Can you believe such a thing exists?  I never would have dreamed of it, but the instant I saw them, it felt so very right.  Why wouldn't you want Peeps covered in chocolate?  I mean, you're already halfway to Type 2 Diabetes with Peeps to begin with, you might as well finish the job!

All joking aside, chocolate covered Peeps turned out to be so delicious that I regret having tried one.  Now I will be obsessed with them for the next however long until Easter.  (Six weeks.  Easter is April 4th this year, I just checked.)

What makes these delicious, frankly, is that it's not a Peep inside there.  Instead, Just Born has subbed in a more reasonable marshmallow filling.  It's creamier and more tender than a real Peep - more like the filling you get in a Rocky Road bar, or in the middle of a Mallomar.

I was torn between whether this was a disappointment, or a brilliant stroke of genius.  Because let's face it, Peeps are not very good.  I mean, collectively we eat hundreds of thousands of them a year, but they aren't "good."  How many times have you heard someone declaiming on the revolting nature of Peeps while their mouth is literally full of Peeps?  It goes beyond a simple urge to be self-effacing; Peeps aren't good.

Nevertheless, it turns out that there are a ridiculous number of recipes on the internet for making your own chocolate covered Peeps.  This was probably something that was more exciting before Just Born started actually selling chocolate covered Peeps.  But if you want to customize the filling color of your Peeps, or the staleness level (many people prefer their Peeps a little - or a lot - on the stale side), then DIY is definitely the way to go.

Another possible application for homemade chocolate covered Peeps is for other holidays.  Since most candy companies put out these oddballs on a limited basis, I would be willing to bet that there won't be chocolate covered Peeps at Halloween, which is the second biggest Peep holiday.  If you want jack o' lantern shaped chocolate covered Peeps, then you may have to DIY!  (I think they have a Christmas Peep, but I'm drawing a blank right now.)

Although Peeps come in for a fair amount of ridicule, it's worth noting that they are produced by what is most likely the single most successful independently owned candy company in the United States.  Just Born began in 1910, when a Russian immigrant living in New York City invented a machine for putting sticks into lollipops.  It expanded to a storefront candy store which promoted the freshness of its candies, which were made daily (i.e. "just born").  

Just Born remains a family owned company, now headquartered in Bethelham Pennsylvania.  You may be familiar with two of its other national hits, Mike and Ikes and Hot Tamales.  In a world where it seems like Nabisco and Nestle own everything, it's good to see "the little guy" still going strong.  When you bite into a Peep, whether original or chocolate covered, you're biting into freedom!

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user David Berkowitz