Twinkies: 9 Reasons Their Comeback Isn’t All That Sweet

What exactly is  in a Twinkie, anyway?

Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves this July. The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15, 2013.

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Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. The company says that nearly everything about the cakes will be the same, but that the boxes will now bear the tag line “The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever.”

“A lot of impostor products have come to the market while Hostess has been off the shelves,” says Daren Metropoulos, a principal of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., which teamed up with Apollo Global Management to buy a variety of Hostess snacks.

Hostess Brands Inc. was struggling for years before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2012. Workers blamed the troubles on years of mismanagement, as well as a failure of executives to invest in brands to keep up with changing tastes. The company said it was weighed down by higher pension and medical costs than its competitors, whose employees weren’t unionized.

The Most Questionable Ingredients In A Twinkie

Like many other processed snacks, and baked goods in general, Twinkies contain eggs, sugar and water. However, experts consider most of the remaining ingredients to be…questionable.