2026年5月3日 / 美国东部时间上午9:53 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：卢克·伯班克
如果在过去74年左右的时间里你曾是美国的孩子，那么你很可能在某个时候拥有过一个PEZ糖果 dispenser。但你可能不知道，PEZ糖果为了融入美国生活，走过了一段漫长而奇特的历程。
据同样任职于PEZ公司的PEZ历史学家肖恩·彼得森介绍，这种糖果——具体来说是薄荷糖——于1927年由爱德华·哈斯三世在奥地利发明。哈斯从德语“薄荷”一词中取出三个字母，组合成了PEZ这个名字，最终成就了一段糖果历史。
“他们最初其实是将其作为戒烟产品推广的，”彼得森说，“这是一种清新口气的方式，也是吸烟的替代品，这在当时非常超前。哈斯在这方面取得了不少成功，欧洲和世界其他地区的销售模式也一直如此。”
但当PEZ公司于1952年来到美国时，却遭遇了滑铁卢。没人想要这种从塑料筒里挤出来的小薄荷糖。“有人灵机一动，说，我们手里有这款新的dispenser，或许可以在顶部加上立体卡通形象，同时将薄荷口味换成水果味，再把营销目标转向儿童。这招奏效了。”
PEZ dispenser最初并没有卡通头。添加形象后，销量开始暴涨。 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
确实如此！如今，美国PEZ公司每年生产约50亿颗糖果，随后会将这些糖果集中起来，在其位于康涅狄格州奥兰治的总部与dispenser组装配对。
但这到底是糖果，还是玩具？
收藏家布莱恩·特劳曼被问及是否喜欢PEZ糖果时表示：“我会尝试新推出的糖果口味，但我不会吃掉这些糖果。”
特劳曼不吃配套的PEZ糖果是可以理解的，因为那可能需要好几辈子才能吃完。特劳曼是私人收藏独特PEZ dispenser数量最多的吉尼斯世界纪录保持者。“截至2024年底，纪录是6481个，从那以后我又增加了大约50个，”他说。
布莱恩·特劳曼拥有全球规模最大的PEZ dispenser私人收藏——6481个，且数量还在增加。 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
特劳曼的收藏规模庞大且价值不菲，他表示最近拒绝了一份出价高达六七十万美元的收购邀约。即便如此，就连他也有一件梦寐以求的藏品。他正在寻找PEZ收藏界的圣杯，一段与约翰·F·肯尼迪本人相关的故事。
哈里和梅根主题PEZ dispenser。 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
“约翰·F·肯尼迪曾访问奥地利林茨，也就是PEZ总部所在地，”他说，“PEZ作为礼物送给了他一个驴子造型的PEZ dispenser、小丑波佐造型的dispenser，以及一个无头款的Golden Glow。最终这些礼物被退回给了PEZ，因为随附了糖果，而总统不能接受食品类礼物。目前尚不清楚是所有物品都被退回，还是仅退回了糖果；没人知道那个特定的dispenser后来下落如何。”
后来有一天，在PEZ公司工作的肖恩·彼得森致电特劳曼，带来了惊人的消息：一台极为罕见的驴子造型dispenser被找到了——和1961年肯尼迪在奥地利收到的那台一模一样——而且持有人想要出售。
“我说，‘我脚边的背包里装着1万美元现金，你有兴趣吗？’”特劳曼回忆道，“然后他说，‘我能和我妻子商量一下吗？’于是我们给了他们一点时间”——随后双方用一袋沉甸甸的现金成交，换来了这件原本只是用来给孩子递糖果的稀有塑料藏品。
PEZ最初进入美国市场时遭遇失败——但后来在弹出式dispenser上加装卡通头后，一段糖果传奇就此诞生。 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
由于大多数PEZ dispenser都是送给孩子的——而这群人恰恰最不擅长保存物品——因此大量dispenser最终都被扔进了玩具箱。和特劳曼一样，肖恩·彼得森也将搜寻这些玩具箱、尝试找回并保存每一款曾被制造过的PEZ dispenser作为毕生事业。他协助打造的PEZ游客中心就设在康涅狄格州，他将自己的珍贵藏品也带到了那里展出。
尽管如此，彼得森表示他仍未停止收集，这让他的妻子颇为不满：“还是有新的包裹寄过来。我不像以前那样买买买了，但没错，我依然感兴趣。市面上还有一些我想要收入囊中的藏品。”
更多信息请访问：
- PEZ官网
- 康涅狄格州奥兰治PEZ游客中心
- 《PEZ：从奥地利发明到美国偶像》，肖恩·彼得森著（历史出版社），精装、平装贸易版和电子书格式均已上架亚马逊、巴诺书店以及
- Bookshop.org
本文由艾丹·特雷维桑制作。编辑：乔治·波兹德雷克。
Hunting for the Holy Grail of PEZ dispensers
May 3, 2026 / 9:53 AM EDT / CBS News
By Luke Burbank
If you were a kid in the United States any time in the last 74 or so years, there’s a pretty good chance at some point, you had a PEZ dispenser. But you probably had no idea the long strange journey that PEZ candies took, to become part of American life.
