I have to admit, I’m not much of a candy historian, and I’ve always pictured “sugar plums,” when mentioned in the literary canon, as prunes covered with crunchy sugar. This is, of course, wrong, but in the case of a new holiday-themed Peeps brand product, at least the crunchy sugar part is correct.
The historical sugar plum, like the ones represented by a nice fairy in the ballet “The Nutcracker,” was a candy of hardened sugar around a nut or seed. Back when candy was handmade, the sugar plum was a difficult confection to make and a pricey treat to buy. Receiving some for Christmas would have been a special treat, then. Similar candies became cheaper to make in the era of culinary mass production, but classic Christmas literature has left us with the 17th-century term, and no candy to associate it with.
The scrambling of the historical candy name, the traditional association of sugar plums with Christmas, and our anachronistic tendency to insert the actual fruit where it never was has led to something weird: sugar plum marshmallow Peeps, which are purple, probably because Just Born didn’t feel like giving the world a lecture on candy history. That’s our job.
They are artificially flavored, which I assume means thy have a vaguely plum-like taste. They are covered with fudge and available only at Target this holiday season.
COMING SOON: Sugar Plum Delight Peeps [The Impulsive Buy]
Sugar Plums: They’re Not What You Think They Are [The Atlantic]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist