We drive on Interstate 95N a lot on our trips back and forth to Connecticut, and every time we drive through New Haven, we see this billboard for the PEZ Visitor Center. We both love PEZ candy so we always laugh at it and say we need to go there. Well, one day we did, and it was really cute and fun.

You can find the Pez Visitors Center at:

35 Prindle Hill Road, Orange, CT 06477-3616

https://us.pez.com

The admission price is $5 per person, and you get a $2 credit towards any purchase and a fun lanyard as part of the admission fee.

PEZ Visitor Center sign at the entrance

Entrance to the PEZ Visitors Center

When you enter the PEZ Visitor Center, you are greeted by a very, very large PEZ dispenser, which is a fun photo opportunity and just a marvel to look at. The museum consists of a lot of the history of PEZ, the PEZ factory floor, cases of PEZ dispensers from all over the years, an interactive game, and lots of fun flavors to purchase.

  • Large PEZ Dispenser
  • Cases of PEZ Dispenser made over the years

PEZ Factory Room

On the weekend the factory is not in operation so we didn’t get to see it in full force, but if you go during the weekday, you can see PEZ being made and packaged right in front of you. I really wished we had been able to see this fully open and watched the candy being packaged up.

PEZ factory at the PEZ Visitor Center

PEZ Dispensers

The best part of the PEZ Visitor Center was the collection of PEZ Dispensers that they had on display. They were grouped by type or time period so it was fun to look at the history that made it to the list of PEZ dispenser worthy events or characters. There were so many cases of the dispensers that it was fun to go through each one and find ones we had as kids, ones that we had never seen before, and to talk about the events that the dispenser depicted.

PEZ Dispensers in the category of sports at the PEZ Visitor Center
Some of the sports events, teams, and figures that PEZ Dispensers were modeled after

PEZ Visitor Center Game

A really fun part of the visit was the Close-Up Contest game. You can pick up the card at the beginning of your visit and use it to find the PEZ Dispensers in the cases that match the photos. Once you find them, you can then write them down on the card and turn it in to the front desk get a free gift. This made it really fun to go through all of the cases of dispensers and find the ones that were pictured – a great game for the kids to play.

PEZ Products and Flavors

We went a little crazy in this section buying about five different flavors that we had never seen before (and a few of our favorites):

  • Sugar Cookie
  • Vanilla Cupcake
  • Candy Corn
  • Sour Watermelon
  • Sour Grape
  • Cherry
  • Strawberry

We were excited to use our $2 credit on these and came home with some tasty souvenirs of our visit. I could have spent more time in this section, but we had a time schedule to hit so we bought some of the ones that stood out to us.

The PEZ Visitor Center was a fun way to spending about one-two hours of time during our trip to Connecticut and would recommend it if you have an hour or two to spare or if the weather is bad for more outside activities. It was a bright spot in our day and a treat to our senses. Also, who after all doesn’t like PEZ??

References

  • “PEZ Visitor Center – Hours and Location.” PEZ Candy, us.pez.com/pages/hours-and-location.