Discontinued Hostess Snacks We'll Probably Never Eat Again

No matter how dark the world gets, we like to think that snacks are the perpetual silver lining. For better or worse, we live in the golden age of sweet treats, in which companies like Hostess play a vital role. For over 100 years, it has satisfied sugar cravings with iconic treats like Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Snoballs, and Donettes mini donuts, with even more quirkily-named snacks hitting grocery store shelves on a regular basis.

Sadly, not all of these treats have managed to stand the test of time. Like most snack brands, Hostess has had its fair share of hits and misses. It didn't help that the company went bankrupt in 2012, causing products to temporarily disappear off shelves. Some of these products never returned, joining a lengthy list of other Hostess treats that were discontinued over the decades. Certain losses have stung more than others, with the most popular discontinued products inspiring internet outrage strong enough to see actual petitions demanding their reinstatement to the permanent Hostess lineup.

This pressure has actually worked on occasion. In February 2025, for example, Hostess bowed down to peer pressure and brought back Suzy Q's – its beloved oblong-shaped chocolate cakes, stuffed with a white creamy filling – five years after they were last discontinued. However, the same can't be said for these discontinued Hostess snacks, which seem to be lost for good.

Chocodiles didn't just boast one of the best names in the Hostess lineup — they also happened to be one of the most beloved. First launched in 1977, the snack was essentially just a typical Twinkie sponge cake stuffed with the same creamy filling, except for the fact that it was coated in chocolate. Originally, a character named Chauncey Chocodile served as the Chocodile mascot. Not only did he promote the snack cake in advertisements, but he also apparently made appearances at state fairs and Hostess stores alongside other Hostess characters, such as Twinkie the Kid.

While Hostess culled Chauncey Chocodile (RIP) at some point over the years, Chocodiles proved somewhat more resilient. The cakes disappeared with the rest of Hostess products in 2013 before popping back up as a smaller product known as Chocodile Twinkies in 2014. The Chocodile Twinkies were later also axed, with another similar product — the Fudge Covered Twinkies — taking their place. Sadly, these also disappeared eventually, with the closest thing to a Chocodile in recent memory being the Ding Dong x Twinkies Mashups (although these didn't quite hit the same).

The internet likes to divide Millennials and Gen Z, but both generations are apparently concerned about the amount of sugar in our foods. Back in 2018, Hostess set out to provide a saccharine solution. Enter Bakery Petites. Designed by Hostess as a way to meet the demands of millennials (sorry, Gen Z), they prioritized higher quality ingredients and ditched the likes of artificial flavors and colors, and high fructose corn syrup to create a more sophisticated bite-sized sweet treat.

Available in varieties such as Chocolate Chunk Brownie Delights, Double Chocolate Cake Bites, Fudge Blondie Crispi Thins, and White Fudge Vanilla Cake Bites, these received relatively positive reviews. However, sales don't seem to have taken off quite as Hostess pictured, with Bakery Petites quietly disappearing from the Hostess lineup. Less than two years after they first launched, the brand cast doubt on the future of Bakery Petites after admitting that it had learned a lot from the way it rolled out the line. "We did not talk to consumers to drive awareness of a product that was really good," admitted Andrew P. Callahan, CEO of Hostess Brands, (via Baking Business). "We probably would execute it slightly different." Bakery Petites, we hardly knew ye.

As the name ever so subtly implies, the Choco-Bliss was truly a chocolate lover's dream. Considering the fact that this was the snack's actual tagline, it's safe to say that was the goal. First released in 1986, these cocoa-laden treats combined layers of moist Devil's Food cake with a creamy chocolate filling and a casing of, you guessed it, chocolate.

It's not totally clear when Hostess called it a day for the Choco-Bliss. Fans of the snack (who remain rather passionate about its legacy to this day) claim that it faded away at some point in the early 1990s. The company went on to release a rebranded snack in 1992 known as the Choco-Licious, which followed a similar recipe with the exception of added chocolate shavings. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to make too much of an impact, as it's also nowhere to be found in the Hostess snack lineup today.

The Ding Dong Ice Cream Sandwich had an unusual release path, first debuting as a dessert at Carl's Jr. in 2015. In its original iteration, it involved cutting a Ding Dong in half and, instead of stuffing it with its standard creamy filling, sandwiching it around scoops of the same vanilla ice cream used for the fast food chain's milkshakes.

