“That was actually more fun than I thought it would be,” said the middle-aged woman walking out of the Visitor Center of the PEZ factory outside New Haven, Connecticut. Given that I was just looking for a place to stop with the family to wait out traffic, this seemed like a good enough sign. Plus, I needed to use the bathroom.
Yes, I’m talking about the little bricks of candy that come dispensed from the articulated necks of various superheroes, Disney characters, and even race cars. I didn’t start out my Saturday planning to learn about the history of the Austrian candy company, but I don’t regret it.
Is it worth booking a flight from Tempe with a six-hour layover in Atlanta to visit? Probably not, unless you are extremely into candy and have “seeing the world’s largest Pez dispenser” on your bucket list. If you’re one of the millions of people who drive down I-95 year it’s definitely worth the stop.
If You Do It Right, This Visit Will Cost You Net $1.51
Because it was a weekend, there was no chance for a factory tour of the PEZ factory in Orange, Connecticut, which meant that we were only there for the “Visitor Center,” which is approximately 60% museum and 40% giant PEZ-themed store.
I was initially taken aback that I’d have to spend $16 to enter ($6 each for two adults and $4 for my daughter), especially since you can use the bathroom for free. I considered just getting back in the car and dealing with traffic. However, there’s no way to take your kid into what is essentially a giant candy store and extricate them without buying candy.
Technically, you can enter the store without getting a museum pass, but I quickly learned why you actually want to do the “self-guided tour.” First, you get a sweet PEZ-themed lanyard that you get to keep!
On top of that, there’s a fun “scavenger hunt” that involves searching for PEZ dispensers hidden in various museum cases. It’s not hard, and completing it earns you a free PEZ dispenser selected from a spinning wheel (a $2.49 value). On top of that you get a $2 off coupon to use on your visit, so even discounting the cost of the lanyard, that’s just $1.51 per adult. My daughter, effectively, made $0.49 on the deal.
You can’t leave there without buying something so just give in already.
A Selection Of Random Things I Learned About PEZ From The PEZ Museum
PEZ itself was invented as an alternative to smoking by an Austrian man named Eduard Haas, with PEZ being short for peppermint (PfeffErminZ). The initial flavor was just the aforementioned mint flavor, but in the years since its introduction the company has branched out to everything from Lychee to Chocolate.
After WWII, the company introduced the first dispenser and, when PEZ came to the United States, quickly added heads and started putting popular characters like Donald Duck on them to attract the attention of children. It must have worked, because you see way more kids eating candy than smoking cigarettes these days.
In 1973, PEZ opened its first American factory in Orange, Connecticut, where it remains today. Though the company is headquartered in Austria, the only visitor center is in America. This might explain why we get the honor of having the world’s largest PEZ dispenser. While you can’t eat the giant candy, you can press a button and have it attempt to distribute a cooler-sized brick of something.
A PEZ dispenser is just a cheap harmonica-sized candy receptacle, which makes it the ultimate vehicle for marketing. There are so many different PEZ dispensers from all over the world that it more than fills up both floors of the facility.
Is PEZ ok with the depiction of its dispenser in the famous Seinfeld episode? Yes! It’s even one of the questions on the interactive tour.
It’s nice to see that PEZ has a sense of humor.
There’s A Lot Of Car-Themed PEZ
More than anything, I was surprised at the volume of car-related stuff PEZ has been involved with through the years (and PEZ guns that literally shot PEZ, which was a thing in the ’50s). It makes sense given that cars were the big industrial obsession of the 20th century until space travel. Above is a PEZ trading card showing off a “1900 C” that’s actually a B.A.T. 5 concept, which was built on the 1900 chassis.
PEZ even made a Hakosuka for some reason. It’s not clear to me why they did this. I absolutely must have it (this was not for sale).
PEZ even sold a board game in the 1970s with a Formula 1 theme. This game looks awesome and I think you use actual PEZ tablets as your game pieces. It’s in Dutch, so it’s not entirely clear, but you have to get around what looks like a flattened version of Interlagos in order to win. If someone has a copy of this please tell me how it plays.
There were a bunch of Volkswagen-themed PEZ displays as well, which was a nice touch for a European company.
Would you believe that NASCAR hasn’t had a PEZ-themed livery? I looked and couldn’t find one, though it’s possible I missed it. There have been multiple Velveeta-themed cars if you were curious. This seems like a major shortcoming, especially considering how much NASCAR goodness was available in the early 2000s.
I need a Tony Stewart PEZ dispenser that only distributes moonshine-flavored PEZ.
Obviously, they do Indy Cars as well.
This one drives and dispenses candy.
They also did trucks, because some kids like trucks.
The Visitor Center Is The True 3-In-1
PEZ says that most of its products are “3-and-1” in that you get a dispenser and three packs of 12 tablets in some mix of flavors. I’d argue that the PEZ Visitor Center is a 3-in-1 in that you get three distinct experiences in one place.
First, you can learn about the history of PEZ and look at a bunch of dispensers, as well as a motorcycle they seem especially proud of for some reason. There are also some interactive exhibits and you can even make yourself a PEZ dispenser: 
May this GIF forever haunt your dreams.
