Twinkies are back, and if you enjoy a spongy concoction with a creamy center, then this is very good news. After an eight-month hiatus, Hostess has managed to resuscitate its fledgling snack empire and bring back one of America’s favorite treats.
The new (and improved?) Twinkie aren’t the same as before. The company that purchased Hostess made the cakes smaller, lighter, and have fewer calories. Twinkie 2.0 has 135 calories per cake compared to the previous installment’s 150 calories, a change which Hostess rep Hannah Arnold said was made “in mid-2012.”
No one knows Hostess’s method to extend the shelf life from 25 days to 45, but it’s likely due to packaging; as reported by Steve Ettlinger of The Atlantic:
In this case, though, my money is on a simple packaging redesign that will account for the newly increased longevity. If you leave Twinkies out, they tend to get dry and hard. They most likely improved packaging for better moisture control in a way that inhibits spoilage too. That way, the famous taste remains untouched.
Baking expert Matt Jacobson of Grocery Haulers, Inc., confirmed my suspicions, telling me, “MAP [modified atmosphere packing] flushes out the oxygen from pack while injecting a combo of gases to control conditions inside the pack, thus controlling the PH of product, the moisture release, and inhibiting mold growth.”
Hostess owes its resurgence to Apollo Global Management and Metropolous & Co., the private equity firm that pulled it out of Chapter 11 thanks to a $140 million. “America wanted Hostess back– they wanted the original,” AGMM told ABC News in June. “Very soon consumers will once against be abel to enjoy Twinkies, Cupcakes and othe great Hostess snack cakes. A comeback by any other name could never be as sweet.”
Twinkies will be available in Walmart and Kroger stores this Friday (July 19). If the spirit moves you, get a box….or two.
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Photo: Lundmark
Switching up the inner and outter appearance shouldn’t be a problem, so long as the taste remains the same. customers be receptive to the “sweetest comeback ever” proclamation stamped on the front of Twinkie packaging.
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