Hydrox Cookies Back for Limited Time!

[AmateisGal]

Before there were Oreos, there were Hydrox Cookies. They were first made in 1908, so this year they are celebrating their 100th anniversary. Kellogs is bringing them back for a limited time and even started a website where you can go and share your memories of the delicious little cookies.

www.hydroxcookies.com

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Sweet - literally. Something we all can "sink our teeth into." lol

Let's buy 'em and see if they will keep making them. As I recall, they have a slightly different taste than the Oreo.

 

[KittyT]

As I recall, they have a slightly different taste than the Oreo.

Yes, they do.

And Oreos are FAR superior.

 

[Miss 1929]

The difference used to be

that Oreos were made with lard, and Hydrox with vegetable shortening.

So Hydrox cookies could be eaten along with either dairy or meat meals, if you were keeping kosher, or good for vegetarians...

I think both are made with hydrogenated vegetable oil now (bad).

 

[skyvue]

Oreos are FAR superior.

Hardly. Oreos are mere knock-offs -- cloyingly sweet, inferior knock-offs. Hydrox are the original -- and still the best -- sandwich cookies.

er, in my opinion, that is.

 

[KittyT]

Hardly. Oreos are mere knock-offs -- cloyingly sweet, inferior knock-offs. Hydrox are the original -- and still the best -- sandwich cookies.

er, in my opinion, that is.

Meh. I don't like the texture of Hydrox cookies or the cream. Mostly the cookies.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

that Oreos were made with lard, and Hydrox with vegetable shortening. I think both are made with hydrogenated vegetable oil now (bad).

Good God, that makes both of them sound disgusting.

 

[AmateisGal]

I have to admit, I like Oreos better. There's nothing like a cold glass of milk and a stack of Oreos for a good (albeit high-calorie and all that) snack.

 

[Twitch]

What? I didn't know Hydrox were gone! When the hell did this happen?

 

[shepkatt]

Forget the Hydrox and Oreos... Bring back Sunshine Lemon Coolers!

 

[GWD]

If I recall the Hydrox cookie was a bit denser and therefore more crunchy than the Oreo. While the Oreo was a better dunker cookie the Hydrox had a much more "tactile" feel in the mouth. I myself enjoy texture of food almost as much as taste.

 

[Miss Crisplock]

WHAT? Hydrox cookies andLemon coolers were gone? :eusa_doh:

Some times I think I don't know ______ from Shineola. Now don't tell me they quit making that!

 

[Miss 1929]

WHAT? Hydrox cookies andLemon coolers were gone? :eusa_doh:

Some times I think I don't know ______ from Shineola. Now don't tell me they quit making that!

They definitely still make the first of those...

 

[KittyT]

WHAT? Hydrox cookies andLemon coolers were gone? :eusa_doh:

Some times I think I don't know ______ from Shineola. Now don't tell me they quit making that!

They couldn't have been THAT good if you never noticed they were gone in the first place lol

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Why does 'for a limited time' make me think they found a warehouse full of them somewhere from god knows when and need to clear them out?

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Yes, they do.

And Oreos are FAR superior.

Totally. Hydrox = yuck. Oreo = cookie.

 

[dhermann1]

OT. Speaking of disgusting but delicious stuff, has anyone noticed that they're making KitKats in a new shape? No more with the old size wafer cookies, they're twice as thick, standard candy bar size, and as much fun to chomp into as plywood. Ugh.

 

[Miss Crisplock]

They couldn't have been THAT good if you never noticed they were gone in the first place lol

Those diets. They've got a lot to answer for.

 

[staggerwing]

But will they really be made from the originial recepie, or will they be full of high fructose corn syrup and other crud. I hope it's the former, but somehow, I doubt it. I didn't know they were gone either, but I pretty much avoid store-bought cookies and candy these days.

 

[Natty Bumpo]

From the WSJ...

The Hydrox Cookie
Is Dead, and Fans
Won't Get Over It
Internet Campaigners Try
Without Success to Get
Kellogg to Reconsider
By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
January 19, 2008

Robert Fliegel was craving a Hydrox. The 52-year-old computer consultant says he always liked the way the chocolate sandwich cookie, which he found crisper than Oreos, "stood up to the milk" when dunked.

But Mr. Fliegel, who used to be able to devour an entire package of the crème-filled biscuits in a sitting, couldn't find them in any stores near his East Stroudsburg, Pa., home.

Only when he went online a few months ago to try to order some did he learn the truth: Hydrox is dead.

