I think the junk food gods wanted me to have a good experience sampling the new Apple Cider Donut Oreo Cookies, which are a standard Golden Oreo cookie with a tan-colored creme that tastes like apple cider donuts.
I had been actively (obsessively) searching for several days, and finally found them the fourth day in a random local grocery store, when it just happened to be twenty-five degrees cooler than average. So even though it’s August, it totally felt like fall, making a perfect atmosphere to review these new cookies that totally taste like fall.
When I first heard about these, I was intrigued and excited but also skeptical. I hoped for three elements from cookies with “Apple Cider Donut” in the name: apple, donut, and spices (specifically cinnamon). Would they deliver? Let’s find out!
Apple: Check!
Donut: Check!
Spices: Check?
OK, so I don’t really taste the spices, even though the ingredients list says “spices (includes cinnamon).” But the rest of it is so good that I don’t mind!
I don’t know how Nabisco’s food scientists did it, but these cookies really taste like donuts, like there’s been dough fried in oil.
The most prominent flavor, though, is apple. It’s not an authentic flavor, but it’s also not like an artificial candy flavor. It’s somewhere in the middle. And even though I don’t always like apple flavors, I don’t mind it at all here!
The Oreo is known as a dunking cookie. So I dunked these in milk, and the result surprised me: the milk neither enhanced nor detracted from the experience. It brought the apple flavor forward, but not overwhelmingly so.
And since it’s apple cider donut, I dunked these in apple cider as well. I worried the authentic cider would make the creme taste too artificial, but nope, it was still enjoyable. Neither better nor worse.
No matter how I tried them (eating normally, separating the creme, dunking in milk, dunking in cider), I liked them equally. You know those people who are friends with everyone? These Oreo cookies are the junk food equivalent.
For more than a decade, we have had lots of candies and treats flavored like candy corn, caramel apple, and of course, pumpkin spice. I love them all, but I’m so glad to see another iconic fall food get some recognition.
There are other Oreo flavors that I like more, but these just make me happy. Like any good Oreo should do.
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 12.2 oz. package
Purchased at: Dan’s Fresh Market
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 cookies) 150 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (including 12 grams of added sugars), and less than 1 percent protein. (Neither the website nor the label gives an actual protein gram amount.)