The name Pez abbreviates the German word for what flavor?

The name Pez abbreviates the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminz. The brand name uses the first, middle, and last letters of the German word: P, E, and Z.

Pez began in Vienna, Austria, in 1927, when Eduard Haas III developed a compressed peppermint candy. It was originally sold as an adult breath mint, rather than as the brightly colored children's candy associated with character-headed dispensers today. The first versions were packaged in small tins.

The dispenser came later. In 1949, Pez introduced a mechanical dispenser shaped somewhat like a cigarette lighter, reflecting the brand's early marketing as an alternative to smoking. The familiar character dispensers emerged in the 1950s, helping shift Pez toward children and collectors. Fruit flavors gradually became more prominent than the original peppermint flavor.

Pez is therefore not an acronym for an English phrase, and the name does not refer to a particular character or dispenser design. Peppermint is the key historical clue: it was the original flavor and the source of the brand's unusual three-letter name.