Hostess' Newest Snack Cake Might Seem Familiar To Chocodile Fans

Fans of Hostess brand snack cakes are in for a new treat – quite literally. This week, the company released a new hybrid product that fuses two of its most beloved desserts. They're called Ding Dongs x Twinkies Mashups, and they're individually packaged bites that combine the spongy cake and cream filling of Twinkies with the chocolate fudge frosting of Ding Dongs.

Available at Walmart stores nationwide starting this month, the snacks have already reached some consumers who have taken to social media to try the mashups and share their thoughts. TikTok user @bootlegfoodreview claimed that the cake had the same "bounciness" of Ding Dongs, with more of a Twinkie flavor, but added that the cake inside was a bit drier than a standalone Twinkie.

The launch comes following Hostess CEO Andy Callahan's comments back in March, in which he expressed that the brand is focusing on unlocking its "greatest potential" by growing and transforming its portfolio, going so far as to suggest that the company would consider purveying more savory items that go beyond the sweet treats it's known for (per Food Dive). While the hybrid cake may sound like a newfangled idea, it's not the first time the company created what's essentially a chocolate-covered Twinkie. As those who grew up in the 1970s and '80s may remember, Hostess Chocodiles once reigned supreme as the Twinkie-shaped fudge-topped snack cake.

Since the 1990s, the once-plentiful Chocodile has become more elusive, relegated to select purveyors on the West Coast as the company slowed down its production. Their rarity and subsequent cult-following sparked an online black market for the stuff, and by early 2013, after news spread that Hostess was facing bankruptcy, single servings of the snack cakes were being sold through websites like eBay at inflated markups. At the time, a writer for D Magazine shared his saga of procuring one of the precious treats for $17.

Eventually, as we now know, Hostess was able to pull through the financial troubles. Despite the widely celebrated comeback of the snack cake in a fun-size in 2014, and eventual return as a full-sized "Fudge-Covered Twinkie" in 2017, Chocodiles themselves are still hard to find on shelves. But with Hostess claiming that its new Ding Dongs x Twinkies Mashups, which are pretty much just round versions of the rare treat, will become a permanent fixture in its portfolio, Chocodile fans may consider them a suitable alternative.