Tim Tam is a brand of Australian chocolate biscuit made by Arnott's. It consists of two malted biscuits separated by a light chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.
Go anywhere in Australia and you’ll feel it. That deep, raw, unbridled passion Aussies have for their Tim Tam® biscuits. That kind of love is hard to understand. Until of course, you try one.
Don’t be fooled by its chocolaty, creamy, crunchy appearance though; This fantastic treat is no cookie! Sure, you can dip them in milk, leave them out for Santa, even keep them in a cookie jar, but it’s still not a cookie. Its absolute awesomeness cannot be defined.
In the 1990s, Arnott's cast N'fa as a wish-granting genie and Cate Blanchett as the lucky recipient of those wishes, who asks for...
"a packet of Tim Tams that never runs out".
In October 2006, Arnott's partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation to launch a limited 'pink' edition to coincide with that years pink ribbon campaign.
Advertising in 2012 responded to a fan's Facebook post, wishing that Tim Tams grew on trees. Arnott’s “planted” a Tim Tam orchard in Martin Place, Sydney on 2 May 2012. The campaign generated more than 475,000 views on Tim Tam's YouTube channel and the brand experienced a 23% baseline sales uplift over the campaign period.
In 2016, to advertise the mocktail flavours, Arnott's recruited Sophie Monk to feature in television advertisements as the face of the range.
History of the Tim Tam
The biscuit was created by Ian Norris, who was the director of food technology at Arnott's. During 1958, he took a world trip looking for inspiration for new products. While in Britain, he found the Penguin biscuit and decided to "make a better one".
Britain's Penguin Biscuits
Tim Tams went on to the market in 1964. They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse, Tim Tam, was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits.
Apart from Penguins, similar include "Temptins" from Dick Smith Foods, New Zealand's "Chit Chats", Australian Woolworths' home brand product "Triple Choc", the Coles brand "Chocolate Supreme" biscuits, and various similar "home-brand" products marketed by British supermarkets.
In 2003, Arnott's sued Dick Smith Foods over their Temptin' brand of chocolate biscuits, which Arnott's alleged had diluted their trademark as a similar biscuit, in similarly-designed packaging. The case was settled out of court.
Dick Smith's Temptin' Biscuits
Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott's, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States of America in 2008. The biscuits are still "Made in Australia" and packaging in the United States bears the slogan "America's Favorite Cookie." In 2017, an additional flavour, dark chocolate-mint, was produced for and introduced only in the American market.
35 million packs are sold each year, approximately 4oo million biscuits, or 1.7 packs per Australian.
Varieties of Tim Tams
In the 2000s Arnott's sold different varieties of the product. Varieties included dark chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, dark chocolate mint, honeycomb and choc orange.
In 2004, Arnott's caused a controversy when they released limited edition Tia Maria and Kahlua Mint Slice varieties, flavoured with the popular alcoholic liqueurs. The Australian Drug Foundation suggested selling the biscuits in supermarkets was "potentially dangerous" by "normalising" the taste of alcohol for children. An Arnott's spokesperson observed that a customer...
"would need to consume your body weight of biscuits every hour to reach a blood-alcohol content of .05".
Tia Maria Tim Tams
Two flavours for the South East Asian Market, choco chocolate and choco cappuccino, sold in Indonesia
Tim Tam chocolate sandwich biscuits are manufactured in Indonesia by Halo Arnotts. A cheese flavour has also been developed for the Indonesian market.
Special Edition Cheese Tim Tams
In February 2014, Arnott's launched a limited edition range of three new flavours created by renowned Australian dessert chef Adriano Zumbo: salted caramel, choc brownie and raspberry white choc. Point of sale displays featured Zumbo pink in contrast to traditional chocolate brown Tim Tam brand colours. Red Velvet was the fourth Zumbo creation, launched in July 2014.
Tim Tam by Adriano Zumbo
Also in July 2014, Arnott's launched peanut butter flavoured Tim Tams. Arnott's was awarded a 'Shonky award' from Choice Magazine for the offering, which did not contain peanuts (paprika was used as a flavour substitute) and included two fewer biscuits than the original variety packet.
Peanut Butter Tim Tams received Choice Magazine's 'Shonky Award'
During the Valentine's Day period of 2015, Arnott's launched Choc Raspberry and Coconut Cream flavours, again collaborating with Zumbo. In October 2015, Arnott's launched Tim Tam Choc Banana. A limited edition 'mocktail' range was launched in February 2016 with piña colada, espresso martini and strawberry champagne variants. Arnott's told media in May 2016 that sales of the Tim Tam mocktail range had not met their expectations.