A few years later, Hostess cut Carl's Jr. out of the equation and started selling pre-made Ding Dong sandwiches in stores. Reviews were mixed, with Hostess fans praising both the quality of the cake and the ice cream. For one thing, the pre-made sandwich was considerably less messy to eat than the version sold at Carl's Jr. One common criticism, however, was that they were smaller than your standard Ding Dong, while others noted that they just didn't taste as good as their non-ice cream counterparts.

It seems like Hostess eventually gave up on the dream of the Ding Dong Ice Cream Sandwich, as you can no longer find them at either grocery stores or Carl's Jr. Despite these failures, we stand by the fact that there has to be a way to make a frosty version on par with a regular Ding Dong. We just need Hostess to dig deep and make it happen.

In the 1980s, Hostess launched an all-new sweet treat: the Pudding Pie. As the name suggests, this retro snack was a pie filled with copious amounts of either chocolate or vanilla pudding and sold for just $0.46 apiece. Judging by the memories of those lucky enough to try the pies, "copious" really was the best word to describe said filling. "I would chew the end off and scoop the pudding out with a spoon to eat," recalled one fan on Reddit.

The Pudding Pie inspired several other flavors during its lifespan, as well as an extremely popular spinoff product known as Turtle Pies. These colorful pies were filled to the brim with a vanilla pudding (or "vanilla puddin' power," as the packaging read). In true '90s style, their green hue was inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The flavor was relatively divisive, with some too horrified by their lurid green exterior to actually stomach biting into the pies. Diehard fans, however, were all too happy to do their duty to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As The News Journal recalled years later, "We were Ninja Turtle fans, and this was our disgusting duty."

Disgusting or not, the buzz around Turtle Pies still lives on three decades later. Although they were only a limited-time promotional offering, you can still find fans mourning their loss online. "I've been in a vanilla puddin' power deficit for decades," claimed one Reddit user. "Regular vanilla puddin' just doesn't have the same oomf."

Between bankruptcy, being bought out by Apollo Global Management, and the The J.M. Smucker Company buying the company for $5.6 billion in 2023, Hostess has undergone several shakeups over the years. Several products have slipped through the cracks along the way, including the fan-favorite Sweet Rolls.

Similar to a cinnamon roll, these consisted of pastry coated in frosting that you could enjoy cold or hot. However, they came in more flavors than just cinnamon, such as cherry and raspberry. Every flavor is a no-go today, much to the disappointment of Hostess fans. Petitions for their return have racked up hundreds of signatures but to no avail. However, that hasn't stopped the most ardent of fans from manifesting their resurrection, noting that there's simply no equivalent in the snack aisle today. As one Reddit user put it, "I could never find any brands that make them the same way. I only find ones that don't have raisins and it's just not the same." Your move, Hostess.

Oat bran was all the rage in the 1980s, with companies rushing to launch new products to ride the wave. Hostess was no exception — even if it did so in 1990, right on the tail-end of the craze.

Its contribution to the craze was Oat Bran Muffins. Relatively straightforward in both name and makeup compared to other Hostess treats, these used oat bran flour to position the muffins as a healthier sweet treat and a tastier alternative to standard oat bran products. They even launched a banana nut variety. Of course, describing these as "healthy" was probably a stretch. As one X, formerly known as Twitter, user said, "On reflection they wouldn't meet modern taste standards, but boy could you pack tons of sugar into 'health' products so long as 'whole wheat' was on the label."

Whether it was due to the slowdown of the oat bran hype, customers realizing that muffins weren't suddenly a health food because they contained the ingredient, or the fact that Hostess insisted on emphasizing their moistness in every advertisement, Oat Bran Muffins didn't make it the new millennium. They were discontinued at some point in the late 1990s.

Leopards are buried so deep in Hostess lore that it's a struggle to track down a picture of the actual product. What we do know is that they launched in 1999 and were extremely similar to a Twinkie, except for the fact that the cake was softer and more orange in color, and it was dotted with chocolate chips, giving it the spotted appearance that assumedly inspired (or was inspired by) its name.

These were the first snack cakes launched by Hostess in three decades and were rolled out relatively slowly as the company waited for a machine that would mix the chocolate chips into the cake batter without crushing them in the process. After all this effort, Hostess seems to have quietly discontinued Leopards at some point in the 2000s. Chocolate chip Twinkies sound like such a glaringly obvious creation that we're shocked Hostess hasn't made another attempt at the idea, especially since it's formulated spinoff Twinkie products as ambitious as Twinkies Iced Lattes. If it does attempt Leopards 2.0 in the future, hopefully, they make more of a lasting impact.

