Pez

An Austrian maker of baking soda started selling a breath mint called "pez" in 1927, naming it for a shortened version of the German word for peppermint. The candies initially were marketed to adults trying to quit smoking; this is why the first Pez dispensers, which didn't appear until 1948, looked a lot like cigarette lighters. It was only in the 1950s that Pez dispensers were sold to children with bright colors and cartoon characters, many of them now collector's items.