Second, it’s a place for commerce. You can custom-build your own PEZ dispenser. You have an incredible selection of PEZ dispensers with different themes, from Spongebob Square Pants to NASA. There’s also a section with tubs where you can pick your own mix of flavors, including the delicious sour ones. I think we ended up paying like $17 after the $6 Discount and walked out of there with stocking stuffers for the whole extended family and three bonus dispensers from the scavenger hunt. All in, it was about $33 for an hour of diversion. and we left with 12 dispensers and three lanyards.
Third, the bathroom was clean.
Top graphic Tony Stewart Pez dispenser image: eBay
GEORGE: What’s a three letter word for candy?
JERRY: I can’t do those things.
This looks like fun! Glad you had a good time. I didn’t know they made PEZ stuff associated w/cars
The National Mustard Museum in Middleton WI is a hoot too!
Then you can head up to Minnesota and check out the Spam Museum!
Also, if you’re in Wisconsin, highly recommend the Wisconsin Auto Musuem in Hartford, WI. Home to the old Kissel Cars plant, it hosts a ton of cars and history about Kissel, AMC, Chrysler Marine, the Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame, the Nash Car Club, and a full sized Soo Line Locomotive.
Es on the Auto Museum!
I’ve been telling people this for the last two years, and they all look at me as if I’m mad.
If you’re in that stretch of the country, I also recommend the Submarine Force Museum at Gretton, CT, where you can tour the US’s first nuclear submarine (all nuclear components allegedly removed).
The sub folks are in Groton, which is pronounced ‘grotton’ 🙂
Huge respect for those who have served on a sub, btw. There is no way anyone is locking me into a cramped metal tube and making me go underwater. I’ll take my chances on the outside of the sub – like Indiana Jones, but super claustrophobic instead of brave.
Damn. I used to live in the area and drove by the signs for the museum constantly and always thought, “I’ve got to go check that out,” but never did. Now I don’t live close by and realize what I’ve missed. There’s a life lesson there somewhere.
No pictures or description of the motorcycle! You are such a tease.
PEZ Museum: endorsed by Terence & Philip
Terrence*
I have driven past and around this place numerous times, but I’ve always been doing something else while I’m in the vicinty; picking up parts at FCP Euro, attending a family member’s funeral. Did you get to the Wiffle Ball factory in Shelton while you were here?
No! I gotta do that now.
I don’t even know if they have a visitor center or anything like that. Their website is comically out of date.
True story: A good friend of mine had a couple dozen old Pez dispensers, like pilgrims and presidents and animals. Just kept them in a big bowl to occasionally play with. He wasn’t sure how old they were, but in the late 90s at the dawn of eBay he sold them for about $2000.
Cool but it means going to Connecticut, and while that’s an order of magnitude less bad than New Jersey, I fled the region decades ago and see no reason to go back. FWIW if you’re driving highway 101 in Oregon the Tillamook Cheese Factory is a fun visit as is Face Rock Creamery.
I am both offended and jealous. I will now proceed to make a left hand exit after driving 61 MPH in the left lane for 3 miles.
Tillamook ice cream is god tier.
Driving in CT, especially I-95 is bad, but I don’t think it’s the Connecticutians fault completely. Driving there you constantly get a very dangerous mix of CT, NJ, NY, and MA drivers. There’s no way all those driving cultures can mesh in one place.
Can confirm and will second the Tillamook factory stop! Randomly passed it on a big college spring break road trip. One of life’s happy little accidents.
Another one like this is (or at least to be) in Austin, MN, where Hormel is headquartered and makes Spam. They have a Spam visitor center. And the entire town smells like Spam cooking. 🙂 And it was free when I was there 25 years ago. I did a work gig in Austin, and craved Spam for months afterwards. In fact, now I know what I am having for dinner!!!
Kind of lame that they charge so much for admission at Pez given there is pretty much no way you aren’t buying stuff there. Though that is *definitely* the European way. You’d probably have to pay for parking too if they had one in Austria.
The SPAM museum is still free. And the shop has all the flavors. The bar on the corner makes Spam sandwiches as well.
The same town has a sculpture of a gigantic fork made of regular sized forks. Austin is an odd place.
“Keep Austin weird” northern version!
Glad to hear it’s still the same – that was a fun week onsite.
Reminds me of Hershey, PA, where the street lights are Hershey Kisses and the whole town smells like chocolate. That visitor’s center is very much worth the visit. They used to hand out freshly-made mini Hershey bars as you exit the ‘factory tour’ ride, hopefully they still do.
Go for the chocolate, stay for the singing cows.
I was going to suggest that the Autopian could write a story by attending the Elegance at Hershey, which was basically Pebble Beach but for the east coast, but it seems like it is another victim of COVID – suspended in 2020 and never resumed. That makes me very sad. The year I went one of the exhibitors drove their Bugatti (my memory says it was a Type 57 – it was yellow and black) several hundred miles up I-81 to the event. <O.O> They also had a hill climb event (The Grand Ascent) where classic sports cars raced up a steep hill through the woods behind the Hershey Hotel. They sold tickets so that visitors could ride along in some of the cars. I got to ride up the hill in a Morgan, and it was a bucket-list event in my life.
Very cool! The Saab Convention was in Hershey 20-odd years ago, I remember the smell! One-factory towns are always interesting.
Was there over summer, did they still have the OCC Pez chopper when you went?
Yes!