Buzz
For 85 years, these cream-filled sponge cakes have been a lunchbox and snack-time favorite. But how well do you actually know these iconic treats?
1. THE GREAT DEPRESSION SPARKED A SNACKING REVOLUTION.
In 1930, James Dewar was managing Continental Baking’s plant in River Forest, Illinois, when he created a snacking legend. With people cutting back on their spending, Dewar needed to introduce a new product to boost sales. Known for his persistence, Dewar was no stranger to challenges. Having started his career delivering pound cakes in a horse-drawn wagon, he had risen to management and was determined to crack this problem. As he later shared, “The economy was getting tight, and the company needed to come out with another low-priced item. I thought of a two-to-a-pack item for a nickel.”
2. SEASONAL STRAWBERRIES MADE THE SNACK POSSIBLE.
While Twinkies themselves aren't made with strawberries, they owe their existence to them. Dewar's plant had the right equipment to create spongy little fingers for strawberry shortcake, but since strawberries were only available for six weeks each year, the machinery often sat idle. In a brilliant move, Dewar decided to make small cakes filled with banana cream instead. Since bananas were available throughout the year, he found a way to create the snack he envisioned and put the shortcake equipment to good use.
3. A BRAND OF SHOES INSPIRED THE NAME.
The iconic name “Twinkie” was also coined by Dewar. During a business trip to St. Louis, he spotted a billboard for Twinkle Toe Shoes and liked the name. He would later explain why Americans now enjoy Twinkies: “I shortened it to make it a little zippier for the kids.”
4. FILLING THE EARLY TWINKIES WAS A DELICATE TASK.
In the early days of Twinkie production, automation was nonexistent. Bakery workers manually filled each cake with banana cream using a pedal-powered machine. Hostess’s includes a great excerpt from an interview with Margaret Branco, one of the first “Twinkie stuffers,” who recalled the process and a fun perk of the job: “You had to pump the pedal just right or too much filling would shoot out. If I oversquirted, the Twinkie would explode. Of course, that wasn’t so bad. I got to eat the crippled ones.”
5. MODERN TWINKIES ARE A PRODUCT OF WORLD WAR II.
The banana-cream-filled Twinkies were so popular that Branco remembered in the interview, “We could hardly keep up with the demand. You’d think people had nothing to do but eat Twinkies. They sold like hotcakes.” After a decade of satisfying snackers, World War II forced Dewar and his Twinkie-stuffing team to change the recipe. With banana shortages during the war, the original filling became impractical, so Continental Baking substituted the banana cream with vanilla. The public didn’t mind, and the vanilla version became the new standard, while banana versions made occasional comebacks in the years that followed.
6. AN ACTUAL KID STOOD UP FOR TWINKIE THE KID.
Fans of the snack fondly remember Twinkie the Kid, the cowboy mascot that represented the brand. Twinkie the Kid first appeared in TV commercials aimed at kids who weren’t already Twinkie fans during the early 1970s, in a popular campaign that promised “You Get a Big Delight In Every Bite.”
At least one young fan of Twinkie the Kid was devastated when Continental Baking retired the character in 1988. Thirteen-year-old Judd Slivka from Livingston, N.J. took the Kid’s retirement very seriously. He sent a letter to Continental requesting the character’s return, along with a petition bearing 135 signatures pledging to boycott the company's products “as long as our hero is kept away from the public.” The letter had an impact, and when Twinkie the Kid made a comeback in 1990, Continental Baking contacted Slivka to thank him for his efforts.
7. DEWAR WAS ALSO AN AVID TWINKIE CUSTOMER.
It’s no surprise that the creator of Twinkies wasn’t exactly a health enthusiast. In 1980, 83-year-old Dewar shared with the Associated Press, “I eat Twinkies every day and smoke a pack and a half of cigarettes.” He claimed his daily Twinkie habit hadn’t impacted his health, saying, “I weigh 160 pounds, same as I ever did, and I feel fine.”
When Dewar passed away in 1985, his Los Angeles Times obituary included one of his famous responses to critics of Twinkies: “Some people say Twinkies are the quintessential junk food, but I believe in them. I fed them to my four kids, and they feed them to my 15 grandchildren. My son Jimmy played football for the Cleveland Browns. My other son, Bobby, played quarterback for the University of Rochester. Twinkies never hurt them.”
8. THE DEEP FRIED TWINKIE IS A RELATIVELY RECENT INVENTION.
Given how the deep-fried Twinkie has become a beloved treat at carnivals across the country, one might assume it originated from a small-town kitchen. However, the credit goes to an Englishman in Brooklyn. Christopher Sells, owner of the Chip Shop, started deep-frying everything from candy bars to M&Ms when his restaurant opened in Brooklyn in 2001. By 2002, he had perfected the fried Twinkie so well that The New York Times was celebrating its brilliance: “Something magical happens when the pastry hits the hot oil. The creamy white vegetable shortening filling melts, infusing the sponge cake with a rich vanilla flavor (albeit imitation, but potent nonetheless). The cake softens and warms, almost melting, contrasting beautifully with the crisp, deep-fried exterior in a buttery, smooth way.”
9. THEY HAVE A SHELF LIFE ...
Despite persistent rumors suggesting that Twinkies last forever due to their preservative-rich formula, these cakes actually have a modest shelf life of 45 days. Lasting just over six weeks on the shelf is an impressive feat for Twinkies. Before Hostess's bankruptcy led to a halt in production between November 2012 and July 2013, the shelf life of a Twinkie was only 26 days. The revamped recipe that emerged after the financial crisis added an additional three weeks to the cake's longevity.
10. ... WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN BAD NEWS FOR THE MILLENNIUM TIME CAPSULE.
When the Clinton White House set out to curate the National Millennium Time Capsule in 1999, there was fierce competition for inclusion. In the end, the capsule held American treasures like the works of William Faulkner and a recording of Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. A Twinkie very nearly made it in, which would have been well over a century past its expiration date when the capsule was finally opened in 2100. Fortunately for future historians, staff at the National Archives removed the Twinkie from the capsule after concerns that mice might break in to steal the Twinkies before future generations could even take a look at them.
11. THEY WERE THE STAPLE OF ONE MAN'S DIET.
Many people enjoy Twinkies, but few could claim to be a bigger fan than the late Lewis Browning from Shelbyville, Ind. Until his passing in 2007 at the age of 90, the retired milk truck driver was renowned for his remarkable streak of eating at least one Twinkie a day, a habit that began in 1941. What’s the reward for consuming over 22,000 Twinkies? Browning’s dedication earned him quirky fame, leading to an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and a lifetime supply of Twinkies from Hostess.
