Wagon Wheels

This article is about the snack food. For the 1934 film, see Wagon Wheels (film). For the song, see Wagon Wheels (song).

Wagon Wheels are a sweet snack food sold in the United Kingdom as well as other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India. They are also sold in Ireland. They consist of two biscuits that form a sandwich with a marshmallow filling, and they are covered with a chocolate-flavoured coating.^[1]

Wagon Wheels

Wagon Wheel
Type	Snack food
Place of origin	Australia, Canada, United Kingdom
Created by	Arnott's Biscuits, Burton's Foods
Invented	1948; 77 years ago (1948)
Main ingredients	Marshmallow, chocolate-flavoured coating
Variations	Jammie Toffee Double Choc Caramel Banoffee Orange

Wagon Wheels were invented by William Peschardt, who sold the patent to Garry Weston, son of W. Garfield Weston.^[1] Garry Weston worked for his father's business in Australia before taking over his family's business in Sheffield, England. He placed two Marie biscuits around a marshmallow filling and covered it with chocolate. They were introduced in 1948.^[2] The name (originally "Weston Wagon Wheels") relates to the shape of the biscuits and capitalised on the Wild West, which was popular in mass media at the time.

Production and size

In Australia, Wagon Wheels are now produced by Arnott's Biscuits. George Weston Foods Limited sold the brand to Arnott's in August 2003.^{[3][full citation needed]}

In the United Kingdom Wagon Wheels are produced and distributed by Burton's Foods who separated from the Weston family connection when they were sold out of Associated British Foods in 2000.^[4] The original factory which produced the biscuit was in Slough but during the early 1980s production was transferred to an updated and modern factory in Llantarnam in South Wales.^[1] Weston had been producing biscuits on the Slough site since 1934^[5] and the Llantarnam site since 1938.^[6]

In Canada, Wagon Wheels were originally produced by McCormick's, however they are now under the Dare Foods Limited name.^[1] They come in Original, Fudge, Choco Cherry, and Raspberry flavours.^{[citation needed]}

The inside of a Wagon Wheel

There have been many debates amongst fans of the biscuit about its size. Wagon Wheels have supposedly shrunk in size over time, but Burton's Foods Ltd has denied this.^[7] It has been suggested that the supposed shrinkage is due to an adult's childhood memory of eating a Wagon Wheel held in a much smaller hand; this argument is perhaps moot, as it does not explain why the modern Wagon Wheel appears to be fatter than the original. Furthermore, in Australia, Arnott's has stated that tray packs of Wagon Wheels were in fact 'Mini Wagon Wheels' and have re-released the original 48g Wagon Wheels.^{[8][full citation needed]}

However, in the video of the 1977 TV advert the image of the packet clearly shows the Burtons 2-pack contents at 125g, suggesting a 62.5g biscuit.

The original factory in Prestonpans produced the biscuit with crinkled edges and corn cobbs rather than the updated smoother edges. This caused the overall diameter of the biscuit to shrink slightly, but not as much as fans of the biscuit believe.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2006^[update] the diameter of the Australian version is measured at 88 mm (3.5 in) which is 14 mm (0.55 in) larger than the UK version, while the UK Wagon Wheel is notably thicker by 4 mm (0.16 in).^[1]

Advertising and popular culture

The British comedians French and Saunders made a sketch with Jennifer Saunders dressed as a schoolgirl stuffing a Wagon Wheel into her mouth.^{[citation needed]} Mentions in art: Van Morrison mentions Wagon Wheels in the 1985 song lyric "A Sense of Wonder"

British comedians Hale and Pace used Wagon Wheels in their recurring "Curly & Nige" sketches, as the Curly and Nige characters won Wagon Wheels from each other by doing self-mutilating and dangerous bets.^{[citation needed]}

Wagon Wheels are thrown into the audience by Berwick Kaler during the annual York Theatre Royal pantomime.^[9]

Wagon Wheels were "re-launched" in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Previous slogans for the product have been:

• "A taste for adventure."
• "If there's a bigger bite, it can't be found."
• During the 1980s the slogan in Australia was "It's more than a biscuit, it's a mighty big snack!"

The current slogan is "You've got to grin to get it in".^{[citation needed]}

Wagon Wheels were chosen by Judge Paul Hollywood as the technical challenge for the first episode in series 9 of The Great British Bake Off.^[10]

Flavours

The original wagon wheel which is now called "chocolate" had a marshmallow centre and not a jam centre. ^{[citation needed]}

• Original
• Jammie
• Toffee
• Double Choc
• Mint
• Orange
• Caramel
• Banoffee
• Big Country (Malted)

See also

• Food portal

• Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats – other similar products
• Weston family
• Choco pie – a similar Korean product
• Moon pie
• Alfajor
• Sandwich cookie
• List of chocolate-covered foods

References

1. "Wagon Wheels". practicallyedible.com. 4 September 2010. Archived from the original on 8 February 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
2. "Wagon wheels". Biscuit people. 6 October 2017. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
3. "GWF Media Announcement 29 August 2006". Archived from the original on 11 December 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
4. Benjamin Wootliff (31 October 2000). "Wagon Wheels roll west as ABF sells Burton's". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
5. "1900–1945". Slough History. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
6. "Cwmbran: Llantarnam – The Biscuit Factory and Brickworks". Industrial Monmouthshire – The Leftovers. Phil Jenkins. Archived from the original on 13 September 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
7. Sandhu, Serina (23 August 2018). "Great British Bake Off 2018: Why Wagon Wheels are called Wagon Wheels (and other interesting facts)". i News. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
8. "Arnotts Wagon Wheels". Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
9. Brown, Jonathan (18 December 2014). "Old Mother Goose, York Theatre Royal, review". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
10. "The Great British Bake Off 2018: episode one – as it happened". Guardian. 28 August 2018. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.

External links

• Australian Wagon Wheels Website Archived 4 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Burtons Foods Wagon Wheels Website
• Dare Foods Wagon Wheels Website