orange you glad

Almost every candy season, the Marshmallow Peeps folks (the Marshmallow Peeps peeps?) introduce something new. For this Easter, it's Chocolate Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Bunnies and regular Peeps in orange. Collectors of all things Peep can now buy Lenox China versions of the sugary treats.

Six years ago, the Marshmallow Peeps Fun Bus came through Knoxville. I arranged for it to make a stop outside Patrick Sullivan's during an Einstein Simplified performance. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, they had produced a limited run of Peeps chicks in all the colors used for other shapes throughout the year. At the time, it was unusual to see Peeps chicks in Halloween orange and Valentine red. I told the Fun Bus staff that orange Peeps would be particularly popular here in Tennessee Volunteer country. They had the home office overnight a case of orange chicks to them in time for an appearance at Walmart the next day.



I've been looking for the Chocolate Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Bunnies without success. My son and I saw other Peeps on display at a Walmart in Florida earlier this month. The Peeps and several other candies were grouped by color including pink, yellow and blue chocolate rabbits (yuck) from Russell Stover. My wife and I saw a similar display in Knoxville yesterday, except they featured the orange items instead of the blue.