Twinkies Are Back!

For those who can't live without processed snack cakes, the period between November 2012 and July 2013 will go down as one of the darkest ages in history. During that time, Hostess, which produces such famed snack cakes as CupCakes, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, and, of course, Twinkies, was effectively out of business, leaving us to fend for ourselves with only options like Little Debbie and Drake's Cakes to keep us satisfied.

But that dark cloud has finally lifted, as Hostess' new owners, private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co., have finally resumed production and have returned these cakes to their rightful place on convenience store shelves.

While the flavor of the snack cake you love most likely will be completely unchanged from what you'd expect (even if it had been previously frozen), it looks like there's one small difference: The AP is reporting that the new Twinkies are slightly smaller than previous ones, weighing in at 38.5 grams per cake instead of the previous 42.5 grams. This change was apparently made by Hostess shortly before they shut down in a last-ditch effort to lower production costs, and it's been kept in place.

The new owners have apparently found an even more effective way to keep production costs down, though; they're using non-union workers to staff their factories.

Despite the small change in size, the suggested retail cost — $3.99 for a box of 10 — remains the same.

Now go eat some Twinkies!