February 16th is National Tim Tam Day in Australia and us Aussies love our Tim Tams. So what could be better than a day to celebrate our favourite biscuit?
Like many things, us Aussies like to take something and make it a thousands times better and call it our own. For example, the British have the penguin biscuit, so when Ian Norris at Arnott's decided to make a better biscuit after visiting England in 1964, he combined two chocolate malted biscuits with a creamy filling and dipped it in milk chocolate. (On a side note, Penguins are individually wrapped, but our Tim Tams come in packs of 11, which I've always thought was a strange number).
How did they come up with the strange name? I don't know if it is true or not, but legend has it that Ross Arnott was a horse racing fan and when he attended the Kentucky Derby in 1958 he said he would call it after the horse that won.
Apparently another thing that is legendary is the 'tim tam slam'. Something that all Australians do. Well I have to admit that this Aussie didn't learn about it until she moved to the UK in 2000. An english guy told me all Aussies do the Tim Tam Slam. You have no idea how relieved I was to hear it was a simple as drinking a hot drink through the biscuit.
Have you done the 'tim tam slam'?
