About the Oreo Cookie
The Oreo cookie could be considered an American icon. Since the early 1900s, children and adults alike have loved to twist the chocolate tops off of Oreos and attack the white, creamy centers sandwiched inside, or dunk the complete cookies into a glass of milk or a cup of coffee. Does this Spark an idea?
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First Introduced
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The National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo) first introduced the Oreo Biscuit in 1912. They sold for 30 cents a pound, and came in a round tin with a glass lid. They immediately became a huge success.
Appearance
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An Oreo isn't the only cookie with two thin chocolate cookie wafers and a vanilla cream center, but it is the only cookie with "Oreo" printed on each wafer, surrounded by a circle of four-leaf clovers. The word "Oreo" and the clovers are set within a somewhat broken, recessed circle.
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Flavors
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Along with the original, traditional Oreos, Nabisco (now owned by Kraft Foods) has introduced a long line of various flavored Oreos. There are mini, double-creme-stuffed, chocolate-centered, chocolate-fudge-covered, peanut butter and vanilla-cookied Oreos, to name a few. Seasonal Oreos are produced to accompany holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
Competition
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Oreo's chief competitor is Sunshine Bakeries' Hydrox cookies, which actually came onto the market two years before the Oreo cookie made its debut. However, Oreo has consistently out-sold Hydrox cookies over the years.
Oreo Recipes
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The official Oreo website contains a host of creative recipes using Oreo cookies. Perhaps the most famous use of Oreos is crumbled and mixed with ice cream in the form of a "blizzard." Still, an Oreo eaten plain or dunked in a glass of milk is by far the simplest way to enjoy this time-honored cookie.
The Oreo Name
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No one is exactly sure how the Oreo cookie got its name. It is thought that a company executive at the time, A.W. Green, who enjoyed classical names, named the cookie after the Greek word for a hill, or "oreo," since the first test-cookies had a mounded or hill-like shape.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Illustration by Mary Osborne
