risk, but adding several of them to one Peep and making said Peep a hideously bold, reddish-orange color is just asking for backlash. Fruit Punch-flavored Peeps have been described as looking like Hot Cheetos while tasting like Kool-Aid. Or, as u/JenniferCrites92 clarifies, like the Kool-Aid she threw up when she was a kid.
Aside from a few bad associations like those, these Peeps are also fairly popular, with other candy overs on Reddit admitting that they taste alright. As far as odd flavors go, Fruit Punch seems to be one of the more tolerable ones, even if it is impossible to tell what fruits are actually included in that "punch," as the packaging simply lists natural and artificial flavors. The main issue is the aftertaste that is left behind once the Peep is gone, which has been described as having an inexplicable tartness that lingers.
Pumpkin Spice Latte
In this day and age, is there anything more cliché than pumpkin spice flavor? For some drinks and baked goods, this flavor actually is pretty good, if overused, but when it comes to Peeps, it's just plain strange. While the flavor itself is described by Margaret from The Impulsive Buy as sugary and vanilla-y with "a touch of cinnamon-nutmegy earthiness [that] lingers at the end," other reviewers like Maria Cook from The Mary Sue say that this is not the case. She writes that the cinnamon flavor is actually a very artificial one, and it burns your mouth and throat when you eat it. "The pumpkin spice flavor is practically nonexistent," she says, but the off-putting flavor that the Peep did have lasted until she finally went to brush her teeth hours later.
Another issue with Pumpkin Spice Latte Peeps is the texture. The top part of the Peep is a very pale orange color, while the bottom is coated in a white, drippy-looking chocolate fudge that turns slimy as soon as it touches your tongue and adds even more sugar to this already hyper-sweet candy, making the whole eating experience just plain weird.
Bubble Gum
Mmm, who doesn't love the flavor of fake bubble gum? Or, better yet, the vague, barely there hint of fake bubble gum? Aside from it being a strange experience to actually swallow something that tastes like gum, this Peep has been described by reviewers as having such a light flavor that it was difficult to tell if it was coming from the pale pink sugary exterior or the also pink marshmallowy interior. It was also difficult to tell exactly what kind of bubble gum flavor was being used here, as all there is to go by is a very light whiff of wintergreen, which doesn't really match up with the pink color.
Other reviewers have stated that their packages did have a bubble gum flavor that was reminiscent of Big League Chew or Bazooka bubble gum. Even then, the flavor wasn't overwhelming, making this a good option for those who aren't feeling too adventurous when it comes to trying new Peeps.
[Image by Mike Mozart via Flickr | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]
Chocolate Caramel Swirl
Chocolate and caramel are both great flavors on their own, and they usually go great together. But when it comes to the Chocolate Caramel Swirl Peeps, this combo just doesn't work. This Peep is part of the Peeps Delights line, which are a bit "fancier" than your normal Peeps, but the texture, taste, and overall experience of eating this candy goes beyond just weird to borderline disgusting.
Taste-testers from Los Angeles Magazine were not all aware that a caramel-flavored filling was inside the marshmallow center ... or that it would come seeping out when they took a bite. "This is like a Three Musketeers bar, but horrible," one of them stated. Another added that the caramel concoction had a plastic-like quality that made it seem fake and made it difficult to eat, while it was also noted that the Peeps "literally melted" as soon as they took them out of the package. Yum.
Kettle Corn
Ah, kettle corn: the sweet and salty sibling of buttered popcorn that can satisfy both sugary and savory cravings at the same time. The taste is light but delicious, so of course that flavor should somehow be bottled (or should that be powdered?) and used to elevate other snack foods, right? Well, not in the case of Peeps.
Kettle Corn Peeps' packaging makes it look like you're going to watch a film at an old-timey cinema. The marshmallow candies even smell like popcorn, but the taste leaves something to be desired. While some customers have described them as having a buttery flavor, a number of other consumers have said that the Peeps' taste is more akin to buttered popcorn-flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans than actual popcorn, kettle or otherwise. Redditor u/Bolthead44 shared a much harsher take on them: "My wife and daughter called them 'an abomination,'" they wrote.
Root Beer Float
Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned root beer float? It's got the sweet, sassafras-y taste and the light fizz of root beer and the delicious creamy goodness of vanilla ice cream, making it a great sweet treat for a summer afternoon. Perhaps it was on one of those afternoons that someone at Just Born came up with the idea to turn their root beer float into a Peep ... with the result being many people wishing they hadn't.
The Los Angeles Magazine taste testers noted that things are bad from the start with this Peep — its appearance is not unlike that of the poop emoji. (Sorry, you will never be able to unsee that now.) There's a brown, sparkly, powdery sort of look to the already blobby chick and a barely perceptible black dot on each side for the eyes. Once you bite into it, however, things only get worse. It doesn't taste like root beer at all, although it is tough to describe just what, exactly, it does taste like. One of LA Mag's testers called the flavor "licorice-like," but that person also happened to hate licorice, which isn't a good sign.
Caramel Apple
Like pumpkin spice, caramel apple is another popular fall flavor for many candies. This works well for hard candies and suckers, perhaps, but when that candy is a marshmallow Peep, things get ... odd.
