We tried 10 weird flavors of Peeps, plus Peep Pepsi. These are the best (and worst)
It’s Peeps season in the candy aisle, that time of year when sugary, pastel shaded chicks and bunnies unleash their onslaught on our senses.
As you might guess, Peeps are polarizing.
Even in a world of holiday confections like Halloween’s candy corn or Christmas’ candy canes, Peeps carry controversy in their blank, sugary faces.
The venerable Washington Post has even deemed Peeps better construction material than candy by hosting a popular diorama contest.
Well, the News & Observer has decided enough is enough, setting out to settle a question many have ask and few have dared to answer.
What’s the best Peeps flavor?
There are so many Peeps flavors in an array of colors, many coated in crunchy sparkly sugar and flecks of, well, more sugar that glimmers like jewels. There’s a lot of sugar. But what sets a Peep apart is that semi-solid squish of the marshmallow.
For the ultimate Peeps Taste Test, the keen palates of The News & Observer ate through all the locally available Peeps flavors: Original, Party Cake, Fruit Punch, Sour Watermelon, Dr. Pepper, Hot Tamales, Cotton Candy, Sparkly Wild Berry, plus gummies and Peeps-flavored Pepsi.
Tasters included managing editor Thad Ogburn, service journalism editor Brooke Cain and service journalist Korie Dean.
Here’s what we thought, ranked from Peep-tastic to abys-Peep.
Korie’s Peeps Power Ranking
Korie isn’t a big fan of Peeps, but she powered through. Her rankings:
Sour Watermelon: If sour watermelon candy met Peeps, this would be the product of the encounter — and I’m here for it. I thought this Peep offered the brightest flavor, and I appreciated the sour element, which wasn’t overpowering but kept things interesting.
Original: The original Peeps flavor doesn’t offer much to get excited about, but it’s a mainstay of childhood Easter memories that deserves a spot near the top for not trying to do too much in a world of wildly flavored Peep competitors.
Dr. Pepper: This indeed tasted like Dr. Pepper, but perhaps a more syrupy version of it. I appreciated the familiar flavor.
Cotton Candy: The cotton candy flavor isn’t necessarily strong, but it’s enough to notice — like you’re walking by a cotton candy stand and get a strong whiff of the spinning sugar in the air.
Fruit Punch: This is by no means a fresh-tasting or strong fruit punch flavor, but it was faintly reminiscent of the fruit punch I drank at childhood parties.
Hot Tamale: I don’t particularly like cinnamon candy, so the Hot Tamale Peeps flavor was already fighting an uphill battle for me. It definitely nailed the familiar Hot Tamale flavor, so points for that.
Party Cake: I love birthday cake-flavored things, from cake itself to just about any other iteration, so I had high hopes for the Party Cake Peeps. I’m sad to say the Peeps let me down with this one, but I do assign some points for the visual aesthetics it offered with its sparkly, multicolored scheme.
Peep Gummies: These gummies have an appearance similar to Sour Patch Kids, but the resemblance ends there. These are incredibly sweet and the intended marshmallow flavor wasn’t my favorite.
Peeps Pepsi: The cute cans were the best part of this Peeps soda, which was overly sweet and somewhat buttery.
Sparkly Wild Berry: I appreciated the slight tang this flavor offered, but it wasn’t enough to outshine the artificial, cough syrup-like berry flavor that dominated the flavor profile.
Drew ranks his squishy Peepsapalooza faves
Drew knows food. And he knows how he feels about Peeps. His ranking:
Original: It’s the squish for me. Straightforward and sweet like a little gelatinous hug.
Sour Watermelon: Out of all the Peeps, this one finds some balance with the sweet and sour. Would be better with a bit more tartness, but bonus points for the pink inside and green outside.
Hot Tamales: Riffing here on one of my favorite candies, this Peep replaces the exquisite chew of a Hot Tamale with more of a sugary cush. The cinnamon bite is nice and helps cut the sweet onslaught.
