Oreos and Fauxreos A sandwich cookie taste test

I was reading about the return of Hydrox cookies not too long ago and I found it interesting that someone was bringing back this long-gone brand. I recall when Hydrox was being sold, but don’t recall having had them maybe more than once. I certainly didn’t grow up on Oreos either, as the cookies in our house were usually made from scratch.

Anyway, I wanted to try some of these Hydrox, to taste for myself the claims the manufacturer was making, and then to see if they really were a superior cookie to the Oreo.

The Hydrox claim is that they are the original creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookie It debuted in 1908 and was manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits. Sunshine was purchased by Keebler in 1996, and in 1999 Keebler replaced Hydrox with a similar but reformulated product named Droxies. Keebler was later acquired by Kelloggs in 2001. Kelloggs removed Droxies from the market in 2003. The trademark name of Hydrox was picked up by the current firm as it had been abandoned.

Are Hydrox really that good? How do Oreos compare? I figured if I was going to do a taste test, I might as well find all the local crème-filled chocolate sandwich cookies. First was to get the Hydrox. It seems I can only get them online at this time, and when I went to get them, they had sold out. I put my name on an alert list, and a month later I got an alert there were some in stock. Went to get them and they were unavailable. Drat! Put my name on the email alert list again and waited another month for the next alert. Success! Now my cookies were on the way. One caveat was that I had to purchase a case of six packages. OK, why not?

I then listed out all the megamarts in the Basin and went about getting real Oreos and all the store-brand equivalents I could find. Lep-Re-Kon netted Western Family Duos. Safeway had Signature Kitchens Tuxedos. Walmart had Great Value Twist & Shout. Winco had Original Chocolate Cookies With Crème Filling. I figured I had a good selection in hand for a taste test when I discovered that I had overlooked a few. People here do travel to the Tri-Cities, so I figured you might come home with something from Fred Meyer or Trader Joe’s. I had a friend mail me a package of Kroger Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies and Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s. One more brand I discovered while shopping locally was Newman’s Own Newman-Os, but I had to get this one online as well.

I noted that the Joe-Joes were the biggest package of the lot at 20 ounces and contained 42 cookies, which equaled to cookies a bit shy of 0.47 ounce apiece. The bulk of the packages were 14.3 ounces, but I did find it odd that some packages had 33 cookies and some had 36. The 36-count packages had cookies that should weigh about 0.4 ounce apiece. These included the Kroger, Oreo, Western Family, Safeway and Winco. The 33-count cookies from Winco and Walmart should be about 0.43 ounce apiece. The remaining packages, the Hydrox and Newmans, weighed 13 ounces and both contained 27 cookies which equaled a 0.48-ounce cookie.

Newman’s and Hydrox don’t contain any high fructose corn syrup. Joe Joe’s claim cane syrup.

Oreos are made in Mexico. Newman’s, Kroger, Joe-Joe’s, Western Family, Safeway, Winco, Walmart and Hydrox are made in the USA. All came in a bit of a flimsy packing tray except for the Oreos, which was more substantial. I’ll chalk that up to the trip they have to make up from Mexico.

Joe-Joe’s claim a serving size of two cookies with 140 calories. Newman’s and Hydrox claim a serving size of two cookies with 130 calories. The rest claim three cookies and between 150 and 160 calories.

Upon observation of the cookies, those brands that claim three cookies per serving are remarkably similar in cookie decoration pattern and flavor profile. The Safeway ones promised a cookie with the Tuxedo name on it, but upon opening it, the cookie had the same pattern as Walmart, Winco and Western Family. I’m suspecting some unknown company has a number of contracts to make these cookies for whomever wants them. One of the panelists noted the similar design and added a note to the score sheet: “From the design it appears that most are made by the same company. If true each store is either having them made to their own spec or my taste buds are faulty. If my taste buds are in fact faulty my whole life has been a lie. I need help!”

I managed to assemble my largest test panel to date, with 30 people from all walks of life. Ages ranged from 18 to 70 plus and pretty close to half were female. I was quite glad there were this many people. While I had at least one package of each cookie, all told I had 20 packages of cookies that I wasn’t going to eat alone. The online cookies came six packages to a case and I managed to get two packages of Joe-Joe’s.

