[2] Tim Tams are available in the cooler months only. Why? The chocolate coating melts!

[3] You can find different flavors of Tim Tam online, including on Amazon (photo © Tony Cenicola | The New York Times).

We recently received an invitation to meet Gail Simmons, Special Projects Manager with Food & Wine Magazine who gained national (international? interplanetary?) visibility as a judge on our favorite TV food show, “Top Chef.”

She was the celebrity guest at a debut party for Pepperidge Farm’s Tam Tam cookies—the top-selling cookie in Australia, now available in the U.S., and apparently a favorite of Gail’s.

You can find them exclusively at Target stores from October through March (when they can be shipped in cool comfort without hot containers melting the chocolate).

Editor’s Note: Since this article was published, Tim Tams have become available online, including on Amazon.

If you like Kit Kat and Twix bars, these are bigger, plumper, more sumptuous versions. Crisp chocolate cookie layers are filled with chocolate crème or richer caramel, then enrobed in even richer chocolate.

> February 16th is National Tim Tam Day.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF TIM TAMS

Tim Tam cookies were originally made by Arnott’s Biscuits Limited of Australia, introduced in 1964.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.

The cookies are a huge favorite Down Under (the brand is now owned by Pepperidge Farm).

The biscuit (the word for cookie in Australia and the U.K.) was created by Ian Norris, an employee who took a world trip in 1958, looking for inspiration for new products.

While in Britain, he discovered the Penguin biscuit, and decided to try to “make a better one.”

The result: two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.

Since the 2000s Arnott’s has released many different varieties of the product, some as limited edition runs. Varieties include caramel, chocolate, chocolate orange, dark chocolate, dark chocolate mint, double coat, honeycomb, and white chocolate. and choc orange.

In 2004, Arnott’s caused a controversy when they released limited edition varieties flavored with liqueurs: Tim Tam Tia Maria and Kahlua Mint Slice.

The Australian Drug Foundation suggested that selling the biscuits in supermarkets was “potentially dangerous” by “normalizing” the taste of alcohol for children. Arnott’s responded that a customer “would need to consume your body weight of biscuits every hour to reach a blood-alcohol content of .05” [source].

Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott’s, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States in 2008. Tim Tams are still “Made in Australia” and packaging in the U.S. carries the slogan, “Australia’s Favorite Cookie.”
 
 
TASTING THE TIM TAMS

The more voluptuous Caramel Tim Tams outshine their Chocolate Creme sisters, but if we had never met Caramel, we’d have been happy taking Chocolate Crème home.

 
Now, some of you have heard about the upcoming FTC “blogger disclosure law,” actually part of the new FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, that is scheduled to go into effect on December 1st.

Among other things, it requires those who endorse products in the media, including blogs and social media, to disclose if they have received the products for free, work for the company, are an MD, Ph.D., or other “Dr.” (if they call upon their expertise as a doctor), etc.

At THE NIBBLE, we’re already anticipating using disclosures like, “We received these four flavors for free, and bought these 6 flavors at our local supermarket.” (THE NIBBLE gets some free samples, but we spend far more buying products plus the ancillary products needed to cook, bake, and otherwise prepare many of the free samples.)

In the case of Tim Tam: We got them for free but enjoyed them so much, that we would gladly have paid for them and certainly will go out and pay for the dark chocolate versions. These are not artisan baked goods, but they are one heck of a comfort food fix.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

The offer ends on November 16th or once 100,000 new fans are registered, so do it today! (At a retail value of $15 per box, that’s $1.5 million worth of fruit being given away!) There’s also a 10% holiday early-bird discount off the purchase price of any orders placed before December 1, 2009.

Edible Arrangements sculpted fruit baskets are our favorite healthy dessert and snack—beautiful to look at, perfect for parties and a terrific way to teach kids that cake and ice cream aren’t the only things worth looking forward to.

• Head to Edible Arrangement’s Facebook Fan page to sign up and get your coupon.
• Read our review of Edible Arrangements fruit baskets, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

Chocolate-dipped fruit: A heaven-sent combination.

In Morocco, father and son share a glass
of mint tea. THE DVD provides a beautiful
tea experience, available in DVD with
a companion book.

The film takes you through China, India, Japan and Taiwan. It also talks to tea-drinkers in far-away Morocco, England, France, Ireland and even Tea, South Dakota, who enjoy the tea that comes from half a world away. Unveiling tea’s mysteries, the film contrasts ancient rituals and bonds, such as that expressed by a tea planter who would “dishonor his ancestors” if he could not continue growing tea. Then, there are the youth to whom the cultural heritage is unimportant, expressed by Taiwanese teens who disparage their grandmothers’ tea-drinking but enjoy spitting the tapioca balls in bubble tea at each other, and young adult Japanese who prefer coffee because “it’s Western and cool.”

Contrasted against this sea change are the seriousness of purpose of people who have spent their lives working in the tea industry and consumer tea lovers. Two middle-aged brothers who sell Pashmina scarves in India remonstrate that they could survive without anything on a desert island including water, but not without tea. A Moroccan man describes the ritual and pleasure of searching in the market for the perfect bunch of fresh mint with which to make his tea, and the satisfaction of brewing the perfect pot of tea with it.

Experiencing the bonds that so many people have to tea is an emotional and cultural ride we’d like to take again. This handsomely-shot, wonderfully-edited 74-minute DVD includes 45 minutes of special features. There’s a companion book with 150 photos that explores tea through the words of tea growers, tasters, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, scholars and experts from eight countries. Get the DVD and invite friends over for tea. It will be a memorable experience!

• For more information or to purchase, visit TheMeaningOfTea.com, telephone 1.212.691.8899 or email info@teadragonfilms.com. 

The recipe was created by Andrea Watman, Creative Director at Zabar’s in New York City. Another twist is the gingersnap cookie crust, which brings even more holiday flavor into the recipe.

• Try the pumpkin mousse cheesecake recipe.
• No mousse for you? Here’s a full-strength mocha pumpkin cheesecake (cheesecake with a coffee bean-graham cracker crust and a mocha glaze).
• Find more cheesecake recipes, including Burnt Caramel Cheesecake Brûlée, Cranberry Cheesecake, Irish Coffee cheesecake, Mango Cheesecake, Mascarpone Cheesecake, Rosemarie Brie Cheesecake and Sour Cream Topping Cheesecake.

Pumpkin mousse cheesecake is lighter than other recipes.

The difference between cocoa and hot chocolate: Cocoa is made from cocoa powder. Hot chocolate is made from bits of actual chocolate (it was originally invented in Switzerland by shaving chocolate bars). It’s also called “drinking chocolate.”

• Here are 24 more hot chocolate tricks.
• Take our hot chocolate trivia quiz.
• Read about some of our favorite cocoa and hot chocolate (we’ve reviewed more than 70), and the difference between dutched and non-dutched cocoa.