PEZ was invented in 1927 by Austrian food company executive, Edward Haas. The origin of the word PEZ comes from the first, middle and last letter from the German word for peppermint (PfeffErminZ). To make his way into the candy market, Haas named this new breath mint 'PEZ' and aimed his product toward adults.

Originally, Haas created this new peppermint candy as an alternative to smoking for adults. In following the physical habit of smoking, Haas developed a dispenser that looked like a lighter so rather than sparking up a cigarette, smokers would reach for the mint-candy dispenser instead. In the end, smokers hated it but some people loved it - kids. It was at this point that Haas turned his attention toward selling PEZ dispensers as toys to hold candy. The first Pez dispenser appeared around 1950.

By 1952, Haas wanted to market his dispensers to children in the United States and PEZ-Haas, Inc opened an office in New York City. After extensive market research on children and his product, Haas put heads on the top of the dispensers and gave the candy fruity flavors such as lemon, orange, cherry and strawberry. Some say the first character PEZ dispenser was the full body Santa Claus with moveable limbs and fine painted detail. Others say the Full Body Robot was first.  Although popular with children, Haas decided to change the image of the dispenser to that which we are most familiar with today - the straight rectangular body with the character head on top that dispenses the candy.

The first licensed character was Popeye followed by Bozo the Clown, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Mickey Mouse. In the 1980s, other popular licensed characters appeared such as Garfield & Friends, the Looney Tunes and the Smurfs. As with other children's toys, PEZ followed the trend of using popular licensed characters from comics, cartoons and movies already familiar to their target market. In 1987, feet were added to PEZ dispensers to make the characters more lifelike and in the past few years, PEZ has released a series of accessories for their dispensers such as clothing and costumes.

PEZ-Haas, Inc. made its U.S. debut in 1953 at Chicago's candy industry convention and Curtis Allina was chosen executive vice president of the company. In 1973, the first US PEZ plant was built in Orange, CT., allowing the product to reach more customers. In 1983, Scott McWhinnie became "PEZident" and today remains the head of possibly the most prominent collectible company in the world.

In April 2002, PEZ turns over a box of genuine "errors" to the Northeast PEZ Collectors Gathering to give to all attendees. These dispensers came to PEZ made in the wrong colors. Rather than distroy them, they give them to collectors for the first time. The dispenser was the "Glowing Convention Witch". Now, it is a new tradition for convention registrants to recieve a commerative dispenser at conventions.

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.

I have made an effort to use only  images which are freely available online.  If you feel that I have violated copyright, or have otherwise used an image improperly,  email me, and I will correct the situation.