Tim Tam Slam
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The Tim Tam Slam is the practice of melting a Tim Tam, an Australian chocolate-covered biscuit, by sucking a hot beverage ( Milo, tea, coffee or hot chocolate) through it. Opposite corners of the Tim Tam are bitten off, one end is then submerged in the drink and the drink is sucked through the biscuit. The effect is that the crisp inside biscuit is softened and the outer chocolate coating begins to melt from the inside out.
Ideally, the inside of the biscuit should collapse but the outside should remain intact just long enough for the biscuit to reach the mouth. The thicker chocolate coating on the Double Coat Tim Tam offers a more stable structure to help ensure that the biscuit does not collapse prematurely - refrigerating them also helps to preserve the outside structure while allowing the inside of the biscuit to melt.[original research?] The Chewy Caramel variety also has an advantage for performing the TimTam Slam since the caramel center helps to hold the biscuit together for a slightly longer time.[original research?] The practice is also known as Shotgunning a Tim Tam, in reference to Shotgunning beer.[citation needed] The Arnott's company prefers the name Tim Tam Suck and ran an advertising campaign promoting it under this name.[1][2]
Equivalent practices are possible with other biscuits. In an article in the The Oberlin Review, Cat Richert reports attempting the practice in the United States using Oreo cookies after returning from a trip to Tasmania, but without success.[3]
A Tim Tam Slam has been performed by Natalie Imbruglia and host Graham Norton on the So Graham Norton television series in the United Kingdom. American actress Jennifer Love Hewitt also performed one live on Rove McManus's Australian talk show Rove Live after professing her love for the biscuit.
[edit] World Record Attempt
On Australia Day in 2004, 200 people in a pub in Croydon, England, and reportedly 30,000 people throughout the United Kingdom as a whole, attempted to set a record for tea-sucking, using Tim Tams.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Arnott's Tim Tam Official Website (Internet Archive cache 6 Jun 2002) Accessed 14 Jan 2008.
- ^ Australian Business Intelligence site search results Accessed 14 Jan 2008.
- ^ Cat Richert (2002-04-19). "Adventures From a Land Under the Land Down Under". Oberlin Review. http://oberlin.edu./stupub/ocreview/archives/2002.04.19/news/article9.htm.
- ^ "Tea-sucking record attempt". Croydon Guardian. 2004-01-30. http://croydonguardian.co.uk/misc/print.php?artid=454762.
