Twinkies are still HOT!

Hostess introduced the Twinkie in April 1930, and it quickly became the company’s best-selling product . Today, Americans eat more than 500 million Twinkies each year, according to Hostess.

Americans spend about $47 million on Twinkies in a year, and sales are increasing, according to Information Resources Inc., which tracks retail sales and trends. The original banana cream-filled Twinkies (a banana shortage during WWII prompted the switch to vanilla cream) sold two for a nickel in the 1930s.

During the Depression, a Chicago-area baker saw the need for a low-priced product and decided to use his shortcake pans, which sat empty except for the 6-week strawberry season, to create a new, year-round product. Twinkies are still produced in Chicago (about 1,000 each minute), which also boasts the highest per capita Twinkie consumption.