Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you, the original, newly repackaged–TWINKIE!! Yes, ahead of their originally scheduled July 15th release date, HeatCageKitchen is proud to announce that Kroger has them now, in a separate kiosk area in the back by the milk. Well, that’s where they are in my neighborhood, anyway. No kidding, I bought a box:
The new Twinkies box. Pretty much like the old one.
I read today that Wal-Mart has them now, and when I dropped in on Kroger on the way home, I saw a handwritten sign on the front door that said, “Hostess is back!” Oh, I had to go investigate. In addition to Twinkies, they have cupcakes, Donettes, Zingers, and I think I saw Ding Dongs.
Yes, Miss Gluten-Free Health Food Nut bought Twinkies. I will admit to being an occasional hypocrite, but I don’t plan to eat the entire box myself. I do intend to share, and never buy them again.
I was under the impression that they were packets of two, as they are in convenience stores; but no, in the box, they they are individually wrapped. You see how savvy I am with these things:
One lonely wrapped Twinkie. . .
So after an accidental dinner from Carl’s Jr. (because the Chick-Fil-A I was going to has closed up, thanks for the coupon, guys), I decided to have a new, freshly baked Twinkie.
It was pretty good–cotton-soft, light, airy, creamy, and not heavily sweet. This Twinkie tastes exactly as my distant memory recalls them. They look and smell the same, too, so Twinkie and junk-food aficionados shouldn’t have anything to complain about.
Bite into it!
Seriously, I only bought some because they are kind of a big deal. Especially when the company went bankrupt and sugar addicts went bonkers over them.
The new company will have a much leaner operation, with trucks bringing all of the products to the customer’s warehouse. The outlet stores have been eliminated, and a number of other processes have been streamlined to make what is now called Hostess a more competitive company. Instead of 11 bakeries operating at 50% capacity, they have four bakeries at 85% to 90% capacity. They are also now non-union, meaning the issues that broke the last company won’t exist. For now, anyway.
And for all my IT friends, here’s a little story on how the new Hostess Brands LLC’s IT infrastructure. . .well, read the story and you’ll see how they pulled it off. THAT part is interesting, even by itself.
Fifty million Twinkies, folks. They put out 50,000,000 Twinkies, with a completely new IT infrastructure and company in six months. And some stores even got them out for sale early.
I’ll say it again–IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY, OR WHAT??? (Not everyone gets this. And for that, we’re a proud country.)
Now, we all must pay the proverbial piper, and so I’ll be a) watching my diet all weekend, and b) hopping on the Nordic Track or gettin’ my Pilates on tonight after taking out trash, watering the HeatCageKitchen garden, and maybe tidying up a bit.
If you’re wondering what the nutrition information says, have a go at this:
You knew this was coming, right?
Two cakes are 270 calories, with 80 of them from fat. How else do they taste so good? And yes, there are three fill holes on the bottom, just like the old ones. Not too bad for junk food; candy bars are about 180 to 200 calories each, and even my favorite Larabars are about 200 calories apiece.
Granted, there is a tiny warning on the ingredient list that says it contains. . .nevermind, you read it at your own risk. And one day, we just might get those gluten-free versions. I’ll be on it and give everyone a full report.
That’s all for now, and more to come.
Happy Twinkies Friday–enjoy!!
