Monday, November 10, 2008

The Big Letdown: American Tim Tams



A few years ago, my friend Deb sent me a wonderful package full of candy from Australia, and she included a package of Tim Tams. These chocolate cookies were so delicious that I sought them out; I finally found a place in Texas (!) that had them and I ordered a bunch. They didn't even last a week in the house. Heaven.


Fast forward to a few days ago. I was in Target, perusing the leftover Halloween candy (btw, kudos to Target-- they go straight to 75 percent off; none of this measly 50 percent). I bought a giant mixed bag of Snickers, M&Ms, Skittles and Starburst for No-Nuts who was here for the weekend. (Fine. The Snickers were for me.) On my way out of the candy department, something caught my eye. Could it be? No! But yes, it was! Tim Tams! Praise ye cookie gods! I couldn't believe my good fortune. It turns out that Pepperidge Farm is now making "Australia's Favorite Cookie" for sale only at Target.

I'll cut right to the chase: these are NOT Tim Tams. Not the kind I love, anyway. These have a funky taste to them, kind of metallic and oily, whereas the original (made by a company called Arnott's) are so smooth and chocolatey and delicious. The Arnott's website says they use their own special chocolate which has hints of caramel in it. I'm sure Pepperidge Farm is not using the same chocolate. I tried to compare the ingredients, but it was difficult to tell. On the American version it says the vegetable oil is hydrogenated palm but they don't specify on the Australian package, so maybe that's it.
In any case, save yourself $3.00 and just buy a whole bunch of after-Halloween candy instead.

2 comments:

DaisyChain said...

We used to be able to get the Australian timtams here, until suddenly they were gone.
Ever since I have had cravings for them, even though I wasn't 100% keen.

I'm saddened to here yours were a dissapointment,
(though I can well believe it!)

I'm also SO jealous of your candy sales, there was barely anything on clearance here :(

protocol77 said...

hi i am from australia and at some speciality stores and for some reason blockbuster video stores they sell american candy (at insane price markups BTW) anyways after trying some of these mostly out of interested i can safely say and no offense but american candy has nothing of our candy (or lollies as we call them) the sugars and quality of the chocolate is much higher here than that is used in your candy tim tams are just one example but also Cadbury Chocolate (any of the varieties available)

there are a american candies sold very openly and available just about anywhere such as snickers mars bars M&M's however the ones we recieve here although they are named like they are in the States they are manufactured here in australia and once again use better ingredients

if you can try and get some common american version and get some australian produced ones of the same type and compare the difference also you will find english candy really nice too one i can completely recommend and because i my english / french heritage have grown up enjoying when i can a english chocolate called Minstrel's is really good the smoothest creamiest chocolate i have ever had