To the Moon!

About this time last year, intrepid TestOut account manager Wendy Edwards used some MoonPie snack cakes as a promotional giveaway at a conference. For those of you not in the know, a MoonPie is sort of like a jumbo s'more, only frozen in time instead of fresh from the campfire. The basic blueprint is two graham crackers (cut round), with a marshmallow pattie between them, with the whole thing dipped in chocolate. It probably either sounds delicious or repulsively sweet.

The first MoonPies were created and sold by Kentucky's Chattanooga Bakery in 1917, and MoonPies have since become so popular that the MoonPie brand has more or less replaced "Chattanooga Bakery" as the company's identity. That's right: The same company that invented MoonPies is still making them, in the same city, more than 100 years later. Did you hear that, Twinkie the Kid? Some confectioners actually appreciate that with great deliciousness comes great responsibility.

There are different varieties of MoonPies, which essentially means using a different flavor for the candy coating. Vanilla, banana, strawberry, and salted caramel are the standard alternatives to chocolate, with seasonal coconut and orange variations occasionally available on store shelves and in vending machines. The company has a Twitter account (with 288,000 followers!) and a sense of humor: This year, they're counting down to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Last year, the company release an updated "MoonPie Policy" via its Twitter feed, which revealed that MoonPie is even connected to the IT realm (er, more or less). Item 2 of the MoonPie Policy addresses the subject of "cryptocurrency." MoonPie's official cryptocurrency stance is as follows: "A lot of people ask, 'What can I buy with all of my cryptocurrency?' That is an excellent question." Admit it: That's how most of us secretly feel about cryptocurrency, and probably DevOps, too.

In that same spirit, MoonPie is in no way the official snack cake of TestOut, but it's also in no way NOT the official snack cake of TestOut, if you follow our meaning. Let's just say we're on friendly terms. Also, when you're studying for a certification exam, you sometimes need brain food. A MoonPie snack cake is some tasty eating — provided that you positively, absolutely enjoy sweet things — and what else really matters, when it comes to brain food? Feed that craving!