PEZ, understanding that change is good!

Invented by Eduard Haas III in 1927 in Vienna Austria, the iconic candy was originally round and got its name from the German word “PfeffErminZ.  Sales of the mints skyrocketed and in 1948, Oscar Uxa designed the first mechanical dispenser, which held 12 compressed brick shaped candies – by the way it takes 3000 pounds of pressure to make a brick.  The original design was meant to resemble a cigarette lighter, in a bid to reduce smoking.

But after WWII, with the introduction of PEZ into the USA, they changed their target audience to children and introduced fruity flavours, colourful packaging and most importantly the cartoon head from whence the sweet was dispensed.  Sold in 80 countries it is one of the most recognizable sweets worldwide.  Over the years every possible cartoon character and personality head has been made, all with the exception of Einstein, creating a collectors market with the most expensive PEZ dispenser selling for U$ 32,000.