Steve Almond would have loved this! I was visiting with my brother in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, when my niece and her friend charged in the door, all excited for a great scientific experiment: The Pixy Stix Challenge.
My brother prepared a wonderful dinner in the kitchen: mashed potatoes, brined chicken, sweet tea, apple cider, fall squash, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Mom was on her way over after a hard day at work. I was checking the blog, tapping away on the laptop at the dining room table, laughing, and watching intently.
My niece proceeded to rip off the tops of the small Giant Quality Candy 100% Freshness Guaranteed Pixy Stix and pour them into the one large Pixy Stix she and her friend had only minutes before emptied (into their stomachs!).
The question? How many small Pixy Stix does it take to fill one giant Pixy Stix. I was way off in my guess. My brother was the closest.
Does it take to fill one of these:
The Pixy Stix Challenge, hands of my niece and her friend, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Go ahead, take your best shot. And after a while, I’ll ask my niece to make an appearance and tell you the answer. You might be surprised.
Oh, and Steve Almond would be disappointed if I didn’t include this detail – the place where Pixy Stix are distributed.
From the back of the package:
Distributed by Foodhold USA, LLC
Landover, Md 20785
S&S Brands, Inc
Quality Guaranteed or your money back.
Looking forward to your answers!
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, November 24th, 2007
UPDATE – November 26th 2007: When I was researching this post, I found a fascinating link to the history of Pixy Stix, called Giant Pixy Stix. It’s on Candyblog by Cybele May and seems to be a must read for all things candy. I didn’t add the link to my original post because it has Pixy Stix details in tablespoons, inches, and ounces. Somehow, with all those calculating minds out there, I thought that might give the answer away!
And now that the contest is over, I wanted to add (for future readers) that the answer to the Pixy Stix Challenge can be found in the comments below.
My answer: 62.
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159
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K,M & I did this tonight. We came up with 176, 75, & 50. So we were just guessing! We are waiting for the answer! D
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You know, I tried to cheat, but just confused myself. So I’ll say 27, because that’s Scott Rolen’s number, and I’ve spent all day looking at baseball stats. Logic be damned.
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42. While not a completely random number, it is the first that came to mind (blame it on Douglas Adams).
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Hmmm… I will say 33… just cuz I am trying to imagine the amount of sugar one child can consume in one sitting, without going crazy!
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I’m going with 13 although the voice in my head said 10.
Those giant Pixy Stix are the most sought after Halloween treat I’ve ever come across…a must at my house.
When I was a kid, I used to make my own Pixy Stix from the powdered kool-aid mix and a little sugar…that was some good, tangy stuff!
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I’m going with 18. My teeth are starting to hurt just remembering pixy stix and my secret treat of eating jello mix straight from the box.
Why do I think dentist’s are probably major investors in companies that produce such treat?
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Whoa! Jello mix straight from the box. Good Pixy substitute. Great guesses, everyone. I talked to my brother this morning to confirm that I remembered the number correctly. I want to wait a little longer to see if my niece feels compelled to chime in. If not, I’ll post the answer later tonight!
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I got a call from my father saying “QuoinMonkey posted your Pixie Stix experiment, you have to go comment.” so here i am. I figured I’d give everyone a background story for this.
My friend (my color guard captain) and I were hanging out on in our room in Disney (HS music trip) where she proceeded in downing 2 of the big sticks, much to my dismay. I knew what they did to her, but she was already unstoppable. I spent the night watching her bounce from bed to bed like a three year old… fast-forward to 2 weeks ago. I gave her a senior present (tradition for the guard) for the outdoor season. Inside I put a handful of the little pixie stix. She was ecstatic. One of us (sadly, I think it was I) pondered out loud how many little ones would fit into a big one. So a week later, we bought 2 big sticks, and 3 bags of little ones. We marked how high the sugar went in the big ones before eating. She held my empty tube (she was still finishing hers) and I filled it with the little stix. anuvuestudio was right with the original guess. It took 13 little ones to fill the big tube.
After marveling about how cool it looked with the different colors, and getting excited over the success of our little experiment, we ate the big ones again! SUGAR HIGH!
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Thanks, Januaryshadows, for the full story behind the Pixy Stix Challenge. I don’t think I remembered all of the details. And did the big ones with all the smaller colors mixed together have a different taste than one single color? Well, I guess it is all sugar. I think I used to get my sugar fix with the Southern Sweet Tea Mom used to make. I still love it. And it’s loaded with sugar.
Well, wouldn’t you know that our Halloween Queen, heather at anuvuestudio, would win a candy challenge! Congrats, heather, 13 it is! And the runner up is the LazyBuddhist with 18!
I’ve got to say, I was very surprised by the low number. I think my guess was something like 125 or 130. But then, I’m spatially challenged. Nice job everyone.
Hey, Januaryshadows, what was your guess before you did the experiment? And I’m trying to remember your Dad’s, too.
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QM, if you’re spatially challenged, then I’m spatially devoid with my guess of 159! I don’t know what I was thinking, and I can only claim that I was in a funk all day. The fact that I pulled out to make a guess was amazing. (I’m out of it now; in fact, just came back from the gym. Whew!)
No surprise that Queen of Halloween made the right guess. She is a candy expert, after all.
I love these kinds of candies that make the little bumps in your tongue stand out. That and sunflower seeds.
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I’m going to say 16. Even though I have no idea what those are and I don’t know how ‘giant’ the giant ones are, so it’s truly a blind guess. Fun challenge though!
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Hey, that’s a great guess. And I honestly believe Smiler didn’t look at the answer first.
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Ahhh, my lucky number lives on…
Just don’t ask me anything on cooking, sewing, drinking or card games… 😉
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I think my guess was 15 but I don’t remember what the girls guessed because I came in at the end of the experiment. Unfortunately I didn’t get to partake in any of the sweet pixie dust (maybe that will be a stipulation with the next experiment).
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I added an update to this post today with a link to the history of the Pixy Stix. See the update at the end of the body of the post.
Or you can click on these links:
Fascinating link to the history of Pixy Stix, called Giant Pixy Stix (LINK)
Candyblog (LINK) by Cybele May (LINK), a must read for all things candy.
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I ate 310 in 20 mins
I did not feel too good after that;)
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