Why World War II Caused No More Banana Filling For Twinkies
When it comes to store-bought baked goods, nothing is quite as classic as the Twinkie. As the "original golden snack" of the century, Twinkies have become loved across generations for their yellow spongy cake and delicious cream filling.
According to History Net, Twinkies were created in the 1930s by a Chicago baker named James Dewar. Wanting to prove to the world that a spongy "shortcake" type dessert could be used outside of strawberry shortcake, Dewar experimented with filling personal-sized yellow sponge cakes with real bananas and cream filling. After seeing an advertisement for "Twinkle Toe Shoes," Dewar stuck with "Twinkie" as the name for his new creative cake dessert (via Culture Trip).
Whether you're a banana fan or not, there's no doubt these were off-the-chain delicious since Dewar didn't pump his homemade cakes with all the chemicals and preservatives that we know Twinkies have today. But why didn't the banana last?
The original banana cream filled Twinkie
Many people may not even know that Twinkies originally had a banana cream filling, but now that you know, you probably wonder why it didn't last. If you stroll down the snack aisle at your local grocery store, you'll likely find boxes of Twinkies lined up, but all of them feature today's vanilla cream filling with no banana cream in sight.
Unfortunately, World War II played a role in the forgotten Twinkie banana filling. According to Military Times, bombing throughout the '40s caused a break in the supply chain for some goods. Bananas and oranges were among some of the goods that were impacted, forcing the United States to ration bananas (via Business Insider). As a result, Twinkies' famed banana cream filling was replaced with vanilla.
Thankfully, the vanilla cream flavor was immediately embraced and Twinkies kept their usual customer fanbase. This led to Hostess becoming the largest wholesale baker in the United States until the company's abrupt end in 2012, per Forbes.
The honorary flavor
While the Twinkies that we all know and love today are made with vanilla cream filling, that doesn't mean that Hostess doesn't pay homage to the original banana cream filling from its origins almost a century ago. According to The New York Times, Hostess relaunched a special banana Twinkie in 2007, but it didn't last long and didn't gain as much popularity as it did from the original creation.
In addition to the banana comeback, Hostess enjoys playing with other creative flavors. According to The Impulsive Buy, the company introduces limited edition flavors to grocery stores every year. Throughout the decades, Twinkies fans have been able to try out new flavorful creations inside the spongy cake, including mint chocolate, pumpkin spice, strawberry, peppermint, peanut butter, cotton candy, banana split, blue raspberry, and more.
While the traditional banana cream and vanilla cream fillings are what come to mind when we think of Twinkies, we're not mad about the new flavor experimentation either.