How Sweet It Is! Twinkies Return To Store Shelves
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- It's the day Twinkie fans everywhere have been waiting for.
The beloved cream-filled snack cakes are officially returning to store shelves Monday nine months after Hostess went bankrupt.
The bakery is back up and running under new management and has relaunched the iconic yellow dessert in boxes bearing the tag line, "The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever."
How Sweet It Is! Twinkies Are Back
Twinkies now have a shelf life of 45 days -- nearly three weeks longer than the original versions -- and some stores will be freezing the treats allowing them to stamp their own expiration dates on the cakes, WCBS 880's Deborah Rodriguez reported.
It turns out the spongy yellow cakes may also be a little smaller than the last Twinkies people ate.
The new boxes hitting shelves list the cakes as having 270 calories and a weight of 77 grams for two cakes, or 135 calories and 38.5 grams for one cake.
Right before it went out of business, the predecessor company had told The Associated Press that Twinkies were 150 calories per cake. Photos of past boxes online also indicate the weight to have been 42.5 grams per cake.
How Sweet It Is! Twinkies Are Back
A spokeswoman for Hostess, Hannah Arnold, said in an email Monday that the size change was made in "mid-2012'' by the predecessor company. That would mean it happened in the months leading up to its bankruptcy, as the company was trying to keep its head above water financially.
Arnold said that the longer shelf life of Twinkies was also made by the predecessor company right before it went bankrupt.
To celebrate the comeback of the Twinkie, a Hostess truck handed out the snack cakes for free in midtown Manhattan at 48th Street and Sixth Avenue on Monday.
"I got a free one and as soon as they hit grocery stores I'm going to be out and probably pick up a new box of them," one man said.
Twinkies made an early comeback at Walmart stores. The retailer began selling the snack cakes on Friday at 1,600 Walmart locations nationwide.
Later this week, stores will have Hostess Mini Muffins and fried Fruit Pies.
Coffee Cakes, Ho Hos, Orange CupCakes, Suzy Qs and Zingers will be available by August.
Sno-Balls will be back in the fall.
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