How did you feel when Hostess announced last fall that they were going out of business and Twinkies were going to be discontinued? If you were heartbroken, we have some good news for you! Hostess Brands is back up and running under new owners and plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15th!
In celebration, we want to share some fun facts about your favorite iconic snack that you probably didn’t know!
- Twinkies were invented April 6, 1930 by Jimmy Dewar, whose idea for the name came from a billboard he saw advertising, “Twinkle Toe Shoes.”
- The cream inside Twinkies was originally banana flavored. When the government rationed bananas during WWII, Hostess changed the flavor to vanilla.
- Despite the urban legend that Twinkies can last forever, they indeed have a shelf life of 25 days.
- In 1999, the White House Millennium Council and President Bill Clinton put a Twinkie in the Millennium Time Capsule.
- Twinkies are a popular food for eating contests. According to the Huffington Post, one man ate 24 of them (3,600 calories) in under a minute.
- In 2006, Twinkie published a cookbook with recipes including “Pigs in a Twinkie,” “Twinkie Sushi,” and “Twinkie Burritos.”
- In 2010, nutrition professor Mark Haub went on a “Twinkie diet.” Yes, it is what you probably think it is—he ate only Twinkies for 10 straight weeks. The kicker? He lost 27 pounds.
There’s less than a month until the return of the Twinkie! Are you excited or could you do without? Let us know on the Sparkle Market Facebook or Twitter page!
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