Peeps - Allowing PETA Members to Be Carnivores Since the 1950s

I really think peeps should adopt this entry's title as their slogan. If PETA members are willing to eat sugar animals, then they must be tasty. With Halloween fast approaching, it's time for another batch of those wonderfully all-sugar creations we like to call Peeps. Halloween means you can find peeps in pumpkins, ghosts, spooky cats, and cocoa-flavored cats. According to the website, about 1.2 billion peep items are produced each year, and I'm proud to say I'm responsible for 0.00000002.5% of that production (if I average 30 eaten pieces each year). Though I haven't found them in any stores, you can also decorate your own pumpkin peeps this year.

Among the interesting peep facts I've run across: it would take 8,000 peeps to reach the top of the Sears Tower (for my beloved Chicago reader), the yellow chick is the most popular, and it used to take 27 hours to make one peep in 1953, now it takes 6 minutes.

Peepeaters seems to fall into two very divided categories - fresh and stale. Though I have not found any research done on this topic, I'd guesstimate that 2/3 of peepeaters enjoy eating them the second the plastic is broken off. They believe the fresher the peep, the better it tastes. Of course, there are the other 1/3 outcasted peepeaters who actually want their peeps when the marshmellow isn't as loose/stretchy and the sugar coating is a little crunchier. I've tried both versions and believe that fresher is the way to go. The marshmellow is scientifically (what other kind is there?) designed to be stretched during optimum freshness. I know other people like to freeze their peeps, but a respected peepeater would never do such a thing.

Depending on my peepeating mood that day, I will either eat the entire baby animal in one gulp or delicately rip apart its extremeties. Of course, if I'm feeling particularly vile, I'll decapitate the baby chick/bunny/cat first and laugh at the power trip I'm on.

For hardcore peepeaters out there, research has been done to determine how peeps react to mother nature, smoking, alcohol, and a microwave. There are lots of sites dedicated to peeps including one that shows peeps taking in many sites around the world like Philadelphia in the picture above.