A while back, I was asked if I’d be willing to review Pepperidge Farm’s newly released Tim Tam cookies. A Tim Tam is a sandwich cookie with 2 light and crisp chocolate wafers, chocolate cream filling, and completely covered in chocolate. They're Australia's favorite cookie and haven't been available in the States, until now! I agreed to review them because I've always wanted to try these cookies and do the famous Tim Tam Slam. (And turning down triple chocolatey cookies? I do no such things.) However, I never got the logistics of how to do a Tim Tam Slam - I knew it was something about biting the ends off a cookie and using it as a straw for a hot beverage. Sounds cool. So I looked it up on Youtube, and whadoyaknow, I found a video of Natalie Imbruglia teaching a talk show host how to do a Tim Tam Slam. Perfect! Gotta love the internet.
The next morning I made a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee (I looove Trung Nguyen) and black tea and Steven and I did some Tim Tam Slams for breakfast.
First you bite a little corner of the cookies diagonally like so. Then you dip the cookie in the beverage and suck until you can feel the drink in your mouth and quickly eat the whole cookie. Don’t try to bite the cookie in half (I made this mistake) because it will squirt and fall apart so just eat the whole thing in one big bite. And you have to do this quickly otherwise the chocolate coating will melt and the cookie will fall apart as you're holding it.
I think it’s traditional to do the slam with tea but being partial to coffee myself, I much preferred the combination of strong coffee and chocolate. I also tried it with some cold milk because I thought cookies and milk was always a delicious combo but not in this case. The cold milk made the chocolate exterior cold and waxy and the cookie just didn’t taste right filled with cold milk - pretty gross actually. A hot beverage is definitely the way to go because the chocolate shell gets gooey and the insides are warm and melty. Mmm...! I really liked the caramel center in the caramel Tim Tam but the chewiness distracted from the overall soft gooey interior when you're doing the Tim Tam Slam, whereas the chocolate cream variety resulted in a uniformly soft and gooey cookie.
My conclusion? The Tim Tam Slam is a transcendent experience that everyone needs to experience. I would definitely urge people to try both kinds and see which you prefer. The only downside? Two cookies are 25% of your daily saturated fat! Ouch! I dunno what kind of magical ingredients they put in these to make them so damn tasty but it ain’t good for you that’s for sure. Another bummer is that these cookies are only available for a limited time in Target. You can get a $1 off coupon at http://www.ilovetimtamcookies.com/index.html. You need to do a Tim Tam Slam ASAP, you'll be glad you did.
Disclaimer and other ramblings:
While I love these cookies, they're a bit pricey. My local Target carries them for $3.34 for a 7oz. box. I think I will still get a few more boxes for the occasional treat because they are tasty. Now as for the other Pepperidge Farm stuff, I only buy Pirouettes, which are my favorite holiday treat. Pepperidge Farm stuff overall is usually on the expensive side. I've heard that Milanos are noticeably smaller nowadays, which is very disappointing, but I guess what brand hasn't been cutting back on costs with the economy being like this. Pirouettes are tasty except the Cappuccino flavor, which is horrendously disgusting. Being a coffee lover, I was obviously drawn to this flavor. I made the mistake of getting two tins and I hate them. They taste overwhelmingly of cinnamon and when I looked at the ingredient list, cinnamon shows up before coffee flavoring! I have never ever put cinnamon in my coffee, and I wonder who does?! Ugh, so gross!