Hasa tries to guess the mystery-flavored sponge cakes with cream filling, also known as Twinkies. On July 23, Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, introduced their first ever mystery-flavored cakes. They partnered with creator Taylor Calmus, also known as Dude Dad on social media. Dude Dad is a Colorado-based YouTuber who, with his wife and his two best friends Berk and DJ, make videos of sketches, DIY, and vlog videos all about family life.

On Aug. 1, people could like the post on the Hostess Instagram page (@Hostess_Snacks), commenting their guess of the Twinkies flavor. The contest ends Oct. 3 at midnight. Comments on the Instagram page include guesses like raspberry, cotton candy, Sour Patch Kids, Strawberry Twizzlers, orange creamsicle and Swedish Fish. Hostess has occasionally commented that a guess is wrong including the examples listed.

When Hasa tried the mystery flavor we began by smelling the cake but there wasn’t a strong smell so it didn’t give anything away. On the initial bite, it was quiet sugary and had a strong flavor that was surprising after the subtle smell. Many of us thought it was some kind of sweet treat flavor. Some of us didn’t make it to a second bite, as the mystery flavor was not for us.

“It was pretty bad,” said Emma Weckwerth as she spoke of the Twinkies. “It gave me a pretty bad stomach ache for the rest of the day.”

“I thought it tasted extra artificial, it was really bad,” said Josephine Petersen.

“I spit mine out right away, it tasted away too moist,” said Maddee Anderson.

“I ate all of it because I didn’t want to waste it,” said Rosa Corey-Gruenes. “I wouldn’t really try it again, unless there’s money involved.”

Overwhelming, none of us liked the Mystery Flavored Twinkies, it was unappealing to us, even though most of us like the original snack cakes.
The vanilla cream flavor of Twinkies is the preferred choice for most of the Hasa staff. The original Twinkie flavor was banana until World War II, as the import of bananas was impacted by the war. Hostess changed the flavor to vanilla and never looked back. Until maybe now… since banana was one of the staff’s gusses.

The most popular guesses for the mystery flavor were narrowed down to a top three:
Bubblegum
Licorice
Banana
If we were going to make a guess on Instagram it would have been banana.

Hostess and Dude Dad will reveal the mystery flavor on social media in October. So we’ll have to wait to see if we are right.