Arnott's introduced toffee apple and pineapple flavours to the market in June 2016. In October 2016 they added a mango variety to the range, and in February 2017 they launched four new flavours—choc mint, salted caramel & vanilla, coconut & lychee and black forest—in partnership with Gelato Messina.
The current flavours available are Original, Classic Dark, Dark Mint and Chewy Caramel.
Current flavours of Tim Tams (2017)
The famous Tim Tam Slam
The Tim Tam Slam is a name for the popular method of eating Tim Tams where a person bites both ends of the biscuit and then uses the modified biscuit as a straw to suck up your favourite beverage. Right before the biscuit falls apart from melting the person plops the biscuit in their mouth to enjoy.
This technique is called by many different names, including the Tim Tam slam, the Tim Tam suck, Tim Tam bomb, and more. If you've got a pack of Tim Tams and a drink, you're all set!
Step 1. Determine your beverage. You can drink virtually anything with your Tim Tams, so long as the liquid is not too thick. Pudding, for example, would likely be difficult to slam. Research done by Arnott's, the company that created the Tim Tam, indicates some favorite beverages you might want to Tim Tam slam, including coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and even alcoholic beverages such as port or Bailey's Irish Cream.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 1
Step 2. Purchase your Tim Tams. If you do not live in Australia, you may have difficulty finding this delicious treat. While local grocers might not stock Tim Tams, you may be able to find these at an international food store or multicultural market. Failing that, you should be able to find them online.
There are many different varieties to choose from, including Tim Tam fingers and flavored Tim Tams. To accomplish the traditional slam, you'll want the biscuits labeled "Original" on the packaging.
You may find that the long, thin version of Tim Tams, Tim Tam Fingers, make an even better straw. You may want to give this a shot once you've experienced the traditional Tim Tam slam with the original biscuit.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 2
Step 3 - Poise the Tim Tam for slamming. Open your pack of Tim Tams and remove one from the packaging. You'll want to hold the biscuit between your pointer finger and thumb, with your fingers being placed roughly in the middle of the cracker.
You may want to have some napkins or paper towel on hand. The Tim Tam will melt as your beverage passes through it. The melted chocolate will transfer to your fingers easily.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 3
Step 4 - Create the openings through which you'll slam. You're going to create a straw with your biscuit by nibbling two diagonally opposite corners of the Tim Tam. Be sure you eat enough of the corner that you can see the creamy chocolate filling that is between the two crackers.
The creamy middle is the route through which you'll be slurping your drink. If you have not eaten away enough of the malted wafer, it will be difficult for you to draw your beverage up through your biscuit.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 4
Step 5 - Suck your drink through the Tim Tam. Now that there's an opening at opposite ends of your biscuit, you can dunk one of your nibbled off ends into beverage and begin sucking at the opposite nibbled off end. This should draw the liquid up through the biscuit and into your mouth.
Your Tim Tam will also begin to absorb whatever you are drinking. Some beverages will absorb more quickly than others, but eventually your Tim Tam will become saturated.
Timing is important at this point in the slam. If you wait too long, your Tim Tam might fall apart into your drink. If you jump the gun, you might find your Tim Tam hasn't reached optimal saturation.
You should avoid drinking beverages that are too hot with your Tim Tam. This could result in you burning your mouth! If your drink just came out of the coffee pot, microwave, or off the stove, you may want to wait a few minutes.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 5
Step 6 - Slam the melty treat into your mouth. Once the biscuit has become a delicious, gooey mess of chocolate, you should quickly put it in your mouth before it falls apart and you lose it in your drink! You may want to insert your fingers into your mouth along with the biscuit so that you can lick away any residual chocolate.
You should always wash your hands before eating, and especially before doing the Tim Tam slam. The melty chocolate can mix easily with dirt or bacteria on your fingers and get in your mouth.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 6
Check out the video below to see a Tim Tam Slam in action...
Tim Tam Recipes
However you stack it up, Tim Tams are just about the most versatile snack ever! Check out the video below to see how these little rippa's are made!
Read the full article
Go anywhere in Australia and you’ll feel it. That deep, raw, unbridled passion Aussies have for their Tim Tam® biscuits. That kind of love is hard to understand. Until of course, you try one.
Don’t be fooled by its chocolaty, creamy, crunchy appearance though; This fantastic treat is no cookie! Sure, you can dip them in milk, leave them out for Santa, even keep them in a cookie jar, but it’s still not a cookie. Its absolute awesomeness cannot be defined.
