What's in a Dame

Peeps: Life's sweet mystery

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JENNIFER CHRISTMAN
Peeps Mystery Bunnies and Mystery Chicks
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JENNIFER CHRISTMAN Peeps Mystery Bunnies and Mystery Chicks

OK, Peeps, we have a mystery on our hands.

Mystery Peeps.

For Easter, Peeps, famous for adorable (if not always appetizing) seasonal candies, has introduced Mystery Chicks and Mystery Bunnies -- packages of white critter-shaped marshmallows available only at Wal-Mart stores (or online at peepsandcompany.com where superfan "Peeple" also can buy $9.99 Peeps Chick Earbuds, $27.99 Peeps Yankee Candles in Marshmallow Chick Scent or $99 Peeps Giant Plush Chicks).

From the package: "Our Creative Food Scientists had fun in the lab and added a secret flavor to our [chicks/bunnies]. Is it fruit? Salty? Tangy? We don't know, so help us identify the Mystery Flavor. If you think you've figured it out, share it on facebook.com/peepsbrand or visit us at marshmallowpeeps.com."

As if superfluously sugary Peeps didn't already taste "mysterious" enough.

Still, it's a savvy sales strategy. Even those who find the puffy fowl to be foul can't resist sampling and sleuthing these secretive varieties. I couldn't wait to try them and enlist my co-workers to help me. Luckily, they were up for playing reindeer games -- no, that's Christmas -- er, Easter Bunny games.

I set out packages of Mystery Chicks (10 per pack, 26 calories each) and Mystery Bunnies (12 per pack, 25 calories each) and asked them to guess what flavors they were. It's not as if the ingredients of the fat- and gluten-free (who knew?) sweets -- "Sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, citric acid, pectin, natural and artificial flavors, potassium sorbate and carnauba wax -- provided any hints.

MYSTERY CHICKS

The fruity Chicks caused the most confusion.

"Banana."

"Strawberry."

"I think the Chick is pineapple."

"The chick tastes familiar, but I can't quite place it. Kind of orange. Or strawberry. Something fruity for sure. Tastes like summer."

"I can't figure out the chick. It's fruity, not mango, I don't think. Not pineapple. Apple?

"Mango."

"Raspberry."

One didn't attempt a flavor guess, but said, "The chick tastes better than the bunny."

Another countered, "The chick tastes really weird. It tastes like a blue Sweet Tart or a Pixy Stix."

Several of us thought it tasted like fruit punch (my guess: "Fruit punch. Not brand-name fruit punch. But cheap, generic, fruit punch.")

Others thought it tasted like other beverages.

"The chick Peep is strawberry lemonade."

"Pina colada."

The most unusual answer: "Duck ... cream soda?" Consider the source that called a chick a duck.

The most disgusted answer: "I can't identify what the chick tastes like, other than gross."

MYSTERY BUNNIES

My guess and the general consensus was green apple. But to several, this bold, fruity bunny tasted quite funny.

"Hmm ... fruity, with a vinegar aftertaste. Maybe apple cider."

"Grape."

"The bunny is a Sour Patch Kid, unless cross-candy-promotions aren't allowed, in which case it's a lemon meringue pie."

"The bunny kind of tasted like lemon but something else seemed to offset the taste."

"They taste like those Sour Punch straws."

"Smarties sweet/sour."

"Raspberry?"

"The bunny is definitely peach!"

"The bunny tastes like cherry-flavored cough medicine."

The most disgusted answer: "The rabbit is some horrid, be-gone variety of grape. Maybe a second taste would pin it down, but I'll never know. As Clint Eastwood said about drugs: 'Everybody has to die of something, but this ain't it.'"

Well, we won't have to die of curiosity.

Peeps will reveal the two Mystery flavors via the aforementioned sites on Easter Sunday.

Would love to hear a peep from you, email:

[email protected]

What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood.

Style on 03/31/2015

Upcoming Events