Culture and Cookies: Tim Tams and the Tim Tam Slam

We don't usually review packaged snack products and sweets, but here's one exception we had to make. Tim Tam cookies are now available in the United States, and this is really more of a cultural event than a snack product release. Tim Tam cookies... errr... biscuits are by far the most popular cookie in Australia and New Zealand, and they've even spawned their own teatime tradition: the Tim Tam Slam.

According to Wikipedia, the average Australian eats nearly two boxes of these every year. They're completely synonymous with Australian snacking, and Aussie expats often bemoan their beloved Tim Tams and beg family and friends to send them a sleeve or two to curb their cravings.

What makes this cookie so great? Well, it's pretty delicious. It's full of sugar, fat, and calories... and it's pretty delicious. It's two graham cracker-like biscuits with a soft chocolate filling, wrapped in a hard chocolate coating. It tastes rather like graham crackers with chocolate frosting, in fact -- and we all know how delicious those are! Arnott, the company that invented the Tim Tam and has been making them since 1964, has released lots of other flavors, too, like caramel and mocha.

Pepperidge Farm recently brought this famous cookie to the US. Apparently it's only going to be available for a limited time, so get them while you can. And while you have them, you really should try to master the Tim Tam Slam, a favorite teatime occupation of our friends Down Under.

See, the Tim Tam biscuit has a very soft middle, with two hard biscuits to sandwich it. If you bite off the ends (or the corners... there's debate about this) you can use it as a straw to suck up a mouthful of tea or milk. Then the nicely soggy cookie is eaten in one bite. Here's a very enthusiastic Australian youth with very detailed instructions on how to do this:

So, welcome these new-to-us cookies; they're a rather good cultural exchange, we think!

• I Love Tim Tam Cookies at Pepperidge Farm.

(Images: Faith Durand)

I love Tim Tam's! Canada has had them for several years now, but only recently an Australian acquaintance showed me how to "properly" eat them. They're great with chocolate milk!

posted by KidMoe on February 2nd 2009 at 3:45pm
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Yup, I live in New Zealand and we've been eating Tim Tam this way for years. The biscuit basically explodes in your mouth once it's got liquid sucked though it so you have to pop it into your mouth very quickly.

posted by buda on February 2nd 2009 at 4:16pm
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! now everyone will know!!! Dude, warm milk and an original tim tam is like sex in food form.

posted by chusmabilly on February 2nd 2009 at 4:31pm
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since the cat's already out of the bag, you can get tims at Cost Plus - they're called Arnott's Originals. They're a rare bird at the farmer's market cost plus. You have to get them at the one in century city.

posted by chusmabilly on February 2nd 2009 at 4:33pm
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Two boxes a year per person? I could eat two boxes at one sitting!

I hope Pepperidge Farm doesn't ruin them by making them with High Fructose Corn Syrup (like their domestic product). I would bet the Australian version has good old sugar.

posted by Charlotte on February 2nd 2009 at 5:04pm
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ooh, when i was in girl scouts i learned to do that with thin mints!

posted by youreacigarette on February 2nd 2009 at 5:34pm
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OMG. My mother has been sending these to me from Australia in regular shipments since we discovered them when they moved over there over 10 years ago. In fact, I have a package or two of the Australian ones in my freezer. I'm going to have to buy a Pepperidge Farm pack and do a taste comparison. Woe to Pepperidge Farm if they don't add up...

posted by Shana Lee on February 2nd 2009 at 5:42pm
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Oh fun! We just got back from a trip to Australia and New Zealand, where Tim Tams were our go-to campervan snack! (Does seem a little weird that here they're from Pepperidge Farm, such a quintessentially American company...)

posted by Brooklynnina on February 2nd 2009 at 5:42pm
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Mmm... they're really good on a hot day if you keep them in the fridge. And it's best to suck warm milky tea through the bitten off ends. Delicious!

posted by AARgh on February 2nd 2009 at 6:11pm
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We had an intern last fall who loved these cookies and brought them in for us as a treat. I've got to be honest: I didn't get the appeal. I tried sucking tea through it as AArgh above and our intern suggested but it just made a mess.

I guess these cookies are an acquired affection, kinda like the viva puffs I wrote about today in my:

http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/foods-you-love-but-shouldnt/

posted by Dana McCauley on February 2nd 2009 at 6:17pm
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@Brooklynnina: Not so surprising, actually, since apparently Arnott's Biscuits is, like Pepperidge Farm, a subsidiary of Campbell Soup Company.

posted by Katie in Berkeley on February 2nd 2009 at 6:38pm
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I'm an Aussie and I'm curious as to how similar they'll taste to the Arnotts one. From what I've heard American chocolate tastes different to Australian chocolate- wonder if this will alter the overall taste?

posted by bkk on February 2nd 2009 at 8:21pm
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My New Zealand friends introduced me to these when I lived in Taiwan, and I was so freakin' excited when they came to Target a couple of months ago. Now if only someone could come up with a copycat recipe that I could try....

posted by joyosity on February 3rd 2009 at 8:46am
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sooooooo delicious. unfortunately, every time i go to target, the tim tams are sold out. annihilating!

posted by eruditemess on February 3rd 2009 at 10:33am
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This is the best possible news I could have received today.

The best.

The absolute best.

I'm hoping nobody else in Northeast Ohio knows what a Tim Tam is, so I can clear the shelves of every Target within a 50-mile radius.

Excuse me, I have shopping to do.

posted by DK10 on February 3rd 2009 at 10:35am
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No need to taste compare them as both versions are made down under in Australia and imported to the States.

I love me some Tim Tam!

posted by ketelsodalime on February 3rd 2009 at 10:58am
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bkk - american chocolate, is good in it's own right. But when you've had a taste of any other chocolate from outside the us (except mexico - they're milk chocolate his almost always horrible), American chocolate tastes like wax. Dude, even the big ol' bars of cadbury you get at the 99 cent store are better than Hershey's and the lot. The Pepridge Farm and the Arnott branded tims taste the same. sooooo tasty. Need me some tim tams.

posted by chusmabilly on February 3rd 2009 at 12:17pm
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I went and bought two boxes yesterday immediately after reading this post. My wife and I shared a few when she got off work and they were delicious with an ice cold glass of milk that had been put in the freezer for a bit. Thanks for the heads up

posted by Benny's Dad on February 4th 2009 at 9:27am
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