According to PEZ historian Shawn Peterson, who also works for the company, the candies – peppermint candies, to be specific – were invented in Austria in 1927 by Eduard Haas III, who took three letters from the German word for “Peppermint” and combined them to make PEZ … and eventually candy history.
“They actually tried to sell it as an anti-smoking device,” said Peterson. “A way to freshen your breath, and an alternative to smoking, very much ahead of his time. And [Haas] had a lot of success with it, and this is how it was sold throughout Europe and other parts of the world.”
But when the PEZ company came to America in 1952, it was a failure. No one wanted these little mints that came out of a plastic cartridge. “Somebody got the thought and said, you know, we’ve got this new dispenser. Maybe we add a dimensional cartoon character to the top and we’ll change from peppermint to fruit flavors. Let’s shift the marketing to children. And it worked.”
PEZ dispensers were originally without character heads. Once added, sales began to pop. CBS News
Did it ever! These days, PEZ U.S. makes some five billion candies a year, which are then rolled together, and paired with dispensers at its headquarters in Orange, Connecticut.
But is this a candy, or a toy?
Collector Brian Trauman was asked if he liked the candy: “I try the new candy flavors when they come out, but I don’t eat the candy,” he said.
Trauman could be forgiven for not eating all the PEZ candy that goes with his collection of dispensers, because that could take a few lifetimes. Trauman is the Guinness record holder for the most number of unique PEZ dispensers in a private collection. “The record is 6,481, but that was as of the end of 2024, and I’ve added maybe 50 or so since,” he said.
Brian Trauman hold the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of PEZ dispensers – 6,481 and counting. CBS News
Trauman’s collection is so vast, and so valuable, he says he recently turned down an offer to sell it for a number in the high six figures. And yet, even he has a white whale. He’s looking for the Holy Grail of PEZ collecting, a story involving none other than JFK himself.
Harry and Meghan PEZ dispensers. CBS News
“John F. Kennedy was visiting Linz, Austria, which is where PEZ is headquartered,” he said. “And as a gift to him, PEZ gave him a donkey PEZ dispenser, Bozo the Clown, and a Golden Glow (which is one without a head). Ultimately it was returned to PEZ, because it came with candy, and presidents can’t accept food. Whether everything was returned or just the candy is somewhat unclear; no one knows what happened to that precise dispenser.”
Then one day, Shawn Peterson, over at PEZ, called Trauman up with incredible news: one of the ultra-rare donkey dispensers, like the one JFK had been gifted in Austria in 1961, had been located – and its owner wanted to sell.
“And I said, ‘I’ve got a backpack at my feet here with $10,000 in cash, would you be interested?’” Trauman recalled. “And he [says], ‘Can I have a minute with my wife?’ And so, we gave them a minute” – and then made the deal with a bag of cold hard cash, in exchange for an ultra-rare piece of plastic originally meant just to deliver candy to some kid’s mouth.
When PEZ were first introduced in the United States, they failed – but then character heads were attached to the pop-up dispensers, and a candy legend was born. CBS News
The fact that most PEZ dispensers were given to children – not the demographic that’s the greatest at hanging on to stuff – meant lots of dispensers ended up in toyboxes. Like Trauman, Shawn Peterson has made it his life’s work to scour those toyboxes, to try and recover and preserve every single PEZ dispenser ever created, many of which are on display at the PEZ Visitor Center, which Shawn moved to Connecticut to supervise the building of, bringing his own valuable collection to put on display.
And yet, Peterson says he is still not done – he’s still acquiring PEZ dispensers, much to the dismay of his wife: “There’s still packages [showing] up. I don’t buy like I used to, but yeah, I’m still interested. There’s things out there that I’d like to have.”
For more info:
- PEZ.com
- PEZ Visitor Center, Orange, Conn.
- “PEZ: From Austrian Invention to American Icon” by Shawn Peterson (The History Press), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and
- Bookshop.org
Story produced by Aidan Trevisan. Editor: George Pozderec.
发表回复