Oreo

Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie by the Nabisco Division of Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as 'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces.

Over 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced, making them the best selling biscuit of the 20th century. Its most recent packaging slogan is "Milk's Favorite Cookie", which is a slight change from the original, "America's Favorite Cookie" (though some packages in the U.S. still use the original slogan).

History

Close up of an Oreo cookie

The Oreo biscuit was developed and produced by Nabisco in 1912 at its Chelsea factory in New York City. It was commercialized in order to target the British market, whose biscuits were seen by Nabisco to be too 'ordinary'. Originally, Oreo was mound-shaped and available in two flavors; lemon meringue and cream. In America, they were sold for 25 cents a pound in novelty cans with glass tops, which allowed customers to see the cookies. A newer design for the cookie was introduced in 1916, and as the cream filling was by far the more popular of the two available flavors, Nabisco discontinued production of the lemon meringue filling during the 1920s. The modern-day Oreo was developed in 1952 by William A. Turnier, to include the Nabisco logo.

Oreo is very similar to the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine, which was introduced in 1908, leading to speculation that Nabisco obtained the idea from Sunshine. Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1999.

The product is distributed under the Kraft parent label and has no mention of the US subdivision Nabisco that is used in all countries where it is available for retail. In Canada, it is marketed under the Christie brand name.

Oreo's recipe used to use pork fat (lard) to create the creme filling.

Varieties

In addition to their traditional design of two chocolate wafers separated by a cream filling, Oreo cookies have been produced in many different varieties since they were first introduced, and this list is only a guide to some of the more notable and recent types; not all are available in every country. Notable flavors in the US are:

• "Oreo DQ Blizzard Creme" are a limited edition Oreo released in April-May 2010 celebrating The 25th anniversary of the Dairy Queen Blizzard.
• Double Stuf Golden Oreo cookies are the newest variety of Oreo cookies that were introduced in late August 2009. As their name indicates they are Double Stuf Oreos with Golden Oreo wafers instead of normal chocolate Oreo wafers.
• Oreo Fudgees are rectangular "dipping" shaped Oreos with a chocolate fudge filling (different from the Chocolate Creme Oreo).
• Oreo Fudge Sundae Creme (Limited Edition) are chocolate ring cookies with the traditional white cream filling on Half of Ring cookie, the other half is a Fudge cream, introduced in 2009.
• Oreo Fudge Rings are chocolate ring cookies with the traditional white cream filling drizzled over them.
• Oreo WaferStix are long wafer sticks that have a creamy filling and are covered by chocolate.
• Golden Oreo have vanilla wafers and the traditional white cream filling.
• Golden Chocolate Creme Oreo are 'reverse' (inverse) Oreo cookies in that they comprise vanilla wafers and a chocolate cream filling. The product was originally called Uh-Oh Oreo until its rebranding in 2007.
• Mini Oreo, originally released in 1991, are bite-sized versions of ordinary Oreo cookies. After being discontinued in the late 1990s they were re-released in 2000 along with the redesigned 2001 Dodge Caravan as part of a promotional tie-in with DaimlerChrysler Their 1990s packaging consisted of a "miniaturized" version of the full-size cardboard tray and box used in packaging at the time. Their current packaging consists of an aluminum foil bag.
• Vend Pack Oreo cookies from vending machine 6-packs are smaller diameter Oreo cookies with about 10% less mass than regular Oreo cookies (8.5g vs 9.5g).
• Double Stuf Oreo (introduced in 1975) have about twice the normal amount of white cream filling. Available in peanut butter, original, cool mint or chocolate cream.
• Big Stuf Oreo (introduced in 1984) were several times the size of a normal Oreo. Sold individually, each Big Stuf contained 316 calories and 13 grams of fat. They were discontinued in 1991.
• Double Delight Oreo (introduced in 1987) have chocolate cookies with two fillings, notably peanut butter and chocolate; mint and cream; and coffee and cream flavors.
• Cool Mint Creme Oreo are a Double Stuf Oreo with a slightly minty creme filling.
• Fudge Covered Oreo, White Fudge Oreo and Milk Chocolate Oreo are covered in either a layer of fudge, white fudge or milk chocolate respectively.
• Pure Milk Chocolate Covered Mint Oreo are similar to Milk Chocolate Oreo, but have a mint-flavored filling.
• 100 Calorie Pack Oreo (Oreo Thinsations in Canada) are miniature, thin, hexagonal versions of Oreo that do not contain cream-filling and come individually-portioned into 100 calorie pouches.
• Triple Stuf Oreo (introduced in 2006) were limited to certain cities for a one month promotional trial before being permanently discontinued, they had three times the normal amount of white cream filling.
• Sugar Free Oreo (introduced in 2006) compared to regular Oreo cookies, had only trace amounts of sugar, cost over twice as much, had 10 less calories per serving, contained 0.5 grams more fat, and consisted of 450% more fiber.
• Reduced Fat Oreo (introduced in 2006) compared to regular Oreo cookies, had as much sugar, cost the same, had 10 less calories per serving, contained approximately 35% less fat, and consisted of the same amount of fiber.
• Oreo Cakesters are 2 or 3 chocolate soft snack cakes with vanilla creme in the middle, which were introduced in 2007. These are also available with chocolate creme, or in the "golden" variety (marketed as both Oreo and Nilla Cakesters in the U.S.).

Banana Split Creme Oreos

• Banana Split Creme Oreo were available for a limited time in 2008 whose filling is a light yellow with a banana flavor.

• During springtime, around Halloween, and Christmas, special edition Double Stuf Oreo cookies are produced with colored frosting depicting the current holiday (blue or yellow, orange, and red or green, respectively).
• Oreo Handi-Snacks are plastic holders with rectangular Oreo cookies and a little box of icing.
• Chocolate and Dulce de leche Oreo are sold in Chile and Argentina, which instead of the usual creme, it has chocolate or Dulce de Leche
• Oreo Sippers are Oreo flavored sticks that can be eaten or used as a straw.
• In 2010, Oreo partnered with How To Train Your Dragon and came out with Oreos with red creme
• Fall of 2010 saw Oreo introduce a limited edition Strawberry Milkshake Creme Oreo, which had a strawberry flavored pink filling.
• Oreo Heads or Tails have vanilla creme filling with a chocolate Oreo wafer on one side and a Golden Oreo wafer on the other.

Many of these varieties are combined, producing, for example, "Chocolate Fudge Mint Covered", "Double Stuf Chocolate Creme", and so forth.