I’m a sucker for a Tim Tam. I just don’t suck Tim Tams.

This year is the 50^th anniversary of the marketing of the Australian Tim Tam biscuit. It was inspired by the UK ‘Penguin’ biscuit. When I lived in the UK, I went out of my way to find Tim Tams, but never Penguin biscuits. The same was true for vegemite – I guess it comes down to what you grew up with.

The name Tim Tam came from the eponymous US race horse – so it is a truely cosmopolitan biscuit. Nowadays, Arnott’s has a confusing array of Tim Tam varieties. I have tried a few and always come back to the original flavour. The rest are just not Tim Tam enough.

I confess I have never done a Tim Tam slam. To be honest, I think it’s a waste of good coffee and Tim Tams (though I probably could be convinced otherwise…).

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary, Arnott’s have released these limited edition Adriano Zumbo-of-macaron-genious-inspired Tim Tams that cover the basics: white, milk and dark, with fairly safe crowd-pleasing flavour combinations – apparently a year in the making. I hope they give him a chance to do this again and maybe next time, to go a bit crazy with the flavours.

Salted Caramel Tim Tam:

As you crack one open, the first thing that hits you is the smell – a rich and heady coffee-honeycomb aroma to the biscuit. Between the biscuits there’s a tongue of deep dark salted caramel nestled in the middle of the chocolate cream layer. It tastes undeniably like a Tim Tim, but better with the salted caramel cutting the sweetness of the chocolate cream filling. It gets a big tick from me. Yum!

 

Raspberry white chocolate Tim Tam:

I’m not usually a fan of white chocolate biscuits, as they can be too sweet and this one smells very sweet indeed. But once bitten, this has a fresh and distinctive tang of vibrant raspberry that reminded me a little of Wagon Wheels. The raspberry cream filling was light and the white chocolate not too sweet. Overall, I found this very likeable, but definitely not as good as the original Tim Tam.

 

Dark chocolate brownie Tim Tam:

This biscuit is very dark and rich looking. The smell and taste is reminiscent of a Choc Ripple biscuit and the cream filling was light and fluffy. Honestly it didn’t taste of much and it didn’t remind me of a Tim Tam, either. Not offensive, though.

Limited edition Adriano Zumbo Tim Tams?    Worth it.