Just Born, the candy company known for brands like MIKE AND IKE®, and seasonal PEEPS® Brand Marshmallow Candies, opened the Peeps & Company store at Maryland’s National Harbor on December 10th. Two days later, I visited the new store with my sister.

Who plans a day trip to a candy store? We’re the girls who set the Easter table with Peeps place cards: name cards stuck deep into backs of some special chicks. But if you asked me why I love Peeps so much, I couldn’t tell you why.

I would suspect that, after years of finding unwrapped chicks resting in my Easter basket, I associated the treats with the warmer weather that was soon to come. I hate the cold, but I love slightly crunchy, almost-stale Peeps. When Just Born introduced additional marshmallow shapes for other holidays and seasons, I made Peeps a staple in my junk food stash.

Although Peeps chicks were originally recognized in Easter baskets half a century ago, they’ve now taken a much larger stage. They participate in “Peeps Jousting”, a recreational sport that involves toothpicks and some time in a microwave.

Each spring, thousands of the marshmallow figures become stars in dioramas for the Washington Post’s annual contest. The 2009 winner planned her re-creation of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” over the course of a year before spending 45 hours to actually build it.

My sister and I set off around the Beltway, joking that our trip was a pilgrimage. We stood in front of a giant, glittery, glowing chick on a pedestal in the center of the store. I was about to set myself up for some serious cavities.

The line to purchase Peeps & Company merchandise wrapped around the interior of the small hut along the water near the Gaylord National Hotel. I touched everything I saw: Peeps keychains, giant Peeps beside which hundreds of people must have had their photos taken that day, coffee mugs, sweatshirts, and pricey Lenox China with pastel prints of chicks and bunnies. Just Born buddies Hot Tamales and Mike and Ike candies have dedicated areas in the store, and visitors can select their favorite flavors to take home.

Just Born is not the only candy company with a retail store, and Peeps are not the only candy with a loyal following. M&Ms have a store in New York City, and Hershey has its very own park in Pennsylvania. The National Confectioners Association has a blog with all the latest candy news. Even the most detested of Halloween loot, Peanut Chews, has a fan base.

Elementary school principal and Philadelphia, PA native Jacqui Coccia loves Peanut Chews. She remembers buying the combination of peanuts, molasses, and chocolate as a child at the movies, hoping to make her supply last through the film.

“They were almost all gone before the previews ended,” she says. Coccia suffered for a few years when she moved away from the area, where the candy is plentiful. When her father’s job moved him to London, Peanut Chews followed, in care packages that Coccia sent with other Philly favorites.

Now, she would jump at any chance to have some merchandise with the candy’s classic logo and was disappointed when milk chocolate was introduced as a variety of the recipe. “You really should not mess with perfection,” said Coccia.

Some cravings just demand attention. “I have a full-blown candy addiction,” said Michael Sias, principal of Firm Nineteen, a media relations firm in North Carolina. “I’ll make 1 AM trips to the seediest 7-11s to get a bag of Cherry Bombs. My wife thinks it’s immature and ridiculous—but she just doesn’t understand.”

Some people associate a special event with their favorite kind of candy, and others don’t know why they always crave the same thing every Halloween. But the sight of a familiar wrapper can welcome someone home after a long road trip or make a person smile after a bad day. Maybe holding onto the smallest things, like a marshmallow chick, can bring on some sense of satisfaction.

In the spring, my roommate and I entered the Washington Post contest. We spent about three days working on our first Peeps diorama. I burned myself a dozen times with the hot glue gun, but they were some good looking marshmallows, complete with hair to recreate a scene from the Peanuts classic, “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!”

As I picked out naked Barbie dolls from the children’s section of a thrift shop, I didn’t have the heart to tell the older woman chuckling nearby that I planned to cut off their flowing locks to give a Peeps bunny Sally’s blond curls.

One night, after a few martinis, my downstairs neighbor let it slip that he, too, had once purchased naked Barbie dolls.

“Wait. There’s only one reason anyone over 10 would buy naked Barbies,” I glared over my glass. “Did you…make a Peeps diorama?”

Bingo. I’ve seen the photos, and immediately concluded that we would have to join forces for the next contest.

Yes, I bought the Peeps mug. As I waited in line to pay that day, an employee came around with a small cup of Mike and Ike flavors, sprinkling them into the hands of those waiting. I felt like I was at a petting zoo as I held out my hand for a few of the gummy pellets. This time, I was the animal.