Costco has started selling Tim Tams in warehouses across the United States, putting the Australian chocolate biscuit on a mainstream U.S. shelf in six-sleeve boxes of 66 cookies for about $14. Shoppers are not treating it like a casual snack buy. They are buying multiple boxes, and some are reportedly taking home cases.
That rush makes sense once you know what Tim Tams mean to the people who grew up with them. The cookie, made by Arnott's, has been around since 1964 and has long had a cult following far beyond Australia. Now Costco shoppers are discovering why: the biscuit is chocolate-covered, comes stacked in bulk, and arrives with a built-in ritual called the Tim Tam Slam, in which the cookie is bitten at opposite corners and used like a straw for coffee or tea before it softens and gives way.
Isla Fisher showed off the move on The Kelly Clarkson Show, and Sarah Snook did the same on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, while TikTok videos helped turn the snack into something closer to a performance than a pantry item. That attention has fed demand in the United States, where Tim Tams were previously found mainly through specialty retailers and international food stores. One Reddit user said they bought 8-9 cases because Tim Tams were “the BEST store-bought cookie ever,” while another urged shoppers to bring a second suitcase so they could take back as many varieties as possible and get friends hooked.
There is a catch. The Costco boxes do not appear to match the Australian version exactly. One ingredient list on the U.S. package includes artificial color additives such as Red 40, Yellow 6 and Blue 1, while those additives are not listed on the Tim Tams sold in Australia. The cookies are also imported from Sydney, which helps explain how a familiar Australian brand can land in U.S. warehouses while still carrying a slightly different recipe footprint.
For now, the draw is plain enough: a recognizable snack, sold in bulk, at a price that makes shoppers feel they are getting a deal. Costco has not said how long the cookies will stay on shelves, which leaves the run open-ended. If the boxes keep disappearing at the current pace, Tim Tams may remain less of a seasonal novelty than a new regular in the warehouse rotation.