Ever opened a sweet treat and thought that the only thing that could make it better was if it was already half-eaten? Well, someone at Hostess clearly did in 1991. Grizzly Chomps were a unique range of packaged chocolate cakes that came topped with sprinkles and were shaped like someone (a bear, we assume) had helped themselves to a bite. As if that wasn't a big enough USP, Grizzly Chomps were also 97% fat-free and contained zero cholesterol, as was the fashion at the time.

Admittedly, we're not professional marketers, but that sounds like a strangely specific product to pitch to the public. Perhaps that's why Grizzly Chomps only lasted a year and were discontinued in 1992. According to those who managed to try Grizzly Chomps during their brief run, it didn't help that they simply didn't taste good. "These were dense, dry, and flavorless," said one Reddit user. "There's a reason they aren't around anymore."

If there's one thing we've gleaned from trawling through the history of Hostess products, it's that the company has always preferred to come up with playful, creative names over choosing something that actually makes sense. Case in point: Hostess O's. Unique though they may sound, these were essentially just the company's take on powdered donuts filled with jelly.

Originally launched in the 1970s, they were eventually given the much more straightforward (though far less quintessentially Hostess) name of Raspberry Filled Donuts. Other variations were also launched, such as chocolate. Even with their straightforward new moniker, these donuts didn't manage to stick around for the long run. Hostess still offers its Donettes, so it hasn't quit the donut game entirely. It even has a fruity option in the form of the Jumbo Donettes Glazed Strawberry. For now, however, there's nothing that incorporates an indulgent jelly filling quite like Hostess O's.

Deep Fried Twinkies sound more like a late-night experiment than an actual product — and yet, at one point, they were very, very real. Hostess first launched them in the summer of 2016 as part of a yearlong partnership with Walmart to explore innovative new product ideas. Battered, partially fried, and available in both vanilla and chocolate varieties, they made history as the company's first-ever frozen sweet treat.

But how did they actually taste? By all accounts, surprisingly delicious. While Deep Fried Twinkies have been a deliciously greasy state fair staple for what seems like forever, mass-producing them to the same standard seemed like a tall order, but Hostess managed to pull it off. Fans compared them to everything from a cannoli to a Boston cream doughnut, praising the balance between the crispy exterior and sweet, creamy filling.

Despite this overwhelmingly positive reception, Hostess still decided to pull the plug at some point after 2016. Deep Fried Twinkies have long since disappeared from the Walmart frozen foods aisle. For what it's worth, while you can always swing by a state fair for your next fix, air fried Twinkies are also a good substitute.

Candy bars and brownies are both equally delicious, so it stands to good reason that the two combined would be a recipe for next-level indulgence. Hostess had the same idea in 2016 when it launched a line of brownies topped with either M&Ms or Milky Way. Soon enough, it also launched a third option that used a Butterfinger.

Unfortunately, this ended up being a concept that was better in theory than practice. The Butterfinger option was criticized for being stingy on the actual Butterfinger, instead primarily tasting like your standard, slightly dry brownie. Similar criticism was levied at its Milky Way counterpart, which also lacked the caramel flavor you'd expect from a brownie topped with the decadent candy bar.

The M&Ms brownie fared slightly better, with the candy at least adding a satisfying crunch. On the whole, however, it seems like the brownies were met with more of a whimper than a bang, so it's not massively surprising that you can't find these on shelves anymore. Kudos to Hostess for trying something new, but we'll probably stick to making our own candy bar brownies in future.

If you're looking for a healthy snack, odds are Hostess isn't the first brand that comes to mind. Once upon a time, however, the company was determined to establish itself in the diet food market, a corner of the industry that boomed during the 1990s.

Hostess launched its Hostess Lights line in 1990. This consisted of multiple low-fat products, most of which were inspired by existing sweet treats, such as Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes. The idea was that you didn't need to cut out your favorite vices. Instead, you just needed to buy the versions made with less fat and no cholesterol. In the case of Hostess Lights Cupcakes — available in vanilla pudding, strawberry, and chocolate varieties — you could also chow down without consuming any animal fats or tropical oils.

While Hostess Lights may have been light on fat, they definitely weren't lacking in sugar or calories, which was a criticism leveled at a lot of "healthy" snacks at the time. By the middle of the decade, the product line was on its way out, leaving only the standard Hostess sweet treats in their wake.