Remember When Oreo Cookies Came In a Single Variety?

Oreo Cookies just launched a new version of its famous cookie in a partnership with the Coca Cola. A co-worker bought a pack, so I tried it.

If there’s one thing you can be sure of in a newsroom, it’s that when a co-worker brings food, people will eat. A co-worker earlier this week brought in the newest flavor of Oreo Cookies. This particular one is the Oreo Coca-Cola Sandwich Cookies, which they brand as a “limited edition.”

One of the two wafers is a bright red instead of the traditional black. (The company calls these wafers “basecakes.” Whew knew?) The black wafer carries the traditional Oreo design. The red one carries the Coca-Cola logo.

On paper, it sounds like an interesting combination. Two favorite sweets combined with a dollop of vanilla creme in between. The official description says this:

The basecakes are paired with a Coca-Cola inspired taste fans know and love, and popping candies that bring a “fizzing” sensation to every bite.

I don’t understand the “popping candies” part. That makes me think of a popular candy in the 1970s called Pop Rocks. It came in little packs of broken-up flavored candies that contained carbon dioxide bubbles that “popped” as the candy dissolved in your mouth. It sounded like your mouth was sizzling, but of course, that wasn’t the case.

When I smelled the cookies, they have a strong smell of Coca-Cola. I happen to like original Coke, so I was intrigued by the aroma. So having read about the “popping candies” and having smelled the distinctive Coke scene, my brain thought it knew just what to expect.

I immediately noticed two curious things

The first one was there was no sense of a “fizzing” sensation. Not at all. I didn’t detect any sign of “popping candies.” Maybe the effect was meant to be subtle enough that you wouldn’t necessarily notice. (If that’s the case, that’s fine with me. I was never a fan of Pop Rocks, for that matter.)

But the real surprise was the flavor of the cookie — or more specifically, the “basecakes” themselves.

Despite that strong aroma of Coca-Cola, they don’t taste like Coca-Cola. At all. I didn’t get any sense of the soft drink. A couple of co-workers made the same observation, in fact. It doesn’t taste like the soda.

So what does it taste like? Well, as the saying goes, “It’s complicated.” A few of us detected a faint sense of lemon. There were faint senses of some sort of very mild spice that I couldn’t quite identify. There are the familiar chocolate and vanilla flavors mixed in with the rest of the Coca-Cola-inspired flavor profile.

But while I was clear on what I didn’t taste, I still don’t know for sure exactly what my taste buds think they did detect.

I liked it, but it just wasn’t at all what I expected. I recall that same reaction with another Oreo cookies flavors. It may have been the red velvet cake variety, but I’m not sure: I expected a distinct flavor but got a mix of flavors I couldn’t quite narrow down.

I wouldn’t buy my own pack of them, but they weren’t bad. If you get the chance to try one, definitely try it. (And let me know what you taste. Maybe you can solve that mystery!)

What’s wrong with the original?

Nine years ago now, I asked a simple question: How many Oreo cookie flavors do we need? The brand has been around for more than 100 years now and I get that this kind of “limited edition” packaging brings in new attention.

Yes, it’s all about marketing. I’ve done marketing over the years, so I get that.

But I also have to wonder if executives at Oreo really hope that their seemingly endless variety of alternative flavors might extend all the way down the cookie aisle. It wouldn’t surprise me if they envisioned grocery store customers checking signage in grocery store aisle looking for the one labeled “Oreo Cookies only!”

I’ve tried a handful of the alternates over the years. I will admit that my favorite variety isn’t the original: It’s those little lemon Oreo cookies. (Specifically, those thin-wafer lemon Oreos are the ones I’d buy if I wanted to go back on Metformin, which my doctor recently told me I could get off of because I’d sufficiently lowered my A1C.)

If you like lemon-flavored cookies, I’d recommend that Oreo variety over any of the others!

As for the Coca-Cola variety, it was enjoyable and interesting. But for the life of me, I still can’t figure out what’s in there. So if you go to try one, enjoy the very rich Coca-Cola scent…but a non-Coca-Cola taste. And let me know if you figure out what’s in there!

How many varieties of Oreo cookies have you tried so far?