A plate of Tim Tams
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Product type | Snack food |
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Owner | Arnott's Biscuits Holdings |
Country | Australia |
Website | www.TimTam.com.au |
Tim Tam is a brand of 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.
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".
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, products similar to Tim Tams 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.
Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott's, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States of America in 2008. The Tim Tams are still "Made in Australia" and packaging in the United States bears the slogan "Australia's Favorite Cookie." In 2017, an additional flavour, dark chocolate-mint, was produced for and introduced only in the American market.
The Tim Tam Slam (also known as the Tim Tam Shotgun, Tim Tam Bomb, Tim Tam Explosion and Tim Tam Suck) is the practice of drinking a hot beverage through a Tim Tam. Opposite corners of the Tim Tam are bitten off, one end is submerged in the beverage, and the beverage sucked through the biscuit - as though the Tim Tam itself is a straw. The crisp interior biscuit is eventually softened and the outer chocolate coating begins to melt, at which point the biscuit is eaten. The Tim Tam Slam can also be performed with cold (usually milk-based) beverages.