The Short History of Oreo Cookies

Oreo, the ultimate dunkin' cookies for many biscuit lovers out there. Some are even saying that's the only way to eat this black and white delicious treat, and after all their slogan is „Milk's Favorite Cookie“. But how much do you know about Oreo beyond the obvious?

Oreos, a sandwich cookie consisting of two chocolate wafers with a sweet creme filling in between, bring joy all around the world for over 100 years. Here's a fun fact: Oreo has become the best-selling cookie of the 20th century since its introduction in 1912 (as Oreo Biscuit) with more than 491 billion Oreo cookies sold to date worldwide. The United States, China, Venezuela, Canada, and Indonesia are the top five countries in terms of sales.

The Oreo Biscuit was renamed to Oreo Sandwich in 1921, then to Oreo Creme' Sandwich in 1948 and finally it became Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie in 1974. Its design has mainly stayed the same with only few changes over the years. The first design was simple – with the name Oreo and a wreath at the edge. In 1924, the company augmented the original design to go with a 1921 name tweak. The 1924 design added a ring of laurels and two turtledoves. Twenty years later, in 1952, is when today’s elaborate, design first appeared.

Over the years, Nabisco has developed several other Oreo products. Among them, Nabisco introduced a lemon-filled Oreo in the 1920s which was later discontinued. Double Stuf, featuring twice as much cream filling as the original Oreo appeared in 1975. Golden Oreos are vanilla cookies with the same vanilla frosting as the original Oreos. Golden Chocolate Creme Oreos, known as the „Uh-Oh Oreo“ until 2007, are the reverse of the original cookie — vanilla cookies with chocolate cream frosting.

In the United Kingdom, following stocking of Oreo (as Oreo biscuits) in the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Kraft decided to fully launch the Oreo across the UK, repackaged in the more familiar British tube design. In January 2006, healthier (and more expensive) non-hydrogenated vegetable oil was put into Oreos instead of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which in turn previously replaced lard.

Beginning in the early 2010s, Oreo began releasing limited edition runs of cookies with more exotic flavours. These typically appear in stores only once, but Birthday Cake Oreos, celebrating 100th anniversary, originally introduced in 2012, have since become permanently available). Other varieties over the years have included “triple double” Oreos, green tea Oreos, blueberry ice cream Oreos, dulce de leche Oreos, and organic Oreos.

Nabisco's Oreo marketing efforts have been noticed over the years with various successful ads, including their tweet „You can still dunk in the dark“ using Superbowl's 39-minutes power blackout as inspiration. In 2009, The Guinness Book of World Records' largest taste test takes place in Madrid, Spain. 1,471 participants compare the taste of an Oreo to an imitation cookie. Each taster is given a glass of milk for dunking.

A bit of fun trivia for Oreo aficionados, New York's 15th Street at Ninth Avenue is called Oreo Way because that is the birthplace of this delicious treat. How do you like your Oreo cookies?

Photo source.

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