Wednesday, October 11, 2017

A Mystery Not Worth Solving (Mystery Oreos)

Mystery Oreos - Walmart $2.98
Oreo is on to me. They know that the rapid-fire nature of their limited edition flavor releases has left me de-sensitized, and I am guessing I'm not the only one. 
The Oreo hype train isn't what it used to be. Most likely, this decline in interest comes from the food-blogger market being over-saturated by lack-luster Limited Edition Oreo releases as it is. I feel as if there's a new Oreo every single week! Which would be a good thing, if they were mostly delicious, but when you try a string of duds one after the other the novelty wears off real fast. 
Being the brilliant company they are, they knew the way to win us back would be to change things up, slightly, and to offer a cash prize rewarding people for re-joining the hype train. It worked. Going against my better judgement, I bought 2 packs at Walmart. Is this a mystery worth solving? I hope so...
Instead of having a yellow or blue background, this has a white background with a not-so-mysterious pale blue swirl, the promise of $50,000 being paid to the winner of the flavor-guessing-contest, and a big ol' question mark on the creme-side of the cookie illustration. The design isn't bad, but it's not exactly "mysterious." Make the bag all black, or white, with no distinguishing branding or marks. Make the bag so that the printing only shows up in black light. Make it look like a Top Secret spy document! Really, just make it cool and fun. Not an obvious marketing ploy. 
Although it's not as mysterious as I would have liked, I will say it's nice to see Oreo play around with the bag's color. A complaint I had for years was that the limited edition bags didn't stand out enough on grocery store shelves, and this bag will definitely stand out. 
Once opened, I feel completely duped. 
These things smell JUST like the Fruity Crisp Oreos that were released a while back. Has it even been a year since those were on the shelves?  
Even though I felt like Oreo had just played me for a fool, I told myself they might taste different, after all, this time we have a chocolate cookie, and there's no cereal mix-ins, so it could be different. Right? 
I took a bite...and it's only marginally different than the Fruity Crisp Oreos. There seems to be more creme, which is softer and messier (I'm getting flashbacks to the toothpaste-like filling in the Apple Pie & Cookie Butter Oreos.) The filling has a bold, generic, citrus flavoring mimicking Fruity Pebbles, Fruit Loops, and all their generic store-brand variations. I'm pissed. 
From a marketing standpoint it just doesn't make sense. Why would they release a flavor so similar to one they offered a year ago, and add a guess-the-flavor contest with $50,000 dollars on the line? Where's the mystery? The Challenge? Have they finally lost their edge? 
On the record, I think these are Froot Loop flavored, simply because they can't be Fruity Pebbles, due to their previous release and no-name-brand cereal tie in. I could also see them trying to twist this around and say it's a chocolate lemon chiffon cake, because Oreo loves to make fancy names for basic flavor profiles. ('Cause chocolate cookie and lemon creme is something they've done in the past as well!)
If you've had the Fruity Crisp Oreos, and loved them, you'll likely enjoy this too. It's a little more intense, and it lacks the crunch of stale cereal mix-ins, but the flavoring is there. Honestly, unless you're REALLY gunning for that prize money, I think this is a total waste of time, and tummy space. Codename, been there, done that.
Let me share my little theory for a moment: I think Oreo took all the leftover flavor syrup/formula from Fruity Crisp Oreos and tossed it into a batch of Double Stuff'd chocolate Oreos. Then, they slapped together a last minute contest in an effort to waste less product while also recapturing limited edition hype. The kicker is that they plan to pilfer the coolest flavor name consumers come up with while having no true answer in place, just so they can use us to generate ideas all while making this cookie NOT seem like a recycled rip-off. But hey, that's just a theory, a food theory. Thanks for reading.    
Also, I totally submitted Chocolate Lemon Chiffon Cake to the contest because even if this is a rip off, I've got a mortgage to pay. #hypocrite 
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1 comment:

  1. I guess it is cereal milk flavor that they were aiming of. Oreo could do a basic cookie with a swirl of vanilla/chocolate creme and one of each wafer golden/chocolate.

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