In 1927, in Vienna, Austria, a candy maker by the name of Eduard Haus, III, developed a candy to conceal adult smokers' bad breath.

In fact, the target market for the candy, labeled as a compressed breath mint, consisted of adult smokers. The original flavor for the candy, which is still available today, was Peppermint.

When marketers extracted the first, middle, and the last letters of the German word for Peppermint, Pfefferminz, they were left with PEZ, and the name stuck. Convenient, headless PEZ dispensers surfaced in the late 1940, and allowed the smoker to pop a PEZ to freshen his breath at any given time.

In 1952, the PEZ revolution spread to the United States, the land of opportunity, or opportunism, however you choose to look at it. Marketing gurus, after extensive research with children, concluded that the adult smokers' mint should be replaced by a fruit-flavored children's candy, complete with a gimmick. They determined that PEZ dispensers with character heads were just the vehicle to drive up sales, and they were right!

Flavors of the ever popular candies PEZ, which are compact, flavored sugar pellets, have come and gone over the years as peoples' tastes have changed. The flavors Chlorophyll, Eucalyptus, and Flower, were destined to be discontinued from the start. Other flavors no longer with us include Coffee, Licorice, Menthol, and Cinnamon.

The current availability of certain flavors of PEZ depends upon where you live. For example, in the United States, your choices are limited to Grape, Lemon, Orange, and Peppermint, while our Canadian neighbors have an additional fruit flavor, cherry, at their disposal. Overseas, in Spain, Apple and Raspberry flavors may be purchased, while in Hungary and Thailand, Chocolate flavor may be added to your stash. One additional type of PEZ exists; the vitamin enriched IZO PEZ.

Since 1952, PEZ dispensers have become collectors' items, with some rare dispensers carrying hefty price tags. So rare is the Big Top Elephant model, that one collector recently paid $3,600.00 to become the elephant's proud new owner! Over 275 different PEZ character heads have been designed since 1952, with as many as 48 different models on the market at any one time. In terms of popularity, the Mickey Mouse and the Santa Claus models top the list year after year. One set of models, that of the Flintstone cartoon characters, flew off of the shelves so quickly, that the rush to buy left the most popular one, Dino, the purple dinosaur, in short supply.

Technology's attempt to jump on the PEZ dispenser bandwagon has proven far less successful. One company produces a battery-powered dispenser, complete with a top that spins and pops candy into your mouth, and another produces the PEZ watch, which dispenses candy out of one side of the watch when a PEZ attack hits.

No doubt, PEZ will introduce new flavors and new dispensers in the future, but no matter what changes are made, PEZ has become so deeply engrained in our culture, that it is certainly here to stay.

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