Twinkies Return To Shelves July 15

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 24, 2013 7:10PM

(Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Start freeing space in your cupboards now, junk food lovers. The leaner and meaner Hostess Brands announced that Twinkies will make their return to shelves across America starting July 15.

Readers will remember Hostess was struggling for years, engaged in a bitter dispute with its unionized workers, shut down three bakeries and threatened to liquidate its assets if those workers didn’t return to work. (Although the company still had enough money to provide its fleeing executives with fluffy, cream-filled parachutes.)

Apollo Global Management Group bought Hostess in March and announced shortly after Twinkies would make their return this summer. They've consolidated production from 11 plants across the country to four. (Don't worry, Illinois and Indiana, two of those plants are in the Hoosier and Prairie States, so we'll have the freshest ones available—not that it matters.) Plans are also in the works to expand the Twinkies and other Hostess brands and tweaks are expected for some of the recipes to improve the taste.

Hopefully Hostess will make enough Twinkies for the most rabid fans of the treat to hoard, but those gluttons should be reminded they’re here to stay … for now. Besides, Rich Seban, the president of Hostess, told the AP that Twinkies aren't going to survive nuclear winter anyway. "Forty-five days that's it," he said.