Twistees

Twistees is a Maltese snack brand produced by Tastees Manufacturing Limited at a factory in Marsa. The manufacturing operation was originally established by Ray Calleja in 1969, giving the brand a long history within Malta's packaged-food industry. Twistees are made from rice and manufactured through a baking process, distinguishing them from many conventional fried snack products. The original Cheesy Twistees are described as the brand's best-known and most popular offering in Malta. Over time, the range expanded beyond the original cheese flavour. Products associated with the brand include Smokey Barbeque, Lite, Chicken, Sour Cream and Onion, Blue Cheese and Paprika variants. Tastees, a bacon-flavoured variant, is also associated with the product family. Pack sizes include a standard 50-gram packet and a larger 150-gram Sharing packet, indicating a portfolio designed both for individual snacking and group consumption. Twistees occupies a strongly local position in Malta, where it is described as the country's most popular snack food. Its identity is closely linked to familiarity, national provenance and a distinctive rice-based texture. The brand has also developed an international footprint: its products are exported to markets in the Middle East and Germany, making Twistees a Maltese food brand with distribution beyond its home market. The available reference material does not identify a separate corporate website, public listing, current executives or detailed ownership structure beyond the manufacturing relationship with Tastees Manufacturing Limited. The brand marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2019. This anniversary reflects the continuity of the production operation from its 1969 establishment through the later development of a broader flavour and format range. Publicly documented information is limited, so details about current distribution scale, revenue, management, advertising history and ownership cannot be confirmed here.

Twistees traces its production history to 1969, when Ray Calleja established the factory operation in Marsa that later became associated with the brand. The site and its manufacturing activity form the foundation of Twistees' Maltese identity. Rather than being presented as an imported international label, Twistees developed as a domestic snack product and became closely identified with everyday snacking in Malta. The product is based on rice and is made through baking. Its best-known form is the original Cheesy Twistees, which became the signature expression of the brand. The combination of a distinctive twisted form, cheese flavour and baked rice-based formulation gave the product a recognizable position in Malta's snack market. The available reference material characterizes Twistees as the most popular snack food in Malta, although it does not provide market-share figures or sales data. The brand's range expanded over the years through additional savoury flavours. Documented variants include Smokey Barbeque, Lite, Chicken, Sour Cream and Onion, Blue Cheese and Paprika. Tastees, a bacon-flavoured variant, is also part of the associated product family. Packaging evolved to serve different consumption occasions: standard packets are identified as 50 grams, while the Twistees Sharing format is a 150-gram bag intended for group consumption. Production is attributed to Tastees Manufacturing Limited, which operates the factory in Marsa. The business has retained a Malta-based manufacturing identity while developing exports. Twistees products are reported to reach consumers in the Middle East and Germany, extending the brand beyond its domestic market without changing its core association with Malta. In 2019, Twistees celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The anniversary marked five decades since the original 1969 establishment and underscored the brand's longevity in Malta's packaged-snack sector. Available reference material does not establish a separate founding date for the trademark, provide a detailed chronology of corporate ownership, or identify current leadership. It also does not document specific advertising campaigns, controversies, acquisitions, financial results or major regulatory events. Accordingly, those areas remain unrecorded in this dossier rather than being inferred.

• 2019

  Fiftieth anniversary

  [1]Twisteesen.wikipedia.org

  Twistees celebrated fifty years connected with the production operation founded in 1969.

• 1969

  Marsa factory established

  [1]Twisteesen.wikipedia.org

  Ray Calleja originally established the factory operation in Marsa that became associated with Twistees production.

A familiar Maltese snack brand built around baked rice-based products, strong domestic recognition and a range of savoury flavours, with exports to selected international markets.

• Baked rice-based snack

  Original Cheesy Twistees

  The original cheese-flavoured Twistees are the brand's signature product and its most popular documented form in Malta. They are made from rice and produced through a baking process, giving the snack a distinctive position within the savoury packaged-snack category.

• Flavoured baked snacks

  Twistees flavoured range

  The broader range includes Smokey Barbeque, Lite, Chicken, Sour Cream and Onion, Blue Cheese and Paprika variants. These flavours extend the original product concept into a wider selection of savoury rice-based snacks, although individual launch dates are not documented in the available source.

• Sharing-size snack

  Twistees Sharing

  Twistees Sharing is identified as a larger-format packet sold in a 150-gram bag, compared with the standard 50-gram packet. The format is designed for shared consumption while retaining the brand's core baked snack product.

• Bacon-flavoured snack

  Tastees

  Tastees is described as a bacon-flavoured variant associated with the Twistees product family. The available material does not clarify whether it is marketed under a separate brand architecture, its current availability or its launch date.

1. 1Twisteesen.wikipedia.org