Probably! “Oreo may be bigger than ever, but America embraces an underdog,” Liebig says. An overly crisp chocolate wafer was too difficult to bite through—either squishing out the creamy middle or breaking into awkward pieces. (Leaf Brands). I started stock-piling the limited edition anniversary packs of Hyrdrox around Christmas. From a purely caloric perspective, you'll be better off with a standard Oreo. I said YUM! The original crème-filled, chocolate sandwich cookie is back. Back to Nature Classic Creme Cookies, $21 for six (12-ounce) boxes at Amazon, Newman-O's Original Crème-Filled Chocolate Cookies, $26 for six (8-ounce) packages at Amazon, a grid with the sandwiches clearly labeled, 365 Everyday Value Chocolate Sandwich Cremes, Annie's Organic Grabbits Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Ad Choices, Taste Test: The Best Chocolate Sandwich Cookie You Can Buy at the Store. It's good in here. First up, more on the rankings! Fun stories about food, relationships, the great outdoors and more. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Hydrox cookies, then and now. Fast forward to 2015, Leaf Brands—a company Liebeg calls a ”retro-peneur” for bringing back vintage classics like the Astro-Pop and Bonkers—acquired the Hydrox trademark and decided to restore the brand to its former glory—but in an entirely modern way.
All rights reserved. We were looking for a cream that was rich and flavorful, but not overly sugary, gritty, or chalky. And instead of going direct to supermarkets first, where shelf placement can cost as much as six-figures, Leaf went straight to America’s biggest online retailer, Amazon.com. Hydrox cookies first debuted in 1908—a full four years before Oreos hit the market. The lesson being: never underestimate the value of something new (even though it’s actually quite old). Test 1 – cookies dunked into milk for about 10 seconds each. Go for Oreos. But CollectingCandy.com founder Jason Liebig, a vintage candy expert who has consulted for shows like “Mad Men”--and gets paid to make sure things seem authentic-- thinks Oreo's dominance didn't just come from the taste. So, with the cookies being less firm and the creme being creamier, it makes sense that, upon eating, the Oreo would become a more homogeneous mix in the mouth and therefore taste of “cookies & cream”. We tasted only the classic style of chocolate sandwich cookies—with chocolate wafer and white filling (no double-stuffed, no chocolate or mint cremes, no minis, no gluten-free versions, etc.). To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories. “I don’t think a Hydrox comeback would have worked 10 years ago but thanks to the Internet, and classic cookie lovers, I think these cookies will do really well.”. Sheehan credits these “brand ambassadors” for helping to revive the brand. Oreo vs. Hydrox vs. Newman O’s The other week Scott and I had an Oreo/Hydrox/Newman O’s taste off for no reason at all other than to celebrate having Hydrox around again, at least for a while. In the creme-filling test, the Hydrox’s filling tasted more of sugar while the Oreo tasted more of fat. It also had a slightly bitterer flavor…as if it were perhaps baked a bit longer…not quite burned, but slightly more well-done. This may be the reason the Oreo has a faster rate of “Milk Melt”, a term used to describe the time it takes for a cookie to lose its structural integrity due to exposure to a liquid, most often milk (the Milano Cookie having perhaps the fasted rate of Milk Melt).
Some even had cookie packages nearly a decade old stashed away in freezers. I said there must be some cookies in the atmosphere. After all, they're the world's best-selling cookie. An informal Oreo-Hydrox blind taste test by 20 Journal reporters resulted in 14 favoring Oreo, citing its sweeter taste. And all cookies had to be available nationally, either in stores or online. But what if you're blindfolded?! “Ultimately they probably had better marketing and a really aggressive sales strategy back in the day,” Liebig says. I may not have been the only one, as years ago the first cookie, the Hydrox, was no longer available for purchase. Legal Statement. For the record, when I conducted a milk-dunk test of the top five cookies, Newman-O's totally outshone their competitors—but I'm told that my preference for a chocolate sandwich cookie that becomes totally soft and soggy when submerged in milk (for a minimum of 10 seconds, and sometimes upwards of 30) isn't the norm (a revelation I'm still reeling from, TBH). The cream has the best texture by far of any of the cookies we tasted: soft and yielding, like good icing—as opposed to the stiff chalkiness or grittiness found in some other brands—even if it finishes a bit too oily to be perfect.
Chew On This! Over the years Oreo gained so much ground over the original that Hydrox was often considered an off-brand or generic version. Test 4 – cookies split/turned and the creme fillings were tasted alone. There are few things better than that combo of dark, bittersweet, chocolate cookie and vanilla(-ish) cream, sandwiched together in an addictive package. Instead, we wanted to bring back that same Hydrox experience that so many had lived through, from 1908 ‘til the 1990’s.”. The results: while Oreo did make it into the winner's circle, there was a tie for the top-tasting cookie. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Other than a brief reappearance in 2008 for the cookie's 100th anniversary, Hydrox has been absent from store shelves. In the beginning, however, there was the Oreo and the Hydrox.
And after years of dormancy, Hydrox are back with a formula the company says is a dead ringer for the original taste cookie lovers first fell for. And the name proved such a huge turnoff that Hydrox only had 4.2 percent of the sales of Oreo in 1998—just $16 million compared to Oreo’s $374 million takeaway. ), BUY IT: Back to Nature Classic Creme Cookies, $21 for six (12-ounce) boxes at Amazon. But, if you choose to bite into the whole cookie instead of dissembling it into parts, you'll be rewarded with a wafer that you can bite through without squishing the cream out of the sides and that doesn't break or shatter into a spiderweb of cookie shards.
The Oreo, that stalwart of the snack aisle and constant slumber-party companion, is widely beloved for a reason. “But when you eat an Oreo there’s a thing that just makes you want to grab another. But if you visit your local cookie vendor, you’ll discover Famous Amos makes a chocolate sandwich cookie…Newman’s Own has their Newman O’s…and there are always the more generic, off-branded versions as well. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Hydrox, the defunct chocolate-sandwich wafer, is returning for one more rematch with its nemesis, the Oreo. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes.