A 37-year-old Twinkie sits in a glass case in Libby Rosemeier’s office at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill. The Twinkie sat for years atop a chalkboard in the chemistry classroom of Roger Bennatti, who placed it there after a student asked how long it would take a Twinkie to decompose.
Maine is known for many things, including lobsters, weird people, a governor with a temper, and yes, the oldest Twinkie on record. Now that just can’t be true, right? But it is.
At?George Stevens Academy, a small high school in Blue Hill, there is box that contains what some have called “the best snack in the world” or also known as the Twinkie. This particular Twinkie is from a science experiment that is nearly 40 years old.
The original owner, chemistry teacher?Roger Bennatti,?decided to the test the shelf life of Hostess’ greatest snack. Bennatti unwrapped the cream filled yellow sponge cake and placed it on his board for class observations. Bennatti sought to test the 25 day shelf life of the Twinkie. And while the listed shelf life may be only 25 days, Bennatti’s became an outlier.
But as the story goes, the Twinkie and Roger Bennatti would have to leave at some point right? Wrong!?What began as merely a science experiment has turned into the landmark of the school.
In 2004, Bennatti left his post as a science teacher for the high school in Blue Hill, sparking mild controversy on what was to happen to the now archaic snack. The snack stayed at GSA even though Bennatti departed. Bennatti left the snack in the hands of current?dean of students Libby Rosemeier, who was a member of the class that originally started the experiment.
Roger Bennatti points to a Twinkie diagram in August 2004 as his former student turned George Stevens Academy teacher Libby Rosemeier can’t help but laugh as she holds the venerable 30-year-old Twinkie which became the subject of scientific inquiry in Bennatti’s classes over the years.
We can’t explicitly prove that Bennatti’s Twinkie is the world oldest as there are no records kept of the world’s oldest snack cake. However, it’s quite safe to assume that the Twinkie residing?in a sealed glass box in Blue Hill, Maine is the world oldest snack cake….. at least for now.
Images via Bangor Daily News
