All Peeps come from one place.
A single sugar-dusted city—Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—where the Just Born factory cranks out more than 5.5 million Peeps a day, every one of them hatched by machine.
Here’s your marshmallowy FactSlap:
Peeps FactSlaps
Factory-born chicks: Every Peep in the world is made in Bethlehem, where Just Born has operated since 1923.
From 27 hours to 6 minutes: In the 1950s, Bob Born revolutionized Peeps by inventing a machine that dropped the production time from 27 hours to just 6 minutes.
Yellow rules the roost: The first Peeps were yellow chicks, and to this day, yellow remains the top seller.
Wax eyes, sugar skin: Those beady eyes? Made from carnauba wax. Each Peep is coated in colored sugar, built on a base of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin.
Wings, clipped: Peeps used to have little wings. They were trimmed in the late 1950s for efficiency—and sleekness.
Holiday shapeshifters: Peeps now come in over a dozen flavors and nine colors, molded into bunnies, pumpkins, ghosts, and even hearts for Valentine’s.
Bethlehem’s ball drop: On New Year’s Eve, the town of Peeps drops a 4-foot tall, 200-pound Peep instead of a disco ball.
Built to last (maybe forever): Peeps are so packed with preservatives that some experiments have failed to dissolve them in water, acid, or even acetone.
