Tag: Oreo

“Gin-ger-bread gin-ger-bread gin-ger-bread Or-eee-ooo. Oh what fun it is to snack-on-you even though-there-is-no snow. Hey!”

That’s right, baby! It’s only October, and there’s ZERO snow in sight, but my heart is-a-singin’ cause Gingerbread Oreo are back! Sort of. Originally released way back in 2012 and making appearances for several years after, Gingerbread Oreo have returned to usher in the 2020 holiday season in a new festive form.

The original Gingerbread Oreo, last seen in 2015, was a standard Golden Oreo cookie filled with a gingerbread-flavored creme. The newest iteration is a gingerbread-flavored cookie filled with classic Oreo creme and crunchy sugar crystals. The wafers are garnished with five wintery designs to warm our holiday hearts.

I’m an autumn boy through and through, and spice is the name of my game. The last three years, Pumpkin Spice Oreo have vanished from shelves, and while Maple is a nice addition, it doesn’t quite hit with the same punch as those lovely warming spices. Needless to say, I love the new Gingerbread Oreo.

Opening the package is like a cozy holiday nostril massage full of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, rounded out with a cool vanilla sweetness. Gingerbread is at its best when its aggressive spice is complimented by a sweet, soothing and creamy, frosting. The cookie itself isn’t over the top spicy, but it’s more pronounced in its assertiveness than Cinnamon Bun and a whole helluva lot more impressive than the lackluster Cookie Butter.

The balance between the cookie and the creme is great. While I wouldn’t have been mad at a cream cheese flavored filling, the original Oreo “white stuf” does a convincing job at bringing the sugary blast my tinsel-y tastebuds want.

The crunchy sugar crystals add a nice little textural intrigue. Their red color, paired with the undeniably cute designs on the outside, really brings the jingle bell vibes full circle. The Oreo actually look like a perfect cookie representation of an inverted slice of gingerbread loaf, and I find the visual-meets-taste appeal to be hard to stop eating. I just want to keep going. Run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!

Yes, it’s still spooky season, and I actually dug into these right before watching “The Thing” for the sixth time. But it’s my first taste of Christmas this year, and quite frankly, Nabisco won me over. Whether these are better than the sweeter and more vanilla-forward Gingerbread Oreo of the past will be totally subjective. But for this spicy boy they’re right in the same tier of junk food greatness.

Purchased Price: $4.99
Size: 10.7 oz
Purchased at: Walgreens
Rating: 9 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, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of total sugars, and less than 1 gram of protein.

What are Oreo Mooncakes?

Oreo cookies are The Borg. An alien life form that roams the galaxy, conquering and assimilating civilizations (for the non-Trekkies). Sure, they’re not doing it by force – more like delicious seduction – but still, there’s no culture or food item that cannot or will not be Ore-ized. Churros, candy canes, matcha, and now – mooncakes. Resistance is futile.

Mooncakes are iconic Asian delicacies – baked pastry wrapped around a paste filling. They’re served during the Mid-Autumn Festival (October 1st this year) to celebrate the autumn full moon. While the cakes and the festival originated in China, they’re both celebrated and eaten across the continent. China, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and the Philippines roll out the beloved mooncakes each year – often with variations of favorite fillings and styles. Japan and Korea celebrate related fall lunar festivals, but mooncakes are not a large part of their menus.

Mondelez (Oreo’s parent company) have become a player in the mooncake game in the past few years through their Vietnamese division, and you know Oreo just had to make an appearance! They’ve been exporting Oreo Mooncakes to China, Singapore, and Thailand since 2017 in flavors like brownie, strawberry jam, cocoa with milk, cappuccino, and pineapple custard.

I failed to source these last year, so I was thrilled to see them for sale online in America recently. Apparently importing mooncakes to the U.S. is a tricky business. Google this if you have time to go down a rabbit hole of egg yolks and customs regulations. I bought a 2-cake set with one Oreo brownie-flavored and one strawberry jam-flavored mooncake. While manufactured in Vietnam, it came via Thailand, so these mooncakes have more passport stamps than most people I know!

How are they?

It had been a while since I had regular mooncakes, so I decided to buy some from a Chinatown bakery to compare. They had flaky pastry shells, and heavy but delicious fillings – red bean, lotus and pineapple.

After opening the gorgeous Oreo gift box, I cut into the brownie mooncake first. The pastry shell was considerably doughier than a traditional mooncake, although definitely had that Oreo black cocoa flavor. It was the most Oreo-y element. The tan-colored filling might have been lotus paste, but it was hard to tell because the chocolate brownie center totally overwhelmed it. It was delicious, but more brownie than Oreo.

Next up, the strawberry jam mooncake. Its pastry was even softer, without much flakiness. The first few bites were bland strawberry, until I got to a small ribbon of the jam center. I wished there was more jam – it upped the flavor quite a bit, and turned it into a pretty decent little cake.

The fillings in both cakes were less dense than the traditional – very solid – mooncakes. The Oreo fillings felt more like half-baked cookie dough. They’re still enough to fill your belly quickly, though.

Overall, a unique experience, but they somehow lost a lot of the charm of both Oreo cookies and mooncakes in the combination.

Anything else you need to know?

