After almost a year in exile, Twinkies returned to store shelves yesterday with Hostess changing the size and shelf life of the vanilla cream-filled yellow cakes.
The changes did not go down well with some, but the recent adjustments were relatively minor when compared to other tweaks Hostess made to their signature product over the years.
In fact, Twinkies were never even supposed to be vanilla flavored.
In 1930, Twinkie inventor James Alexander Dewar was trying to figure out what to do with his bakery’s strawberry shortcake molds when berries weren’t in season.
Dewar’s solution was simple: he injected the yellow cakes with banana cream filling and the Twinkie was born.
The banana-cream filled cakes sold that way for years until a banana shortage during WWII forced the company to switch to vanilla-cream filling, according to Fox News Magazine, and the modern Twinkie was born.
Here are some other fun facts about Twinkies and Hostess:
• For years Hostess advertised their treats with they very own mascots. Twinkies got Twinkie the Kid, Ho Hos got the Robin Hood hat wearing Happy Ho Ho and King Ding Dong ruled over “a chocolate-flavored world.”
• While East Coast Twinkies fans swear by the vanilla-cream and yellow cake combo, West Coast Hostess fans might prefer the Chocodile, a chocolate-covered Twinkie that for years was only sold on the West Coast and through Hostess outlets. Because of their limited availability, Chocodiles pioneered the Hostess eBay black market with individual cakes going for around $20 a pop.
Anthony Bourdain moments after tasting liquefied Twinkie filling directly from an old factory’s pipes. (The Travel Channel)
• While New York politicians get busted for sending lewd Twitpics, shelling out the big bucks on hookers and stealing money from charities, a Minneapolis City Council candidate got into hot water after doling out too many Twinkies. Apparently, the politician tried to curry favor with a group of elderly voters in 1985 by serving up a $34.13 cornucopia of refreshments, including Twinkies. The sweet-toothed pol was indicted by a grand jury for his troubles. Even though the charges didn’t stick, the candidate lost the election but helped make history because soon afterwards Minnesota passed a campaign finance law called, you guessed it, “the Twinkie law.”
• The recent resurrection of the Twinkie comes after years of decline for Hostess. During those down years, Hostess laid off 600 workers when it closed a plant in Toledo, Ohio but the factory eventually got turned into Zubal Books, the largest book store in the world. Even though the huge building is filled to the rafters with books, clues to the building’s past remain. For example, pipes filled with liquefied Twinkie filling still line the walls and when celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain visited the store in 2007 for his show “No Reservations” he tapped directly into the gooey goodness. “It’s Twinkilicious,” the chef remarked.
• In recent years Joey Chestnut has taken the speed-eating spotlight away from Japanese star Takeru Kobayashi by dominating the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. But the Japanese superstar still holds a few records including the Guinness World Record for most Twinkies consumed in one minute. Kobayashi set the record by swallowing 14 cakes in 60 seconds on a 2012 episode of “The Wendy Williams Show.”