We Ranked 15 Peeps Flavors as Professional Taste Testers

I had never eaten a Peep before this taste test. I’ll be honest, I was more than a little nervous about stuffing 15 different marshmallow Peeps into my mouth. I thought they would be terribly sweet and gummy. I’ll admit, I was wrong. They aren’t like that at all. They are much better than I thought they would be (though they’re still not good). In any case, I now consider myself to be a bit of a Peeps candy connoisseur. Because I tried 15 different flavors of Peeps and ranked them from worst to best—I use the word “best” very loosely. I even compared the Peeps bunny colors to the Peeps chick colors. And, yes, they are different! And, spoiler alert, the Peeps bunny almost always wins in a head-to-head color battle. 

Let’s dive into this pile of marshmallow Peeps flavors, because it’s a big one. 

Peeps!

This gets high points for its fun factor—the colors are vibrant and the pop presentation is new and different. But the flavors just aren’t there. Who was asking for Mike and Ike flavored Peeps, anyway? The red is sour and nothing else. The yellow is tangy in the most artificial way. And the orange is slightly better—as in it actually has some fruit flavor—but it’s still weirdly tangy. The green is okay—it doesn’t have too much of the artificial tang. But you can’t just get the green. This is a hard pass from me.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

1/10

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Peeps!

We’re entering the world of classic Easter Peeps. You might think all the colors taste the same. But as the person who just tried all of them in a row, I can tell you, you are wrong. And purple Peeps chicks are the worst of the colors. They have a sharp chemical flavor that just tasted off.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

2/10

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Peeps!

Positive: These gummies have a new chew. They are firm but not too firm. They are pleasing to bite down on. Negative: They taste like marshmallow chemicals. The Peeps flavor is just not a flavor that translates well into a gummy form. Gummies should be fruity or sour. Peeps flavors are far too mild.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

3/10

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Peeps!

In the match-up of pink Peeps bunny vs. pink Peeps chick, the chick lost out because it’s not as fluffy as the bunny. The pink flavor overall has a slightly more chemically flavor than the others—almost like licking a battery covered in sugar. 

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

4/10

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Peeps!

Once again, the Peeps chick lost out to its Peeps bunny counterpart due to fluff factor. But the blue Peeps have less of that chemically flavor than the pink Peeps.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

4.5/10

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Peeps!

I really enjoyed the soft, pillowy texture of the Peeps bunny. The pink ones have a mild flavor inside and the outer sugar coating is slightly tangy.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

5/10

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Peeps!

While the Peeps flavors don’t translate well to gummies, they do make the jump to hard candy fairly well. These lollipop rings look like wax Peeps chick figurines on skateboards. That’s pretty cute. (They’re not meant to be on skateboards, that’s just how they turned out.)  They taste like marshmallow, which is very mild and sweet. If you honestly like Peeps for their flavor rather than their texture, this is a fun treat.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

5.5/10

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Peeps!

The blue Peeps bunny tastes more like nothing than the pink Peeps bunny and that moves it up in the ranking for me, because that means it tastes less like chemicals. It’s more like eating a slightly sweet cloud.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

6/10

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Peeps!

These chocolate-dipped yellow Peeps chicks have a pretty good chocolate coating. It’s a surprisingly decent milk chocolate that adds both flavor and texture. The chocolate doesn’t necessarily complement the marshmallow flavor, but I’m never going to complain about the addition of chocolate.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

6/10

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Peeps!

These flavored Peeps bunnies come in a package sporting a bunny with an emo side sweep and a unicorn horn. And they are actually sparkly. Do they even have to taste good? You’re not buying them for their flavor. But they do happen to taste pretty okay. Unlike the standard Easter Peeps, these are packed with flavor—lots of faux berry flavor with a fruity tang.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

6.5/10

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Peeps!

The yellow Peeps were my favorite of the classic Peeps flavors. They are sweeter than the other colors, which helps cover up that chemical flavor of the sugar coating. You might notice that the yellow Peeps bunny lost out to the yellow Peeps chick in a rare exception to the rule. Read on to find out why…

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

6.5/10

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Peeps!

The yellow Peeps chicks have a more concentrated sweetness than the yellow Peeps bunnies. Eating one reminded me of licking a sugar packet as a child.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7/10

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Peeps!

From here on out, we’re talking about flavored Peeps—because they are just plain better than the standard marshmallow Peeps. These ones are pale yellow and flecked with Funfetti-esque colors throughout. They smell like an ice cream fridge and they taste like vanilla cake.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

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Peeps!

These watermelon-flavored Peeps smell like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, which is how all fake watermelon sweets should smell, in my opinion. They’re green on the outside and pink on the inside—like a watermelon—which is extremely cute. And they taste pretty good! They’re not too sweet on the inside and not too sour on the outside. It’s a fun summer Peeps flavor!

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7.5/10

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Peeps!

Here’s the best Peeps flavor I tasted. It’s cotton candy, which essentially just means dye-flavored sugar. But it really works for Peeps! To me, it tasted like real marshmallow with a crystalized cotton candy-flavored sugar coating. If you like classic Peeps flavors, I implore you to try the cotton candy-flavored Peeps. They deserve a spot in your Easter basket—or, at least, your grocery cart when they’re discounted after Easter.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

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