Jos. Louis is a plastic-wrapped confection consisting of two red velvet cake

Red velvet cake

A red velvet cake is a cake with a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is usually prepared as a layer cake with either a vanilla, or chocolate flavor, topped with a creamy white icing or a cookie dough filling...

 rounds with a cream filling within a milk chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 shell. It resembles a chocolate version of the May West

May West

A May West is a round dessert cake with cream filling. It was created in Canada, and continues to be particularly popular in the Province of Quebec. It is currently made by Vachon Inc., a division of Saputo Inc....

 dessert.

The spelling being French in origin, the name of the cake is pronounced similarly to Joe Louie. The pastry's name, then, is pronounced similarly to that of the famous boxer Joe Louis

Joe Louis

Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...

, and so it is easy for one to surmise that it was named after him, as a tribute and/or for the name's marketing value.

Variations

The Jos. Louis is also available in a 30-gram half-moon shape, called the 1/2 Jos. Louis. The Jos. Louis is also made in a bar-shaped version called the Jos. Louis choco-vanilla bar. The bar contains the normal cream filling found in the Jos. Louis and also has a chocolate filling and weighs 53 grams. The "Lune Moon" cake produced by Vachon Inc.

Vachon Inc.

Vachon, Inc. is a Canadian maker of popular snack pastries, owned by Saputo, Inc.Vachon was founded by Joseph-Arcade and Rose-Anna Vachon Giroux in 1923 when the couple left his home village of Saint-Patrice-de-Beaurivage to develop a bakery in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce in Quebec.Brands include:*May...

 is essentially a Jos. Louis, but has a smaller portion size of 51 grams. The Lune Moon is available in either chocolate or vanilla.

A Super Jos. Louis exists in individual format only, with an increase in portion size from 68 to 100 grams. It has two layers of cream filling.

In 2006, Entenmann's

Entenmann's

Entenmann's is a company that manufactures and delivers sweet baked goods. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, ultimates, cookies, loaf breads, pies, club packs, singles, cereal bars, little bites, Enten-mini’s products, as well as Danish, crumb cakes, and buns...

began distributing a duplicate of the Half Moon in the US, with "Enten-Mini's Chocolate Half Rounds".

The Jos. Louis is now available in 100-calorie individual packages, with 16 individual packages in a box.