The Safeway ones weren’t that popular overall. Lots of tasters commented that there wasn’t much filling, though it was spread out over most of the cookie. Pulling the halves apart with one cookie being plain was impossible. The flavor overall was “kinda stale,” “weak,” “filling is gritty - no real chocolate flavor,””cardboard,” “good sound flavor.”

Next up were the Walmart ones. “No cocoa flavor,” “cardboard,” “cream reminds me of shortening,” “filling is a good thickness but doesn’t cover cookie,” “filling fell out,” “texture of vanilla wafers.”

The Oreos have some strong support. “Well made,” very chocolaty,” “cookie a little dry by itself – creamy filling compliments each other,” “no flavor in filling – just sweet,” “average.”

Winco cookies were “easy to pull apart,” “not enough sweetness,” “flat cocoa taste,” “good cookie-to-filling ratio,” “smells like butter-flavor Crisco,” “okay but not bold enough.”

Kroger cookies had a distinctive print on the cookie part which said “Dip ’em Love ’em.” One panelist was not swayed by this and said “I don’t like my food telling me what to do!” Others said “clever advertising on the top,” “tasted like chalkboard eraser cleaners,” “smells like toothpaste,” “used pry-bar to separate cookie,” “filling covers cookie – but thin.”

The Western Family cookies were “easy to pull apart,” “cookie tastes like Cocoa Puffs,” “not a good filling-to-cookie ratio,” “filling almost tasted like marshmallow,” “like stale dark chocolate.”

The Joe-Joe’s were all over the map with “malty chocolate flavor,” “tastes like crap,” “smells like Play-doh,” “plenty of filling,” “filling tasted like lard,” “tasted like birdseed.”

The Hydrox were very distinctive from the others: “almost black,” “intense chocolate cookie flavor,” “soft filling tastes horrid,” “filling and cookie not properly proportioned,” “dense and crunchy,” “filling tastes like plastic,” “probably better if dunked in milk.”

Newman’s was better liked by most with “well rounded soft filling that has its own distinct flavor,” “cookie was softer,” “average,” “filling has a strange flavor-not unpleasant,” “has unusual aftertaste.”

From the comments above you would think all the cookies were nasty. They aren’t and I did try to give a good representation of all the brands. I did ask the tasters to rate their favorites.

After the test I got to thinking about why most any store has the fake Oreos, or Fauxreos as I called them. Does the director of stores think their locations are less complete without them? Is it to provide leverage against Oreos becoming too pricey? Is this one of those situations where the large company has lost part of its brand identity, like Jell-o, Kleenex, or Band-Aid?

The cookies could be broken down into three groups, mostly based on flavor profile. Oreos are quite a refined product in production and marketing, but had a similar flavor overall to the Safeway, Kroger, Western Family, Winco, and Walmart. The Joe-Joe’s were kind of in between the Newmans and Hydrox, which provided the third group.

None of the cookies were horrid, and I’ve had lots of horrid cookies over the years while judging at the fair. All are acceptable as a quick snack for the kids. If you start looking at the details, the group with the Oreos is largely forgettable, though the Oreos do rise to the top of that group. If I had to choose between a store brand or Oreos, the Oreos are going home with me.

The Joe-Joe’s surprised me. I liked them, but it was a love-it-or-hate-it with the tasters. Most hated it.

The Newmans and Hydrox are very different from each other, but they are slightly on the higher end of these cookies. Slightly.

After great effort tallying the results, the tasting panel almost universally liked the Nemman’s Own the best, followed closely by the Oreos. From there the gap widened to Safeway, then Winco, Hydrox, Kroger, Western Family, Joe-Joe’s and lastly Walmart.

Why did I do this? I don’t want to be the person who purchases a cookie because I always have, or something I do because Mom did. I wanted to see what these cookies tasted like on their own. My preferences didn’t necessarily match the panel’s, though I really did like the Newman’s, then the Joe-Joe’s, Hydrox, then the Oreos.

I do have access to a good homemade recipe for a chocolate crème-filled sandwich I’d like to try sometime. I wonder how it will rate?