Sate your sweet tooth with one of the South’s most celebrated treats—the MoonPie. This four-inch round dessert became an instant classic when the Chattanooga Bakery introduced it 100 years ago in an attempt to help laborers stave off hunger during shiftwork. Together with an RC Cola, the pies made up the ten-cent “working man’s lunch” and eventually became an iconic part of our food culture.
- Unlike fluffy Whoopie pies, the MoonPie’s marshmallow center is sandwiched between soft graham-cracker-like cookies, not cake. The dessert is encased in a chocolate coating (other options include vanilla, salted caramel, banana, orange, lemon, and strawberry).
- At the MoonPie General Store (with locations in Chattanooga, Pigeon Forge, Lynchburg, and Charleston), the pies fly off the flavor-divided shelves. Take home souvenirs such as hats, T-shirts, even MoonPie ground coffee. Be sure to order a milkshake garnished with a quarter-Moon wedge.
- In the first draft of the Citizen Kane screenplay, Kane’s last word was “MoonPie,” not “Rosebud.”
- Big Bill Lister solidified the MoonPie–RC Cola pairing with his 1951 country hit, “Gimme an RC Cola and a Moon Pie.”
- The Double Decker MoonPie was invented in the 1960s, when the Single Decker proved too slim to be held between vending machine coils.
- The 1960s-themed Thunderbird Inn in Savannah swaps chocolates for MoonPies during turndown service.
- In the late 1960s, Mardi Gras krewes in Mobile, Alabama, began throwing MoonPies to revelers as a softer alternative to the previously favored parade treat, boxes of Cracker Jack. Today, the city also drops a lighted twelve-foot-tall mechanical MoonPie every New Year’s Eve.
- Last October, Matt “the Megatoad” Stonie won the Bass Pro Shops World MoonPie Eating Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, downing sixty-nine pies in eight minutes.
- On the third Saturday in June, Bell Buckle, Tennessee, hosts the RC–MoonPie Festival. A ten-mile run kicks off the festivities, followed by the crowning of RC King and MoonPie Queen and the ceremonial cutting of the World’s Largest MoonPie (weighing more than fifty pounds and packing a 45,000-calorie punch).
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