If you've searched for Peeps and ended up here, the short answer is: we don't stock them. Peeps is an American brand, and it isn't sold in the UK in any meaningful way. Here's what they actually are, and what's genuinely available here if it's the chick-shaped marshmallow you're after rather than the name on the box.
What Peeps actually are
Peeps are small, sugar-coated marshmallow sweets, made in the US by a company called Just Born and best known for their yellow chick shape, though pastel bunny, egg and seasonal shapes now cover Halloween and Christmas too. The marshmallow itself is soft and springy, coated in coloured sugar crystals, with two small dots for eyes piped on before the batch sets.
According to Just Born's own ingredients information, Peeps are made from sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, food dyes and a pinch of salt. The gelatin — pork-derived — is what gives them their structure, and it's also why they're not suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or anyone avoiding pork for religious or dietary reasons.
Where the chick shape came from
The marshmallow chick predates Just Born as a brand. It was first made in 1948 by the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where each one was hand-piped through a pastry tube — a slow process that took around 27 hours to produce a single batch. Just Born, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania company founded by Russian immigrant Sam Born in 1923, acquired Rodda in 1953. Bob Born, the founder's son, then built a machine that could extrude and colour the marshmallow automatically, cutting that 27-hour batch down to about six minutes. That's the process, essentially unchanged in principle, still used today.
In the US, Peeps have become as much an Easter fixture as a chocolate egg — genuinely divisive on how they're eaten (fresh and soft versus deliberately left out for days to go stale and chewy), and a fixture of Easter baskets that has never really travelled to the UK market in the same way.
What we actually stock instead
If it's the Peeps name specifically you were after, we don't carry it — Just Born doesn't distribute Peeps into the UK at any real scale, so it isn't a case of us choosing not to stock a popular import, more that there's very little UK stock to source from. But if it's the shape and idea — a chick-shaped marshmallow sweet — that's exactly what Kingsway's Yellow & Pink Chick Mallows covers: soft marshmallow chicks in the same yellow-and-pink colourway, sold as a 1kg bag.
For marshmallows more broadly, our full range sits in the Marshmallows collection, and we've written more generally about what to actually do with a bag of them in Marshmallows Are Not Just for Hot Chocolate. Worth knowing if you're catering for vegetarians or vegans: standard marshmallows, Peeps included, rely on gelatine for their structure, but Vidal's Veggie Marshmallows use carrageenan and hydrolysed rice protein instead, and hold their texture well enough for the same uses.
Frequently asked questions
Do you sell Peeps in the UK?
No — Peeps is a US brand made by Just Born and isn't part of our range. If it's the chick-shaped marshmallow shape you're after rather than the Peeps name specifically, we stock Kingsway's Yellow & Pink Chick Mallows, which cover the same idea.
What are Peeps made of?
Sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, food dyes and a pinch of salt, according to Just Born's own ingredients information. The gelatin is pork-derived, which is what gives Peeps their soft, springy structure.
Are Peeps vegetarian?
No. Standard Peeps are set with pork-derived gelatin, so they're not suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or anyone avoiding pork on religious or dietary grounds.
When were Peeps invented?
The marshmallow chick itself dates to 1948, made by the Rodda Candy Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Just Born acquired Rodda in 1953 and mechanised the process, cutting production time for a single chick from around 27 hours by hand to about six minutes.
Sources: Wikipedia: Peeps, Just Born: Ingredients, History of Candy: History of Peeps Marshmallow Candy.