In the 1990s, Arnott's cast N'fa as a wish-granting genie and Cate Blanchett as the lucky recipient of those wishes, who asks for...
"a packet of Tim Tams that never runs out".
In October 2006, Arnott's partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation to launch a limited 'pink' edition to coincide with that years pink ribbon campaign.
Advertising in 2012 responded to a fan's Facebook post, wishing that Tim Tams grew on trees. Arnott’s “planted” a Tim Tam orchard in Martin Place, Sydney on 2 May 2012. The campaign generated more than 475,000 views on Tim Tam's YouTube channel and the brand experienced a 23% baseline sales uplift over the campaign period.
In 2016, to advertise the mocktail flavours, Arnott's recruited Sophie Monk to feature in television advertisements as the face of the range.
History of the Tim Tam
The biscuit was created by Ian Norris, who was the director of food technology at Arnott's. During 1958, he took a world trip looking for inspiration for new products. While in Britain, he found the Penguin biscuit and decided to "make a better one".
Britain's Penguin Biscuits
Tim Tams went on to the market in 1964. They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse, Tim Tam, was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits.
Apart from Penguins, similar include "Temptins" from Dick Smith Foods, New Zealand's "Chit Chats", Australian Woolworths' home brand product "Triple Choc", the Coles brand "Chocolate Supreme" biscuits, and various similar "home-brand" products marketed by British supermarkets.
In 2003, Arnott's sued Dick Smith Foods over their Temptin' brand of chocolate biscuits, which Arnott's alleged had diluted their trademark as a similar biscuit, in similarly-designed packaging. The case was settled out of court.
Dick Smith's Temptin' Biscuits
Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott's, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States of America in 2008. The biscuits are still "Made in Australia" and packaging in the United States bears the slogan "America's Favorite Cookie." In 2017, an additional flavour, dark chocolate-mint, was produced for and introduced only in the American market.
35 million packs are sold each year, approximately 4oo million biscuits, or 1.7 packs per Australian.
Varieties of Tim Tams
In the 2000s Arnott's sold different varieties of the product. Varieties included dark chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, dark chocolate mint, honeycomb and choc orange.
In 2004, Arnott's caused a controversy when they released limited edition Tia Maria and Kahlua Mint Slice varieties, flavoured with the popular alcoholic liqueurs. The Australian Drug Foundation suggested selling the biscuits in supermarkets was "potentially dangerous" by "normalising" the taste of alcohol for children. An Arnott's spokesperson observed that a customer...
"would need to consume your body weight of biscuits every hour to reach a blood-alcohol content of .05".
Tia Maria Tim Tams
Two flavours for the South East Asian Market, choco chocolate and choco cappuccino, sold in Indonesia
Tim Tam chocolate sandwich biscuits are manufactured in Indonesia by Halo Arnotts. A cheese flavour has also been developed for the Indonesian market.
Special Edition Cheese Tim Tams
In February 2014, Arnott's launched a limited edition range of three new flavours created by renowned Australian dessert chef Adriano Zumbo: salted caramel, choc brownie and raspberry white choc. Point of sale displays featured Zumbo pink in contrast to traditional chocolate brown Tim Tam brand colours. Red Velvet was the fourth Zumbo creation, launched in July 2014.
Tim Tam by Adriano Zumbo
Also in July 2014, Arnott's launched peanut butter flavoured Tim Tams. Arnott's was awarded a 'Shonky award' from Choice Magazine for the offering, which did not contain peanuts (paprika was used as a flavour substitute) and included two fewer biscuits than the original variety packet.
Peanut Butter Tim Tams received Choice Magazine's 'Shonky Award'
During the Valentine's Day period of 2015, Arnott's launched Choc Raspberry and Coconut Cream flavours, again collaborating with Zumbo. In October 2015, Arnott's launched Tim Tam Choc Banana. A limited edition 'mocktail' range was launched in February 2016 with piña colada, espresso martini and strawberry champagne variants. Arnott's told media in May 2016 that sales of the Tim Tam mocktail range had not met their expectations.
Arnott's introduced toffee apple and pineapple flavours to the market in June 2016. In October 2016 they added a mango variety to the range, and in February 2017 they launched four new flavours—choc mint, salted caramel & vanilla, coconut & lychee and black forest—in partnership with Gelato Messina.
The current flavours available are Original, Classic Dark, Dark Mint and Chewy Caramel.
