The New and Improved Hostess... The Stepford Snack

"The New and Improved Hostess"
(The Stepford Snack)

By Glenn Peppers                                                    8-21-13



Ok you guys, I broke down and tried one of the new Hostess Cherry Pies the other night. I was at a local Kroger supermarket, and they had a slew of hostess products stocked literally all over the store. So I bought one lone Cherry Pie out of curiosity, and sentiment. My summation after tasting this prodigal snack product?... Way-WAY TOO SWEET! Right away I noticed that the pie is a whole lot smaller than its beefy predecessor. Almost by 40% I'd say. I looked on the back of the package, and my gosh, the boatload of chemicals listed in the ingredients roster is so vast, that the only thing that sounded familiar, and edible was the word, "Cherries!" 

To me, this new hostess product was not really worth the effort... But That's Just me!  Mind you, the cherry pie did taste somewhat like the old Hostess Cherry Pie, just way too sweet! Maybe the reason it tasted so sweet is because in hostess' absence and time away from the store shelves, I've found much better (and a lot less sweeter) alternatives to hostess products. Little Debbie snack cakes and other snack choices has been a lifesaver for my (gotta have it now) sweet tooth, while Hostess was gone away. I've grown to like Little Debbie products very much in fact! Also, during Hostess' union busting/re-organizational holiday break, I've improved my in home baking skills somewhat. 

I've found that I really like making traditional dessert sweets like, classic pecan pie, seven up cake, peach cobbler, homemade brownies, and various other scratch and box cake recipes like lemon, chocolate and german chocolate cakes, much better than mass production snack items. My wife's newly discovered Key Lime pie baking adventure was a joy and much welcomed addition to our dessert inventory. I've added some new (yet old) taste treats to my palette's chalkboard list of great things to eat as well! 

For instance, in the last twenty five years or so, since I was a kid, a wonderful pie made its way back into my life here recently that I was introduced to in the south as a child. Its called Chess Pie. Chess pie is the sweetest and most robust pie you'll ever eat! Believe me, there is nothing like it, anywhere!  Then of course there's the pie that I discovered back in the 1970's. Bean Pie! Much like a chess pie, and pecan pie. Bean pie is a cross between egg custard, sweet potato, and the filing of a pecan pie. Both are incredibly good stuff that I eat sparingly. And gladly so! They are so high in sugar and fat content, that they are a taste treat that I relegate to enjoying only seasonally, instead of ordinarily! 

Not having hostess around for these past few months has taught me a great lesson; and that lesson is, nothing in the manufactured snack world last forever! Here today, bought out tomorrow! Look at what happened to Famous Amos Cookies! They're still around, but ole' Famous Amos doesn't own them anymore! My motto these days... Learn to make your own snack and baked goods. Make your homemade baked goods your own family favorites! "Buyouts be damned!" End of story!  

Believe me, there's nothing like Mom's apple pie anyway! I'm 50 something years young, and I can still taste and even smell my mother's apple pies, all hot and thick right out of the oven, in their big fourteen inch pie pans; more than three inches thick! I remember the taste of her creamy carmel cakes, and mom's chocolate pies, and mom's mile high lemon meringue pies. I was 6 years old the last time I tasted my mothers baking, and that was back in 1962 (wow, its hard to believe she's went away to her reward that long ago, from this world)! 

Former Hostess Employees in better days

For me, I can safely say that I do not feel bad leaving hostess products on the shelves in the supermarkets. Also for me, this has a lot to do with the union of solidarity (as Hostess fired 18,000 of its employees, then went out of business. Re-emerging, and reorganizing into a new company. Re-naming it, Hostess again, and hiring only 1800 'new' people to do the jobs of those 18,000 they fired... and all Union Free! I can only imagine that these new people hired in at a significantly lower pay rate as well), Yes to me it's not just the taste factors. Its the principle of the thing! 

As far as taste goes, don't take my word for it. Try the new products for yourself. You might like them! Remember, I only tried the Cherry Pie! Their other "New Hostess products could be Spot On!

Yet for me, bottom line is this. It all boils down to ethics! Some simply call what hostess did, good business! Well, maybe so; but the fact of the matter is; from a consumers standpoint, there are way too many other snack products available out here on the market that are just as good, and I'd say even better than hostess. So in conclusion, I say if you buy hostess products, even after their so-called, Comeback! You could be just buying a name; and tasting a sentimental facsimile of a once great american product that (from my personal taste appraisal) is now only a watered down memory -- a clone of what was an American Standard! To me, in its re-emergence, Hostess has succeed in becoming, The Stepford Snack! 

Glenn Peppers