Add this to your COVID-19 pandemic bingo card: No Holiday Peeps for you or anyone else this Halloween, Holidays, and Valentine’s.
At a time when the country is begging for something approaching normalcy, the holiday marshmallow treat we’ve all grown up with will not be making its annual appearance on store shelves.
Even though their manufacturer, Just Born, is not a member of our Manufacturer Partnership, we know many of our readers enjoy Peeps — or at least the concept of serving the doughy little creatures. The same goes for their seasonal candy varieties including Hot Tamales and Mike & Ike.
Yesterday, Just Born issued the following statement to the website Delish:
While PEEPS® Marshmallow Candies, MIKE AND IKE® and HOT TAMALES® would typically be available in fun shapes and packaging sizes for the Halloween and holiday seasons, unfortunately, the seasonal varieties will not be in stores again until 2021. As you may know, due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily suspended production of our candy brands to ensure the health and safety of our associates. In early May, we resumed limited production after making extensive changes in our plant that ensure the safety of our associates. This situation resulted in us having to make the difficult decision to forego production of our seasonal candies for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day in order to focus on meeting the expected overwhelming demand for PEEPS® for next Easter season, as well as our everyday candies.
Looking for alternatives? Stay tuned for the coming holiday editions of our Safe Snack Guide, including our Halloween, Christmas/Chanukkah, and Valentine’s guides. Each will feature an entire section of seasonal treats and we’ll show you precisely how each is manufactured with respect to the 11 allergens we track.
