peppermint twist

PEZ, I learned, is an Austrian confection whose name is taken from the initial, middle and last letters of the German word Pfefferminz—the original flavour of these tiny candy bricks.

Emanating from a line of accomplished physicians in Vienna who turned their sights to improving the leavening process for baked goods, the candies were discovered while perfecting the chemistry of baking powder. The dispensers, now iconic and numbering among one thousand five hundred different characters, were designed to have the dimensions and feel of cigarette lighter and proffer a quick succession of mints as an alternative to smoking, which the founders considered a nasty habit. PEZ was promoted as a means to stifle the appetite, just like smoking, and a way to bait one’s acquaintances, hoping to bum a cigarette, with a surprise that was also hygienic (one didn’t need to handle the candy to offer it to another). When the idea failed to expand beyond Europe, PEZ was transformed into a commodity for young people, which has a lasting-power as collectibles and in many different incarnations for adults, too.