For starters, the bright green marshmallow has a sour, green apple flavor, which, like with the Sour Watermelon Peeps, is jarring. Then, to make things even weirder, the Peep is dipped in a caramel "fudge" substance that forms a thin, hard layer on the bottom. This is adding sugar to something that was already arguably too sweet, but the real issue is the sweet-sour combination.
America Fun Fact of the Day describes it like this: "Imagine eating a Peep. Now imagine washing that down with a nice cool glass of apple juice." As one might expect, this juxtaposition of extremely sweet with pretty sour leads to a "gag reflex" that the reviewer describes as your body's way of telling you not to eat this Peep. Luckily, these Caramel Apple Peeps were a limited-edition release in 2015, so you likely won't have to worry about anyone gifting you some next Easter.
[Image by Mike Mozart via Flickr | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]
Pancakes & Syrup
Regardless of the weird, wild, wacky flavor of the Peep in question, the most common complaint with unusual flavors of this candy is that the they have a chemical quality that no one can quite put their finger on. These artificial flavors taste very, well, artificial, and this effect is never more pronounced than it is with Pancakes & Syrup Peeps.
The Peeps look innocuous enough with a pale, goldish-brown exterior, but the taste itself is like maple syrup made in a lab, as is the smell. "It sort of smells like a McGriddle, but ... bad," said a reviewer for Los Angeles Magazine. Others state that the problem isn't so much the flavor but the fact that it smells so much like pancakes that when you take a bite, your brain is confused by the bizarrely different texture of the squishy marshmallow. To be fair, however, this could be said about most of the flavors on this list, and Redditor u/kasrose123 may have found a way around it: Let your Peeps get stale before eating them. "The texture of a stale peep makes the experience so much better," they say, before adding, "Pancakes & Syrup rocks."
Sweet Lemonade
Sweet Lemonade got even sweeter when it became a Peeps flavor in 2013. While the idea behind this flavor was charitable — a portion of each sale went to the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer — the actual execution was strange. The color and smell of the Peeps was very similar to real lemonade, and of course they were sweet, since that's basically the whole idea behind all sugar-coated marshmallow Peeps. However, some people who tried them complained that the lemon flavor was too acidic and left an aftertaste that made them regret eating it in the first place.
The Junk Food Guy writes on his blog that Just Born got the flavor exactly right, however, and that the Peeps really did taste like a lightly sour glass of lemonade to him. He did note that the Peeps left a feeling in his mouth that reminded him of the puckery feeling you get after drinking real lemonade.
[Image by Mike Mozart via Flickr | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]
Chocolate Pudding
Chocolate pudding is a great snack, but it's something that is often imitated but never duplicated. Numerous other candy, cookies, and sweets brands have attempted to make a chocolate pudding-flavored version of their goodies, but it very rarely works out well. Chocolate Pudding Peeps are no exception.
Just like in most other cases, the chocolate flavor in the Chocolate Pudding Peeps tastes fake, with Lucien Formichella of Business Insider describing it as being similar to protein powder. It isn't a terrible taste, he says, but "I didn't love it either."
Unlike almost all of the other Peeps on this list, these Peeps are bunnies and not chicks. They look promising: Chocolate bunnies are almost always good, right? And how you could lose with chocolate on the outside and marshmallow on the inside? But as cute as they may be, their taste is, at best, meh. If you're in the mood for chocolate pudding, it's better just to just grab some actual instant pudding.
Sparkly Wild Berry
This one is strange ... but surprisingly well received! At first glance, it seems like Sparkly Wild Berry Peeps just won't work. They, like the Chocolate Pudding Peeps, are shaped like rabbits instead of chicks, and they are filled with little flecks of various berry flavors. There are several types of berries on the package, including strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cherries, and Lucien Formichella noted that a "berry-medley fragrance" really does greet you when you open it.
In spite of his initial impression that Sparkly Wild Berry Peeps were a "gimmick," he actually found them to be quite delightful — an opinion shared by several users on Reddit. "Just ate the wild berry one," wrote one user "WOW that is good!" They go on to say that the sourness of the berries is on point, as is the consistency of the marshmallow. Redditor u/Allthevillains agreed that this one is "so f—ing good," which we think is a pretty good endorsement.
Hot Tamales Fierce Cinnamon
Have you ever eaten a Peep and thought to yourself, "Man, I really wish this burned my mouth?" Yeah, us neither. The first impression of Hot Tamales Fierce Cinnamon flavor is one of intimidation. The package has a streaking flame across it, and the actual Peeps are a deep, dark red color that you can only associate with something spicy or dangerous.
If one summons up the courage to give these Peeps a taste, though, they are left disappointed. While the scent of these Hot Tamales Peeps is exactly like the popular Halloween candy they're based on, the consistency of the pillowy marshmallow makes things weird, and the actual taste of the cinnamon is barely there. Wilder Shaw of Cheapism says that it is a flavor "you'll forget about immediately," while Lucien Formichella from Business Insider gave a more colorful description: "It felt more like licking a hot-chips bag than anything else."