What’s the History of Your Favorite Easter Candy?
No matter how you celebrate Easter (or even if you don’t celebrate it at all), you probably have a favorite Easter candy. The holiday has been synonymous with chocolate bunnies and other sweet treats for centuries; today, the surest way to know that Easter is on its way is to enter a grocery store or pharmacy and spy a display of Easter candies, cookies and cakes.
But how much do you know about your favorite Easter candy? Have you ever wondered who dreamed up Peeps, or why we serve chocolate bunnies on the holiday? We have answers. So pull up your favorite Easter snack (or five) and read on.
Peeps
The candy that taught people to associate marshmallows and chickens was invented at Lancaster, Pennsylania’s Rodda Candy Co. in the first few decades of the 20th century — records are unclear as to exactly what year the first Peep was born. What we do know is that back then, making Peeps was grueling work; the tiny birds were made by hand, in a process that took over 24 hours from start to finish.
That all ended when Rodda was acquired by Just Born, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania candy company that still makes the candies. In 1954, they introduced a mechanized process which took the manufacturing time down to six minutes. In the ’60s, the company began producing the candy in other shapes, and in the ’80s, they began to make Peeps available year round; in the ’90s, new colors like lavender were introduced into the traditional selection of yellow, pink, and white.
Today, two billion Peeps are manufactured a year; they’re not only available year round, but in special Halloween and Christmas versions, too. But don’t the Easter ones still taste the best?
In 2021, it was announced that a Peeps animated film was in development, though there haven’t been any updates since.
Cadbury Creme Eggs
The very first creme-filled egg created by the Cadbury Brothers was released in 1923 (though it wasn’t the first creme-filled candy egg ever). But the Cadbury Creme Egg as we know it was first produced in 1963. Back then, it was known as a Fry’s Creme Egg; in 1971, it was rechristened a Cadbury Creme Egg.
Cadbury Creme Eggs came across the pond to the U.S. in the 1980s, but they weren’t made by Cadbury; in the U.S., Hershey holds a license to the Cadbury name, and manufactures their Eggs, as well as other candies, like Caramello, that are manufactured by Cadbury in the UK.
Cadbury eggs being manufactured in 1932. Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Unlike Peeps, Cadbury Creme Eggs aren’t available year round, though there have been some variations for other holidays, like the Cadbury Screme Egg with a green yolk for Halloween.
Chocolate bunnies
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The first chocolate bunnies were crafted in Germany in the mid-1800s; German immigrants brought them to the US towards the end of the century. In 1890, Reading, Pennsylvania (yes, a lot of this candy history takes place in Pennsylvania!) shop owner Robert L. Strohecker created a giant chocolate bunny for his story window; it caused a sensation, and is credited for popularizing the chocolate bunny in the States.
For its first few decades in the public eye, the chocolate bunny just looked like … well, a bunny. It wasn’t until 1934 that Pennsylvania’s Bartz Chocolate Company produced the first whimsical Easter chocolate: a candy bunny playing the accordion. If you’ve recently purchased a chocolate bunny that plays soccer, does ballet, or has a cell phone, thank Bartz for their innovations.
One big difference between those early chocolate bunnies and today’s confections: the early chocolate Easter bunnies were made of solid chocolate! Chocolate rations during World War II led candy-makers to produce hollow bunnies. And they’ve remained that way ever since. Is it because, as many confectioners claim, that it’s harder to eat a solid chocolate bunny? Or simply an excuse for candy companies to skimp on the sweet stuff? You be the judge.
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