Oreos are the most loved cookie in not just America but the entire world.
The much-loved cream-filled cookies have been around for longer than you might think, and they have experimented with shape, size, and flavor over many years.
Here are 13 delicious facts about Oreos that will leave your mouth watering for their creamy goodness.
Oreos have been around for over 100 years.
Oreos first went on sale on March 6, 1912.
The cookie was marketed by Nabisco and has become one of America’s bestselling brands of cookies.
Although it is owned by Kraft Foods now, it is still the same cookie sandwich that was made in 1912.
To celebrate 100 years of Oreo cookies, the birthday cake flavor was released in 2012 worldwide.
These 100th anniversary Oreos had a special birthday cake flavor cream filling, but with sprinkles. And on one of the cookies was printed “OREO 100.”
There have been over 50 different flavors of Oreos.
The developing great taste of the Oreo cookie doesn’t stop! For many years different flavors have been released across the world.
These include inspiration from your favorite desserts like Key Lime Pie, which was released in July 2015.
Cinnamon bun flavor was released in January 2016, Mississippi Mud Pie and Waffles and Syrup were both limited edition in May 2017.
Some other creative Oreo flavors include cotton candy, peppermint bark, chocolate hazelnut, jelly donut, chocolate strawberry, and toasted coconut.
Oreos come in over 10 different shapes and sizes.
Everyone is familiar with the famous double biscuit and cream center filling, but did you know it has been adapted over the years into many shapes and sizes?
The first adaptation of the Oreo was in 1974 when the Double Stuf Oreo was introduced.
It supposedly had double the amount of filling, and it was available in not only original but peanut butter, cool mint, chocolate cream, and golden.
In 1976 the Football shaped Oreo cookie was released! This was the same loved cookie but just reshaped to look like a football.
1987 was the year of the Big Stuf cookie. These were sold individually as they were multiple sizes bigger than the original Oreo cookie.
The mini Oreo was introduced to the market in 1991 as bite-size versions of the original cookie.
A stack of Oreos could reach the moon!
There have been enough Oreos produced since their release in 1912 that they would reach the moon if you were to stack them!
With an estimated 40 billion cookies sold each year, it would mean that if you were to stack them on top of each other, you would be able to circumnavigate the earth five times.
Oreos are a different cookie in China.
In 1996 Oreos were taken to market to the Chinese, and they didn’t have the same love as America.
They were so unpopular that they almost decided to remove them from the shelves.
Instead, Kraft decided to ask Chinese consumers what they didn’t like about them so they could adapt them to the market.
After receiving feedback, they rebranded, tested new ingredients, and invented the new Oreo to appeal to China.
The Oreo in China is more like a wafer, with four layers of a crispy cookie filled with vanilla or chocolate cream.
In 2006 the Oreo wafer became the bestselling biscuit in China.
As a result, Kraft expanded the production of the adapted cookie into other parts of Asia, Australia, and even Canada.
Oreos become a 21st Century icon.
From representing the LGBT community to featuring in and supporting the film industry, the Oreo has become an embedded part of the culture in the 21st Century.
Oreo collaborated with the release of the movie Rio in April 2011 by creating Oreos with a blue filling.
As part of the collaboration, they ran a prize draw by offering stickers in each pack of Oreos, and upon completion, bigger prizes could be won.
To celebrate pride month, in June 2012, Oreo created a poster of an Oreo that had layers of cream filling as each color of the LGBT rainbow.
Although the cookie wasn’t ever produced, the campaign was to show their support of the community.
Double stuffed is a lie!
After an experiment conducted by a high school math class in upstate New York, they discovered that doubled stuffed doesn’t mean twice as much filling.
The experiment concluded that the cream filling is only 1.86 times bigger, making their claim untrue.
Following this discovery and the attention it grabbed, a spokesperson for Oreo insisted that they had twice as much.
Oreo is also a cereal that keeps coming back.
Have you ever seen Oreo O’s? Well, they were once the cereal version of the famous cookie.
Oreo O’s were first launched in 1997 worldwide, and they have had an up and down journey since.
The cereal was a collaboration between Kraft Foods and Post Cereals, Kraft owned the rights to the branding, and Post Cereals owned the rights to the recipe.
Unfortunately, in 2007, the companies ceased work together, and therefore Oreo O’s were no longer produced as neither company had the full right to continue production.
Due to a loophole, production was still allowed in South Korea, and from there, you could purchase internationally online.
Oreo O’s made a comeback on June 23, 2017, in the US, and since 2020 Oreo O’s even appeared in selected stores in the UK.
Although the Oreo O’s have had an up and down journey to success, they are still popular in select areas around the globe so keep your eyes peeled!
There is a tool to help you dunk.
Have you heard of the Dipr? Well, if you haven’t, then you are truly missing out!
If you love Oreos, then you know the best way to eat them is to dunk them into your glass of milk.
Marketed as the ultimate cookie spoon, the design was made to ensure you don’t lose your cookie in your milk.
The Dipr started life as a Kickstarter campaign in 2011. A couple came up with the concept after being fed up with losing their cookies to their milk.
Although the Dipr is marketed alongside Oreos as a tool to use specifically with them, it has remained a separate enterprise.
Oreos are the world’s bestselling cookie.
Since its launch in 1912, Oreos has sold over 450 billion cookies, making them the bestselling cookie globally.
Not only have the cookies gone global, but Kraft has partnered with other food companies to produced Oreo-related products, which is one of the main reasons for the growth in popularity.
Kraft partnered with McDonald’s to create the Oreo McFlurry and KFC to create the Krushem Oreo drink.
These were marketed worldwide, and due to popularity in Britain, they have become permanent menu items.
You can get savory flavored Oreos!
It might sound weird as you might be used to the sweet taste of Oreos, but in some countries, they are a hit.
In August 2018, China released two savory flavored Oreo fillings, hot chicken wing, and wasabi.
After releasing these two “sensational” flavors, a campaign was run in the USA with the hashtag #MyOreoCreation, which allowed the public to submit ideas for new flavored fillings.
They even produced some of the flavors, such as Cherry Cola and Kettle Corn, and sent a sample pack to the person who entered in the suggestion.
Mystery flavored Oreos.
In 2019, between September and November, Oreo ran a competition where they released a special edition of Oreos where it had a mystery filling.
It was unknown to the public what lay between the two chocolate biscuits, and part of the competition was to guess the flavor to win $50,000.
On December 2, 2019, the winner was announced alongside the mystery flavor, which was churros!
There is a National Oreo Cookie Day.
Get your cookies and milk ready to celebrate as March 6th is National Oreo Day.
It is celebrated across the USA by eating lots of Oreos and playing games with friends and family-centered around eating Oreos.
It has become a trend to share how you eat them, whether you twist then dunk, dip in whole or take apart and eat the cream filling.
Everyone has their own way, so everyone is encouraged to upload photos of their Oreos in celebration alongside the designated hashtag #NationalOreoCookieDay.
Now that you know how many different types of Oreos there are, why not get some friends together on National Oreo Day and have a taste test with friends and family and see who can guess the flavors!
