ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WAGON WHEELS
1 Wagon Wheels were launched in 1948 by Garry Weston, a Canadian businessmen who took over his family’s business in England. He created the tasty treat by placing two Marie biscuits around a marshmallow filling and covering it with chocolate.
2 The name related to the large, circular shape of the biscuits and capitalised on the Wild West, which was extremely popular at the time due to films starring the likes of John Wayne.
3 Garry’s dad, W Garfield Weston, had three sons. While Garry inherited the UK business, the others got the Canadian and Australian companies. That’s why Wagon Wheels were initially found in those three countries.
4 The original Wagon Wheels – which are now called “chocolate” – didn’t include jam like they do today. There are other flavours available round the world, including orange, caramel and banoffee – but a white chocolate and strawberry one launched in Australia was axed after proving unpopular.
5 Previous slogans for the snack have included “a taste for adventure”, “if there’s a bigger bite, it can’t be found” and “eat the Wagon Wheel”, but the current one is “you’ve got to grin to get it in”.
6 Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French had a sketch where they dressed as schoolgirls and stuffed Wagon Wheels into their mouths.
7 Top panto dame Berwick Kaler throws them into the audience at the annual York Theatre Royal show.
8 In the first episode of the 2018 series of The Great British Bake Off, judge Paul Hollywood chose them as the technical challenge. The same year, presenter Eamonn Holmes lamented being given “the cheap ones”, aka the biscuits without jam, on This Morning.
9 There is a similar product to Wagon Wheels that is popular in South Korea and Japan. Called a Choco Pie, it has two layers of cake with a marshmallow filling and flavours include black sesame and strawberry blossom.
10 In 2015, there was a biscuit heist on Wagon Wheels’ maker. Five men stole a trailer containing more than £12,000 worth of snacks from Burton’s Biscuit Co, which also makes Jammie Dodgers.
11 Brits scoff a massive 125million of them every year, and there’s 159 calories in the average Wheel.
12 There have been debates among fans of the biscuit as to whether or not Wagon Wheels have shrunk in size over the years. Burton’s has denied it and it’s been suggested that the supposed shrinkage is due to an adult’s childhood memory of holding the treat in a much smaller hand.
● Snackmasters airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.