Wheaton Wire

Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Libby Hunt ’12 Passersby taste-test homemade and store bought twinkies.

The Twinkie was the celebrated pre-packaged food Wednesday, November 5. As a part of the First Year Seminar program, a taste test was held in Balfour Atrium during the day. Following the test, author Steve Ettlinger presented his book Twinkie, Deconstructed.

During the day, passersby were asked their opinion on the differences between generic Hostess Twinkies and home-baked Twinkies.

The homemade Twinkies won fairly uncontested against the dense, unearthly-yellow packaged ones. One taster said he could "feel his arteries clogging," while digesting the Hostess snack, as opposed to the delightful homemade Twinkies, which tasted "real". "You can really tell that there's a batter for this dough," reported another student.

The results showed that, for adults, the Twinkie carries with it the nostalgia of childhood. One participant commented that "Hostess was part of our household." "I used to love Twinkies. I don't know anyone who doesn't love Twinkies," said one man. However, he admitted that the homemade version tasted much better.

After the taste testing, Ettlinger held a lecture in Hindle about his book and his adventures trying to track down the key players in the making of the Twinkie.

Ettlinger accompanied his talk with a comprehensive slideshow of his investigation, revealing huge power plants that used enough energy to fuel a small city, producing as much as five million pounds of high fructose corn syrup per day.

According to Ettlinger, he embarked on this journey "to the center of the Twinkie" because "it behooves you to know what you are eating." For example, he was inspired when he realized that he could not explain to his children why polysorbate 60 and xanathan gum were in their ice cream bars.

To investigate the world of processed foods, Ettlinger focused on the Twinkies, which has 39 ingredients, to examine the modern food industry. Each chapter is named after one of the ingredients on the Twinkie's list. He learned the phosphoric acid that becomes the baking soda used to make Twinkies is the same phosphoric acid that gives the tang to Coca Cola, aids in making cheese, and is used in constructing artillery shells.

Ettlinger, the father of Dylan Ettlinger '12, is the author of seven books and contributor to forty more.

In the future he hopes to "investigate vitamins. I always expected them to be created by squeezing berries and tree bark, when really it is predominately petroleum produced in China."

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