Vitamins and Dextrose

Everyone knows about Pez dispensers and the candy for them, but not everyone is aware that Pez also sells little boxes or tubes of vitamins and rolls of dextrose.  While you won't find them in U.S. stores, these are European Pez products readily available in Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, and Austria.

Very few Pez collectors seriously delve into this area, so I thought I spend a little time here to uncover one of more obscure areas of Pez.

First off, what is dextrose, you may ask?  Nearly everyone in the U.S. is familiar with vitamins, of course, but dextrose?  Not so much.  Dextrose, a form of glucose, is also known as d-glucose.  Glucose provides your body its main source of energy and is generated during the breakdown of carbohydrates.  OK, enough science-talk, here's the pitch straight from Ed Haas: "dextrose is a natural product easy to digest providing immediate source of energy. Dextrose improves physical fitness and concentration, which helps at work, at sport and at learning alike."  Wow, who wouldn't want to pop some dextrose after reading that?  Plus they come in yummy flavors: lemon, orange, strawberry, raspberry, melon, and mint.

Personally, I own only a couple examples of Pez vitamins, also known as VitaPez.  Both of them I got at the PEZcific convention here in Southern California.  I have a little green box of VitaPez and an orange tube of multivitamin tablets.  Both are shown in the photos below.  Ivan from Slovenia was nice enough to sell me them.  Hopefully he can hook me up with one or two different examples this year. 

An interesting crossover item from Pez, released in late 2010 in Austria, is the Smart Boy and Girl mini dispensers.  They're packaged with and dispense Pez vitamins, not the regular candy.  As far as I know they are the only Pez dispensers made to dispense vitamins.  This article discusses the vitamins and their benefit to "brainpower".

After scouring the web, the most impressive collection of Pez vitamins and dextrose I've found is at MoMoPez.  Visit the link and click on an icon to see a large photo, country of origin, and flavors.

http://www.momopez.com/dispenser-serie.asp?SID=191

Below are some other interesting links on Pez vitamins and dextrose:

• Pez Austria
• PEZmonster -- type "vita" in the search field
• PEZ FAQ  -- "In some Eastern European countries like Hungary, PEZ manufactures four different flavors of vitamins. They are shaped like the familiar PEZ bricks but sold in small cardboard boxes instead of in a roll. The flavors are Izo PEZ, Tutti-Fruity, Lemon Vitamin-C, and Fruit. They taste similar to "Flintstone" vitamins."