Dr. Pepper: You’ll have to go searching for the Dr. Peppperness in this Peep, but it’s kind of there if you squint your eyes and, hey, Dr. Pepper is a great soda.
Fruit Punch: Kind of like a Peep soaked in Hawaiian Punch. This Peep finds some brightness in the sweet, making it taste light instead of sticky.
Party Cake: I wanted something along the lines of licking funfetti icing off of a knife plus the great Peeps texture. Instead it kind of lacked the fun, more of a meh-fetti.
Cotton Candy: We’re not dealing with natural flavors here, but this is the most contrived of the bunch. I wanted to feel like I was at a carnival, but instead felt like I found gum under the desk.
Sparkly Wild Berry: Bonus points for glitter, negative points for everything else.
Gummies: The thing about gummies is the best ones are usually refreshingly sour or deeply flavored with raspberries or cherry or apples. These are just kind of chewy drops of sugar. Like, really chewy, to the point we checked the expiration date and concluded that, yes, they’re supposed to be like that.
Pepsi: Whoa, this is bad. I’m a Coke loyalist, but about once a year I’ll run into a Pepsi and truly enjoy it. This ain’t that. Everything from the color (like watered down Pepsi) to the creamy aftertaste is wrong.
Take a peep at Brooke’s ranking
Peeps in the newsroom? Service journalism editor Brooke Cain was there. Her rankings.
OG Peep: Lifelong Peeps fan here and it’s hard to beat the original little dude. For the record, the yellow bunnies are the best Peeps experience.
Hot Tamale: Of the weird flavors, this is the one I’d have gone back to for seconds. The cinnamon flavor was not as intense as a Hot Tamale, but nice.
Sour Watermelon: Sour candies always rule. Dear Just Born: Consider Sour Green Apple Peeps next Easter. Sincerely, Brooke in Raleigh.
Dr. Pepper: As a (Diet) Dr. Pepper consumer, I’d say they came pretty close on the flavor — or at least to the suggestion of the flavor. Now, if they could just get that burn on the back of the throat...
Fruit Punch: Fruit Punch, whatever flavor profile that encompasses, has never been a favorite. These were too sweet for me.
Peep Pepsi: I would never intentionally seek this out, apart from last Thursday morning when I nearly sprinted across Walmart to buy the batch for this taste test, but if I was super thirsty and it was in crushed ice, I could drink more than a few sips.
Cotton Candy / Party Cake: I forgot to try them.
Peep Gummy: Truly gross in both taste and texture.
Wild Berry: The face Korie made when she tasted it scared me off. Pass.
Thad tastes and ranks the Peeps
Managing editor Thad Ogburn dropped in for the taste test. His ranking.
Hot Tamales. Nice mix of the cinnamon flavor and heat of Hot Tamales candies, plus the traditional Peep marshmallow taste. Easily the best.
Fruit Punch. The sweetness of fruit punch but with a little bit of tang, too. So many Peep flavors are too sweet. This one was calibrated nicely.
Dr. Pepper. The soda taste may be too subtle, but at least it wasn’t too sweet.
Original: Nothing fancy about these, but they tap into our sense of nostalgia and they get the job done. No notes.
Cotton Candy. Too sweet and had more of a bubble gum taste than cotton candy, IMHO.
Peep Gummies. So chewy I almost thought they were stale. The sell buy date was long in the future, though. Not great.
Sparkly Wild Berry. Notes of cough syrup and medicine. That’s a HUGE no.
Peeps Pepsi. Oh, DEAR LORD! WHY? An affront to cola and Peeps and Easter in general. Again we must ask: WHY?
Didn’t taste:
Sour Watermelon. Just not a fan of fake watermelon flavor. They were a really pretty green, though.
Party Cake. Well, they looked pretty. But considering how sweet both cake flavoring and Peeps are already, that combination is for sure too overpowering.
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