The world is full of injustices. After spending time chatting with many of the lovely ladies on some of the various IRC channels, it has become painfully apparent that there are many people who's lives are lacking a crucial part of what should be a complete diet... Tim Tams!

I recently spoke with someone at Arnott's Biscuits Ltd, who sent me a bit of info about the company. I have transferred most of that onto this page. For the time being this page is some trivial knowledge type background info so that these presently uneducated people can gain an appreciation of just what their lives have been missing.

There's also heaps of info about chocolate in a Chocolate Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page that I recently found.

About Arnott's

Arnott's Biscuits Limited is, by far, Australia's largest biscuit manufacturer with a predominant share of the Australian biscuit industry. It produces one of the widest ranges of biscuits available anywhere in the world. The Arnott's name originates from a bloke by the name of William Arnott, who was born in 1827. As a youth he apprenticed as a baker and pastry cook. He came to Australian with his younger brother in 1850. After various highs and lows, William Arnott finally set himself up in Newcastle making bread, biscuits, pies and cakes. The business flourished, and thus the Arnott's corporate empire begins. William Arnott died in 1901, aged 74, and by that time his five sons had taken over the management of the business. In 1904 a limited liability company was formed, and has gone from strength to strength ever since, with numerous acquisitions along the way. Always one of the great true blue Australian companies, majority ownership went overseas when Campbell Soup Co of the United States bought a major share holding interest in 1995. In 1995, Arnott's also celebrated its 130th Anniversary, and currently employs over 3500 people.


The Tim Tam Fact Sheet

The varieties:
Tim Tam has a number of varieties including milk chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel cream centre and hazelnut cream centre.
Recently a Tim Tam 365 gram Value Pack was launched to provide extra value for money for consumers.

Ways to eat Tim Tam
Bite a corner off each end and suck coffee (or whatever hot drink) through the biscuit and then eat quickly so it explodes in your mouth.
Freeze and eat as a hard chocolate desert.
Microwave and have with ice cream.
Munch your way through a whole packet.

The advertising:
Tim Tam advertising over the last few years has featured a genie and the ultimate wish "A never ending packet of Tim Tams".

The Facts:
Tim Tam is by far Australia's top selling biscuit with over 240 million Tim Tams sold each year. This means that in the last five years Australians have eaten over a billion Tim Tams.
Half of all Australians eat Tim Tams at least once per year. The other half obviously lead very deprived lives, and don't know what they are missing.
Tim Tam is the highest per capital chocolate biscuit in the world.

Origin of the name "Tim Tam"
The name was submitted by Mr L.R. (Ross) Arnott as the name for a new chocolate biscuit in 1959 or 1959 following a visit by him the the United States. It is not known for sure whether he actually attended the race, but during his time in the USA, the Kentucky Derby, held on May 3rd, 1958, was won by a 3 year old name Tim Tam. This name was adopted for the new biscuit and it has become Australia's favourite and top selling chocolate biscuit.

As a matter of trivia:
the track on the day was damp and soft
Tim Tam was the favourite and paid $6.20 for a $2.00 bet
was one of 14 starters
was ridden by Ismael "Milo" Venezuela who was a Texan Mexican and one of 22 children
was trained by Jim Jones whose 7th win it was
the race was run in front of some 100,000 spectators
the prize money was $116,400
the ancestors of Tim Tam were War Admiral and Hyperion, the sire was Tom Fool and the dam was Minnow
Tim Tam also won the Florida Derby and the Flamingo Stakes in 1958