Last week, a lovely friend in Sydney sent me some fabulous Chilli Choc Fling Tim Tams (hey, Arnotts, your website isn't working!). I wonder how she knew?

I thought it was high time that I taught Lars-Göran how to eat a Tim Tam properly. These are not merely biscuits, they are an institution and the advertising campaign that comes with them bears testament to that:

Who am I to argue with that? Though I noticed that they have become tight arses and these special packs only come with nine biscuits. Anyway, I duly impressed on my sweet man, that eating a Tim Tam was an occasion and that the best way to really savour them was to partake of the time honoured Aussie tradition of a Tim Tam Orgasm (bet Google search will have fun with that one).

He remained skeptical, even after I carefully described how to do it. He seemed to think that I was playing a practical joke on him that I would then gleefully blog about. Oh ye of little faith! In the end, I only managed to convince him by showing him a short video excerpt, featuring Natalie Imbruglia demonstrating it on a UK talk show. And yes, I'm aware that people also call it a Tim Tam Slam, Tim Tam Explosion or even Shotgunning a Tim Tam. But I like my phrase better.

At last he agreed that it might not be yet another of my schemes to publicly humiliate him, so I brewed the coffee and set up to induct him into the Tim Tam rite of passage. You can choose any sort of drink - tea, coffee, hot chocolate, mocha, even something potent like Kahlúa is good. However, we in Sweden, who frown upon drinking in the afternoons, chose coffee.

So, first you bite a small corner off your Tim Tam, then the corner diagonally opposite like so:



You ought not bite too much off as then it will absorb the liquid too fast and crumble in a chocolaty mess in your hands. What a waste that would be.

Next step: Dip one nibbled corner of your Tim Tam into your cup of coffee. Suck hard, drawing the liquid up through the biscuit and cream layers and into your mouth. See, I'm carefully supervising the operation.



Now, once you begin to feel the coffee touch your tongue, give a final suck and then really quickly turn the Tim Tam around and pop the whole thing in your mouth. And savour the wonderful chocolate, coffee, cream, biscuit taste. It's unbeatable.



Now that last step needs careful timing. If you leave it too long, it will disintegrate into your drink. If you don't do it quite fast enough, you get to dribble it down your chin and your wife will laugh heartily!



Am I satisfied? Judge for yourself:



And did we go back again and again until the packet was finished in one sitting?

Självklart!



So what are they like?

I was pleasantly surprised. When I first bit into them, all I tasted was dark chocolate, just like the usual Classic Dark Tim Tam. Once you've finished the biscuit, though, the chilli starts to kick in - mildly spicy rather than burn off your mouth intensity. It is the cream part that is chilli flavoured and eating them the way we did brings out the heat nicely. While it's not the great experience of finest chocolate and chilli (which is an awesome combination) I really like the chilli aftertaste. I'd eat them again, though I still think the original ones are still the best.

Sadly, they are unavailable in Sweden, so I have to rely on kind friends in Australia to send them to me. Or maybe I could convince Lars-Göran to put in a monthly order at Great Aussie Food. Though looking at that site, I could fill a shipping container with desires....