Candy has a way of bringing out everyone’s inner kid, and Pez — the ubiquitous candy known as much for its dispenser as its taste — has remained perennially popular over the years. Dating back more than six decades, Pez has always been an offbeat candy and simultaneously a reflection of pop culture. So what is it about these tiny rectangles of sugar and their one-of-a-kind delivery system that has people hooked?

“There isn’t anything like Pez still,” says Gary Doss. “It’s a little toy that gives you candy; a happy, fun, silly, little product.”

Gary Doss, at his Pez Museum in Burlingame, pictured with the world’s largest Pez dispenser. (Photo by Charles Russo)

Doss didn’t set out to open a shrine dedicated to candy (it started off as a computer store). But the owner and curator of the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia notes that he is “happy to come to work every day,” surrounded by more than 1,000 Pez dispensers, classic toys and Legos.

“People that come into the museum are usually people that are just kind of interested in seeing something that is different and quirky and unique,” says Doss. Though the museum is not affiliated with the company that makes Pez, it does bill itself as the world’s only Pez museum. “Nobody else has one,” says Doss. (The Pez company does have a visitor center at its American HQ in Connecticut.)