The Story Of The First Moon Pie Is The Most Wholesome Thing You'll Read All Day

Everyone loves a good origin story, especially when it comes to food. The birthplace of the hamburger remains a heated (albeit tasty) debate, while Buffalo, New York serves as the setting for the iconic pairing of pizza and chicken wings. The MoonPie, which dates to 1917, has a similarly tasty beginning, and it may be the best story you read today.

The tale begins in Kentucky and involves Chattanooga Bakery, a traveling salesman named Earl Mitchell, and a hungry coal miner. While venturing through the Bluegrass State, Mitchell talked with a coal miner, who asked Mitchell for a snack "as big as the moon" to feed hungry miners who often spent all day underground (via MoonPie). A simple request led bakers to oblige and create the MoonPie — a union of round, 4-inch diameter graham crackers and marshmallow filling enrobed in a chocolate coating.

In its heyday, the Chattanooga Bakery produced more than 100 items, with its roster of treats featuring graham crackers, vanilla wafers, and ginger snaps. But the MoonPie was an instant hit. Sold for just 5 cents, it was the affordable, gigantic snack miners were looking for. It was small enough to pack for lunch but big enough to satisfy their appetites. By the 1960s, the MoonPie was such a hit that it was the only snack Chattanooga Bakery made.

Snackers of a certain age may remember the pairing of RC Cola with a MoonPie, particularly during the Great Depression. Since both items costed 5 cents each, the pairing became a popular blue-collar meal — so much so that there were jingles written about the duo. In a time long before McDonald's and Chick-fil-A, the combo could be considered an early version of fast food.

Chocolate was the de facto flavor of MoonPies, but in the 1970s, vanilla and banana variations came on the scene. Since then, other flavors like strawberry, blueberry, mint, and salted caramel have been released. The snack also spawned imitators (like Little Debbie treats), and snackers may know the MoonPie better as a Scooter Pie (introduced in 1965) or a Wagon Wheel (introduced in 1948).

While MoonPies are available nationwide, they remain one of the go-to desserts for Tennesseans of all ages and are iconic in the South. The RC Cola-MoonPie combo also remains popular and is celebrated each year in Belt Buckle, Tennessee during the RC Cola-MoonPie Festival, which includes the World's Largest MoonPie. In Alabama, Mobile takes its New Year's Eve celebration up a notch with MoonPie Over Mobile, an all-day event that includes the cutting of the World's Largest MoonPie, parades, and a MoonPie drop at midnight.