Trying Six Wild Peeps Flavors With My Nephew

Six flavors sounded like a good idea at the time

Before Easter, I picked up six different Peeps flavors at Kroger and decided this was the kind of thing that needed a proper taste test. My nephew Elliot joined me, which made the whole thing better because I knew we were probably going to end up with two very different opinions by the time we were done.

The lineup was Party Cake, Rice Krispie Treats, Cotton Candy, Chocolate Pudding, Dr. Pepper, and Cinnamon. On paper, that sounds like six completely different candies. Once we actually started eating them, though, it became obvious pretty quickly that flavored Peeps still have one big thing working against them: underneath whatever flavor they are trying to be, they are still very much Peeps.

That is not necessarily a bad thing if you already like Peeps. It just means the packaging sometimes promises a much bigger flavor change than what you actually get.

Party Cake started us off pretty safely

We started with Party Cake. I expected something noticeably different because "party cake" sounds like it should be sweet, buttery, maybe even a little frosting-like.

What I actually got was mostly a regular Peep with a little bit of cake flavor showing up toward the end. It was not bad at all, but it also was not dramatically different from the classic marshmallow-and-sugar flavor.

Elliot liked it more than I did, and that ended up mattering later because Party Cake stayed near the top of his list all the way through the tasting.

Rice Krispie Treats smelled more convincing than it tasted

Next up was Rice Krispie Treats, and this one was interesting because the smell did a better job selling the flavor than the candy itself.

I could pick up that familiar sweet cereal-treat smell, so I went into the bite expecting the flavor to follow through. Instead, it tasted pretty close to the Party Cake Peep we had just tried.

That was the first point where I started wondering whether we were going to get six genuinely different flavors or just six slightly different versions of the same marshmallow candy.

Cotton Candy finally separated itself a little

Cotton Candy did a better job standing apart. The smell was easier to recognize, and I could actually pick up some cotton-candy flavor when I tasted it.

It still did not completely overpower the regular Peep flavor, but at least this one felt like the name on the package was showing up in the candy itself.

At that point, I was not looking for anything complicated. I just wanted each flavor to taste enough like what it claimed to be that I could tell them apart without looking at the box.

Cotton Candy got closer to doing that.

Chocolate Pudding was the first one that really worked for me

Chocolate Pudding was the first flavor where I immediately thought, "Okay, this one is actually different."

The smell was chocolatey, and the marshmallow itself seemed to carry more of the flavor instead of just relying on the sugar coating. Compared with the first few, this one had a much clearer identity.

This ended up being my favorite of the six.

It still tasted like a Peep, obviously, but the chocolate flavor was strong enough that I did not have to search for it. That is really all I wanted from these. If the package says Chocolate Pudding, I want to taste Chocolate Pudding without having to convince myself it is there.

I wanted more Dr. Pepper from the Dr. Pepper Peep

I like Dr. Pepper, so I probably went into this one with higher expectations than I should have.

There was a little bit of that familiar flavor in the aftertaste, but the sweetness of the Peep still dominated. It was not unpleasant. It just did not give me the strong Dr. Pepper flavor I was hoping for.

This was one of those flavors where the idea was more exciting than the actual bite.

If anything, tasting it made me realize how difficult it probably is to take a very specific soda flavor and make it come through in a marshmallow covered in sugar.

Cinnamon sounded like it should have been the bold one

We saved Cinnamon for last because I figured cinnamon would naturally be one of the strongest flavors in the group.

It definitely had some cinnamon to it, but even this one was more restrained than I expected. I thought it might have a much sharper spicy-sweet kick. Instead, it stayed pretty mild and still tasted mostly like a Peep with cinnamon added around the edges.

By this point, I had also eaten enough sugar that my ability to get excited about another marshmallow was starting to disappear.

That is probably the hidden challenge in doing a six-flavor candy tasting: by the end, your taste buds are tired and everything starts blending together.

Elliot and I did not pick the same winner

Once we had worked through all six, Elliot chose Party Cake as his favorite.

I went with Chocolate Pudding.

And honestly, that split made perfect sense to me. Party Cake is colorful, sweet, playful, and exactly the kind of flavor I can see being a kid favorite. Chocolate Pudding was the one I thought did the best job of actually tasting noticeably different from a standard Peep.

Neither of us thought every flavor was bad. The bigger takeaway was that most of them were just more similar than we expected.

My biggest takeaway after trying all six

The thing I kept coming back to was how strong the basic Peep flavor is.

No matter what the package says, you are still dealing with that same sugary marshmallow base. Some flavors manage to push through it, while others mostly change the smell or add a light aftertaste.

Chocolate Pudding did the best job of becoming its own thing for me. Cotton Candy had enough extra flavor to stand out a little. Party Cake clearly worked for Elliot. The others were more subtle.

If you already love Peeps, that consistency may actually be a good thing. You get the familiar candy you like with a little variation. If you do not like Peeps to begin with, I do not think Dr. Pepper or Cinnamon is suddenly going to convert you.

Would I do another ridiculous Peeps taste test if they release another batch of weird flavors? Absolutely. But next time I might recruit a few more people so I do not personally have to eat my way through quite so much sugar.