Paashaas

Easter, aka Pasen, is a big deal here. The Easter vacation is 2 full weeks plus a Monday. Not to be confused with the recent one week Spring break.

There are plenty of yummy Easter items already in the stores and certainly no shortage of chocolate bunnies, but so far this is my favorite. A chocolate brioche. Can you tell it's shaped like a rabbit?

Here's the front of the package. As with all packaging here, there are at least 3 languages. None of them English. Lapin de Pacques is French; Paashaas is Dutch; Osterhase is German. And they all say Easter Bunny!

So it occurred to me that the Easter egg dye we always use is made by Paas. I googled it and here's the story . . .

The original PAAS Easter egg dye was invented by an American named William Townley.

Mr. Townley owned a drug store in Newark, New Jersey, where he concocted recipes for home products. In the late 1800s, he came up with a recipe for Easter egg dye tablets that tinted eggs five cheerful colors.

Neighborhood families started buying Townley’s Easter Egg Dye packets in 1880 for only five cents and mixed them with water and white vinegar to create the perfect egg dye!

Soon, Mr. Townley realized that he had a wonderful product that other families would like to use to brighten their Easter tradition. He renamed his business the PAAS Dye Company. The name PAAS comes from “Passen,” the word that his Pennsylvania Dutch neighbors used for Easter.

Today, Americans purchase more than 10 million PAAS Easter Egg Color Kits during the Easter season, and use them to decorate as many as 180 million eggs!

Now—more than 125 years later—we believe Mr. Townley would be proud of PAAS’ perfect colors. The original is still the best!

I did find Easter egg dye at our grocery store, but it isn't Paas. Despite it having a Dutch name, apparently it's strictly an American product.