It was tenth grade.
Math.
Permutations and combinations, a late afternoon with a blood sugar dip, and time ticking down to come up with an semi-believable excuse for another day without my homework.
Sometime during the teacher’s explanation of how Jimmy has five pairs of pants and twelve pairs of shirts and blah blah blah blah blah, I think, in an act of defined desperation, I may have blurted out, “Who the fudgemuffin cares?”
Oreo cookies, for lack of a better analogy, have become like that. It’s not that the endless amount of flavors and limited time only combinations aren’t great, but at some point, yea, they aren’t great. It’s all just too much, and not only do I have a waistline to prove it, but I find myself wondering if, like Jimmy donning a classic polo and khakis every day, the standard chocolate wafer and creme filling aren’t the end all be all of Oreo experiences.
The new Oreo Thins go back to the basics with that premise, with the caveat that each cookie is about 18 calories less than your standard Oreo.
Like anything that’s lower calorie, there’s a catch (more on this later). Fortunately the cookies’ texture and flavor aren’t part of that catch, because you’re actually getting a cookie that tastes nearly identical to the standard Oreo.
The cookies are crisp and not crumbly, sweet but not cloying, and taste like a good old fashioned Oreo. Do you love this taste? The answer, if you’re a human being, is probably yes. Interestingly enough, the difference in the amount of creme is negligible.
When I weighed the creme from both the Oreos and the Thins, there was only about a half a gram difference. And even though the marketing buzz has played up the idea that the cookies should be eaten “as is,” I found the center to hold its form much better than the standard Oreo, which peeled off worse than a temporary Pac-Man tattoo on a hot day.
Oh yes, and that “sophisticated” routine of eating the cookies as-is? Don’t let it stop you from enjoying the Thins with a nice, cold glass of whole milk. You’re not missing out on the proverbial pleasures of the dunking experience, although you may want to use a smaller glass.
Now, the catch. Each package is just 10.1 ounces, less than both original Oreos (14.3 ounces) and the standard (not LTO) Double Stuff varieties, which clock in at 15.4 ounces. So basically, you’re getting a lot less bang for your buck. You’re also getting a less substantial cookie in terms of the chocolate flavor. There’s a definite muffin top effect going on with the thin ones. They can replicate the taste and texture pretty well, but there’s a harder to describe element of “heft” that gives you a more pronounced chocolate taste with the thicker wafers from the original Oreos.
The differences between Oreo Thins and the original Oreos are about as pronounced as the differences between college football in the ACC and in the Pac-12. Are there differences? Well, I mean yeah. North Carolina is never going to run as up-tempo as Oregon. But really, it’s college football at the end of the day. And above all, Oreo Thins are Oreo cookies at the end of the day, and a welcomed reminder that sometime the best combination takes a page from the original.
(Nutrition Facts – 4 Thins – 140 calories, 50 calories from fat, 5 grams of fat, 2.0 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of dietary fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)
Item: Nabisco Oreo Thins Cookies
Purchased Price: $3.49
Size: 10.1 oz.
Purchased at: Giant
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Classic Oreo taste and texture with 18 less calories per cookie. Actual amount of creme filling is close to the standard Oreo. Wafers twist off easily.
Cons: Creme ratio can’t come close to Double Stuff. Wafer lacks substantial chocolate heft of original Oreo. Horrible price per ounce compared with other Oreo varieties.