The snack table in our office is packed. It's hard to stand out against the half-eaten bags of tortilla chips, cupcakes, and beers for grabs. But every once in a while a snack lands on that table that disappears in minutes. It happened with OMG's, the salty-sweet Canadian candy that arrived to the U.S. last year, and now it's happening again with Tim Tam biscuits, which will be available nationwide on January 26.
Tim Tams are beloved cookies (or not exactly cookies, because the official slogan is "It's not a cookie, it's a Tim Tam!") from Australia that are covered in chocolate. They're substantial—the cookie opposite of those flimsy waffly wafers. Structurally, they resemble an awesome ice cream sandwich that's been completely covered in chocolate. (No, there's no ice cream.) The two outside layers are chewy-crunchy chocolate cookies. The filling between those two changes depending on the flavor. Sometimes the filling is a dense chocolate fudge. Sometimes it's a drippy caramel. But it'll always be delicious.
The way Oreos have inspired devotion among generations of American cookie-lovers, Tim Tams have done the same in Australia. A rep for the brand notes that Australians eat approximately 45 million packets of Tim Tam biscuits each year, and one in every two Australian households purchase Tim Tam biscuits.
And now, as of January 2017, they'll exist in the U.S. in a way that doesn't involve having an Australian sneak a few boxes in a suitcase. They'll be at major grocers and big box stores such as Target, Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, Publix, Meijer, HEB, Hannaford, Giant, and Wakefern. In other words, everywhere you'd need them to be.
According to a rep for the brand, Tim Tam first started thinking about expanding to the U.S. back in 2009, when it tested Americans' snacking preferences with a limited run. Back then, we weren't ready for Tim Tam. Eight years later and the Australian company thinks we're ready, because "the U.S. loves to snack." Not untrue.
In Australia, the Original is the most popular flavor, with the Double Coat, which has an extra-thick chocolate coating, coming in at a close second. It's not clear yet which flavor Americans will prefer, but there is an exclusive flavor, Dark Mint, likely Tim Tam's answer to thin mints.
As for how to eat a Tim Tam, it depends how weird you want to get. You could do it the way we do, and pile a few next to your computer while you type out an article about Tim Tam biscuits (meta, I know). Or you could go down a YouTube rabbit hole and master the Tim Tam Slam (see below). Bite off opposite diagonal corners of the rectangular biscuit, and use it as a straw through which you drink your tea or coffee. Sure, the chocolate will melt all over your face, but you'll be so distracted with a three-layer chocolate cookie blanketed in more chocolate that you'll barely notice.