Current flavours of Tim Tams (2017)
The famous Tim Tam Slam
The Tim Tam Slam is a name for the popular method of eating Tim Tams where a person bites both ends of the biscuit and then uses the modified biscuit as a straw to suck up your favourite beverage. Right before the biscuit falls apart from melting the person plops the biscuit in their mouth to enjoy.
This technique is called by many different names, including the Tim Tam slam, the Tim Tam suck, Tim Tam bomb, and more. If you've got a pack of Tim Tams and a drink, you're all set!
Step 1. Determine your beverage. You can drink virtually anything with your Tim Tams, so long as the liquid is not too thick. Pudding, for example, would likely be difficult to slam. Research done by Arnott's, the company that created the Tim Tam, indicates some favorite beverages you might want to Tim Tam slam, including coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and even alcoholic beverages such as port or Bailey's Irish Cream.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 1
Step 2. Purchase your Tim Tams. If you do not live in Australia, you may have difficulty finding this delicious treat. While local grocers might not stock Tim Tams, you may be able to find these at an international food store or multicultural market. Failing that, you should be able to find them online.
There are many different varieties to choose from, including Tim Tam fingers and flavored Tim Tams. To accomplish the traditional slam, you'll want the biscuits labeled "Original" on the packaging.
You may find that the long, thin version of Tim Tams, Tim Tam Fingers, make an even better straw. You may want to give this a shot once you've experienced the traditional Tim Tam slam with the original biscuit.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 2
Step 3 - Poise the Tim Tam for slamming. Open your pack of Tim Tams and remove one from the packaging. You'll want to hold the biscuit between your pointer finger and thumb, with your fingers being placed roughly in the middle of the cracker.
You may want to have some napkins or paper towel on hand. The Tim Tam will melt as your beverage passes through it. The melted chocolate will transfer to your fingers easily.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 3
Step 4 - Create the openings through which you'll slam. You're going to create a straw with your biscuit by nibbling two diagonally opposite corners of the Tim Tam. Be sure you eat enough of the corner that you can see the creamy chocolate filling that is between the two crackers.
The creamy middle is the route through which you'll be slurping your drink. If you have not eaten away enough of the malted wafer, it will be difficult for you to draw your beverage up through your biscuit.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 4
Step 5 - Suck your drink through the Tim Tam. Now that there's an opening at opposite ends of your biscuit, you can dunk one of your nibbled off ends into beverage and begin sucking at the opposite nibbled off end. This should draw the liquid up through the biscuit and into your mouth.
Your Tim Tam will also begin to absorb whatever you are drinking. Some beverages will absorb more quickly than others, but eventually your Tim Tam will become saturated.
Timing is important at this point in the slam. If you wait too long, your Tim Tam might fall apart into your drink. If you jump the gun, you might find your Tim Tam hasn't reached optimal saturation.
You should avoid drinking beverages that are too hot with your Tim Tam. This could result in you burning your mouth! If your drink just came out of the coffee pot, microwave, or off the stove, you may want to wait a few minutes.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 5
Step 6 - Slam the melty treat into your mouth. Once the biscuit has become a delicious, gooey mess of chocolate, you should quickly put it in your mouth before it falls apart and you lose it in your drink! You may want to insert your fingers into your mouth along with the biscuit so that you can lick away any residual chocolate.
You should always wash your hands before eating, and especially before doing the Tim Tam slam. The melty chocolate can mix easily with dirt or bacteria on your fingers and get in your mouth.
Tim Tam Slam - Step 6
Check out the video below to see a Tim Tam Slam in action...
Tim Tam Recipes
These tasty treats can be prepared and devoured in endless ways. Here I've listed a few of the favourites. Click on the images for the recipes...
The Tim Tam Cheescake:
Frozen Raspberry Tim Tam Fingers
Coconut Tim Tam Balls
Tim Tam Chocolate Mousse
However you stack it up, Tim Tams are just about the most versatile snack ever! Check out the video below to see how these little rippa's are made!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tam
https://www.itsnotacookie.com/
https://www.wikihow.com/Do-the-Tim-Tam-Slam
http://visualrecipes.com/blog/tim-tams-australian-chocolate-biscuits/
https://www.newidea.com.au/tim-tam-cheesecake
https://www.newidea.com.au/frozen-raspberry-tim-tam-fingers
http://www.arnotts.com.au/recipe/tim-tam-chocolate-mousse/#.Wgk-6saWaHs
Read the full article