This box was absolutely stunning and high-quality. There’s a magnetic closure on top, and it opens like wings. The side panels are laser cut with floral designs.

Conclusion:

These are interesting, but without the classic Chinese flavors, there’s some context lost here – like those reproductions of historic sculptures covered in neon paint. They are shiny magenta Venus de Milos.

But, if you love traditional mooncakes, these are worth a try for the sheer audacity of them. If you love Oreo cookies, they’re worth trying for the completely different format. If you’re on the fence, give ‘em a try, but try a regular mooncake first for a frame of reference.

Purchased Price: $35.00 + shipping
Size: 2-cake gift box
Purchased at: Desert Drinks and Exotics
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Oreo Brownie)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Strawberry Jam)
Nutrition Facts:– (1 cake) Oreo Brownie Mooncake – 320 kcalories, 11 grams of fat, 95 milligrams of sodium, 49 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein. Strawberry Jam Mooncake – 280 kcalories, 7 grams of fat, 65 milligrams of sodium, 51 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

The latest release in the lengthy limited edition category for Oreo takes us on a trip to Italy as Nabisco attempts to put a pocket-sized spin on a classic romantic dessert — Tiramisu. The perfect ending to a garlic and tomato-filled meal can now be put into your lunchpail, backpack, and night table for easy access bedside snacking so the romance can commence all night long.

Limited Edition Tiramisu Oreo is one of the more bold flavor choices for a limited edition variety, and I don’t mean in the weird way that Cotton Candy and Swedish Fish are, but this is a complex flavor to replicate.

As a quick refresher, tiramisu is a layered cake made up of sweet whipped mascarpone cheese, espresso-soaked ladyfingers, a hint of liqueur, and a dusting of cocoa powder.

The layered aspect of the dessert is represented in the Oreo as two different colored cremes – one lighter brown with a sweet coffee flavor, and a white one, which reminds me of a cross between Oreo’s birthday cake and cream cheese frosting flavored cremes.

The latter is sweet but has a hint of funkiness that I associate with a cheese-based frosting, and I like that added kick. The coffee flavor here is subtle but present. I’m not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me, but I swear I can taste and smell a hint of the alcohol that usually lingers in the ladyfingers.

These cookies remind me of the very well executed Latte Fudge Dipped Oreo Thins Bites that came out a few weeks back. Those tasted a bit more like coffee with a chocolate frosting finish. But those are similar enough in flavor with these that I almost feel as though I would have been more impressed with Tiramisu Oreo if I hadn’t had the dipped ones first. But I can’t be mad at two awesome treats in one month.

Tiramisu Oreo is an excellent cookie – complex and true to its namesake, with a more enjoyable overall flavor than the only other full-sized coffee Oreo – 2017’s Dunkin Donuts Mocha. Its only weakness is it’s a bit too chocolate heavy to be a truly faithful representation of the Italian dessert. Luckily, that’s easily remedied by removing the top chocolate wafer.

Purchased Price: $3.49
Size: 12.2 oz.
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 cookies) 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2.5 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 13 grams of total sugars, and less than 1 gram of protein.

Oreo is commemorating the release of the new film Trolls World Tour with a limited edition version of its cookies. Trolls World Tour Oreo comes in two varieties: a golden Oreo filled with pink-colored crème and glitter, and a traditional chocolate Oreo filled with green crème, glitter, and popping candy.

The first thing that caught my eye was the size of the packages. They’re only 10.7 ounces, whereas a traditional package of Oreo comes in at 14.3 ounces. Edible glitter must be expensive.

I tried the Golden Oreo first and was immediately taken aback by the color of the crème. It was much brighter than I was expecting. I know absolutely nothing about the “Trolls” franchise, but apparently music is a critical component of its universe. Each Oreo had a musical themed design on one side. I followed my heart and tried a lute cookie first.

I twisted off the wafer and looked at the fluorescent pink crème, expecting actual glitter. Instead, it looked like the crème was filled with blue pepper. I envisioned my nephews being disappointed that the crème didn’t sparkle. The cookie itself tasted just like a traditional Golden Oreo. Texturally, the crème was a little softer than usual. If I squeezed the cookie together, the crème oozed out. It was certainly odd, but not quite off-putting.

They’re essentially a sub-par Golden Oreo that costs more.

The chocolate Oreo with green crème was immediately more appealing to the eye. The pastel green crème didn’t look nearly as unnatural as the pink. It was dotted with little green flecks that were either the edible glitter or the popping candy. These also have musical designs on one side, sticking with the theme.

They tasted like a traditional Oreo, only with the same softer crème that the pink version had. After a few seconds in my mouth, the popping started to kick in. It was fun! I adored Pop Rocks when I was a child, so this was a welcome sensation.

Oreo has released varieties with popping candy before, but I’ve never tried them. These almost feel worth the premium price, even if it is a simple gimmick.

If you enjoy popping candy and Oreo cookies, give the green variety a shot. The pink ones aren’t worth your money. However, if you have little ones, you may not get much say in the matter.

Purchased Price: $2.98
Size: 10.7 oz. package
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Pink), 7 out of 10 (Green)
Nutrition Facts: (2 cookies) Pink – 150 Calories, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of protein. Green – 140 Calories, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and less than 1 gram of protein.