The Ritual of the Peep
NPR Reporter Searches for Best Way to Eat Marshmallow Birdies

 Listen to NPR's Andrea Seabrook's story on Peeps.

Video: The Peeps assembly line at the Just Born factory.

Get the facts about Peeps.

Peeps, a legendary Easter treat. Photo courtesy Just Born

March 31, 2002 -- At the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa., 3.8 million candy Peeps are hatched a day. A never-ending flow of pastel battalions of birdies march down the assembly line. Their marshmallow bodies get a coat of colored sugar, a pneumatic gun affixes their wax eyes, and finally they're dropped into a cardboard cradle, tucked in with cellophane, and shipped out to the world.

After that, a Peep's fate is anyone's guess. Americans eat more than 600 million Peeps and Bunnies -- their Easter counterparts -- a year. Globally, a billion are consumed per year.

Peep Art: "KFPeeps" Photo: David Ottogalli, Peeps Show

But that's not exactly accurate -- not all of them are eaten. Some become art, some become pets, and some are tortured as mad scientists try to discover what a Peep's breaking point is.

Whether as candy or toy, Peeps hold a revered place in American culture, to the point that they're now ritual. For Weekend All Things Considered, NPR's Andrea Seabrook investigates part of that ritual: the eating of the Peeps. She makes an unscientific survey of Peep-eaters in the nation's capital -- and then heads to the Peep factory itself -- in search of a definitive answer to the eternal question: What's the best way to eat a Peep?

In Depth:

Listen to Don Gonyea's interview with Peeps artist David Ottogalli.

More Peeps on the Web:

• Read about what's done to Peeps in the name of science at www.peepresearch.org

• Get recipes, souvenirs and Peep history at the official Marshmallow Peeps Web site.

• Read about the first Peeps in space, Peep-O-Nauts.

• Cool things to do with Peeps.

• Get more Peep recipes.

• Follow Peeps in their travels around the world at Tracy and Mia's Peep-o-Rama.

• More Peep links on the Web.

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