Tim Tam Slam
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The Tim Tam Slam (or Tim Tam straw) is the practice of drinking a beverage by sucking it through a Tim Tam, an Australian chocolate-covered biscuit. The practice is done by sucking through a Tim Tam with both ends bitten off. According to the Toxic Custard guide to Australia, this procedure is done as follows:
- Prepare a cup of tea (or other hot or cold drink)
- Remove the Tim Tam from the packet
- Bite a small section off two diagonally opposite corners
- Dip one corner into the drink
- Suck on the other corner, which will mix the drink with little pieces of the biscuit
- When the Tim Tam begins to fall apart in your hand, eat the whole biscuit
- Obtain another Tim Tam from the packet and return to step 3
It should be noted, however, that some Australians prefer to bite both ends off entirely, as opposed to just the corners. [1]
[edit] Other biscuits and other countries
The Tim Tam Slam has spread from Australia to other countries with mixed success. The practice is hampered by lack of exact equivalents to the Tim Tam, requiring people to perform it with other biscuits. It is, however, carried out in exactly the same fashion in New Zealand, due to the wide-spread availability of the biscuits there.
In an article in 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. (Oreos are not completely enclosed in a chocolate case and thus do not form an enclosed straw.)
In the United Kingdom, many people have reported having found the Penguin "suitable for Slamming", albeit tricky, and with the recommendation to use a shorter length of biscuit and not to use one's hands to hold the biscuit but to simply hold it with one's mouth; the Rocky Bar an "excellent success", with the biscuit being lighter, and with the caramel centre adding "a soft chewy edge that was most agreeable", albeit with the same caveats as for the Penguin; the Kit Kat "fairly good", with the recommendation to snap the finger in half and use one half at a time for tea-sucking, as it yielded less mess; Twix, Time Out and Drifter "fingers" are also suitable. Tesco's Value brand chocolate covered biscuit bars also work very well.
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.
Arnott's Chocolate-covered Teddy Bear biscuits also work great. First nibble off an ear and the opposite foot.
[edit] History
The earliest known reference to a Tim Tam Slam was in the "Tim Tam Slam" song by the Melbourne band, The Oxo Cubans, circa 1991. http://www.oxocubans.com . The song's writer, Mal Webb, http://www.malwebb.com , also performs it solo and with all manner of bands. Mal got the term "Tim Tam Slam" from his sister Mary's God daughter, Vasiliki.
[edit] References
- shotgunning a TimTam. Toxic Custard guide to Australia. Retrieved on July 2, 2005.
- Your Biscuit Views. nicecupofteaandasitdown. Retrieved on July 2, 2005. reporting one person's failure to effect a Tim Tam Slam
- Your Biscuit Views. nicecupofteaandasitdown. Retrieved on July 2, 2005. reporting another person's experiments with types of biscuits from the United Kingdom
- Cat Richert. "Adventures From a Land Under the Land Down Under", Oberlin Review, 2002-04-19.
- "Tea-sucking record attempt", Croydon Guardian, 2004-01-30.