HUNTING THE HYDROX



Are you a Hydrox fan? What other beloved, but discontinued, supermarket foods do you crave? Share your snack picks in an online forum2.In 2003, without warning or announcement, Kellogg Co. killed off the cookie -- by then rechristened Droxies -- after failing to gain ground against the dominant Oreo, one of the country's best-selling snack foods.

While aware that Hydrox cookies were becoming harder to find, many of their fans are learning only now they are gone.

"This is a dark time in cookie history," wrote Gary Nadeau of O'Fallon, Mo., last year on a Web site devoted to Hydrox. "And for those of you who say, 'Get over it, it's only a cookie,' you have not lived until you have tasted a Hydrox."

Still reeling from their loss, Mr. Nadeau and other "Hydrox people" have yet to accept their fate. Some have started an online petition demanding that Kellogg bring the cookie back. They have collected 866 signatures. Others in recent months have reported Elvis-like sightings -- and tastings -- of the defunct product.

"Some people say Hydrox haven't really gone away," says Kim Burton, a 27-year-old engineer for Cessna Aircraft Co., in Wichita, Kan., who started the Hydrox Web site in 1998 while in college.

One guy emailed Ms. Burton a photo of a dark cookie chunk found in melting ice cream. He was eating a cup of Edy's ice cream with crushed cookies, he explained, when he licked the ice cream off a cookie piece clearly embossed with the word 'Hydrox.' Another posting reported spotting Hydrox as a snack on a Delta Air Lines flight.

For many years, the contest between Oreo and Hydrox was akin to that of Coke versus Pepsi, the Beatles against the Rolling Stones, dog people and cat people. It was not just a choice, but a declaration of identity.


Eating Hydrox was "a badge of honor," says 54-year-old Charles Clark, who processes records for U.S. Army reservists in St. Louis. He remembers receiving a package of Hydrox cookies on his sixth birthday and sleeping with it under his pillow. "Oreo had all the advertising, but those in the know ate Hydrox."

Hydrox eaters tend to be independent-thinkers, favor underdogs and be skeptical of corporate marketing, he says. Even with Hydrox gone, they won't switch sides.

The Oreo "left some kind of yucky coating on the roof of my mouth, like it was full of Crisco or something," wrote Cathy Dixson, a 58-year-old photographer in Norfolk, Va., on the Hydrox Web site, recalling her childhood reaction. She says she was "devastated" at the news of Hydrox's passing.

She and others preferred Hydrox's tangy, less-sweet filling. Many fans seem to remember that the cookies held together better than Oreos when dipped in a glass of cold milk. Some argue Hydrox cookies were more healthful than Oreos, since Oreos used to contain lard. The pork-fat difference also meant Oreo wasn't kosher, while Hydrox was. A kosher certification refers to both the ingredients and the production equipment used.

"We are very proud of Oreo's place as a truly iconic brand," says Laurie Guzzinati, a spokeswoman for Kraft Foods Inc., which in 2000 bought Nabisco, the maker of Oreos. Ms. Guzzinati says that Oreo is available in more than 100 countries and exists in several dozen variations. Lard was removed from the Oreo recipe years ago and the cookies have been kosher since 1997, she says. Star NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning are currently pitching Oreos on television.

But Ms. Burton, who maintains the Hydrox Web site, is unconvinced. She says she grew up in a "Hydrox family." Her grandparents ran a grocery store when her father was a child. "He had access to all sorts of cookies," she says.

In college, when friends ridiculed her for preferring the cheaper knock-off Hydrox to the real thing, she did some research. Among her findings: Hydrox was created in 1908 by what would later become Sunshine Biscuits Inc. That was four years before the National Biscuit Co. (later called Nabisco) came up with the similar Oreo. Oreo was the knock-off.

The Hydrox name came from combining the words hydrogen and oxygen, which Sunshine executives thought evoked purity. Others thought it sounded more like a laundry detergent. Still, the biscuit gained a loyal following. In an informal taste test held in Manhattan in 1988 by Advertising Age, 29 tasters voted for Hydrox, 16 for Oreo.

More damaging to Hydrox over the years was Nabisco's far larger marketing budget, Hydrox fans believe. Sunshine also stumbled in 1991, when it tried to revamp its mascot, a glob of vanilla crème that morphed into a smiley figure named Drox. Pillsbury sued Sunshine, arguing successfully in court that Drox resembled the Pillsbury doughboy. Sunshine was forced to shelve the little fellow.

When Keebler acquired Sunshine in 1996, Sunshine was a distant third behind Keebler and Nabisco. Keebler then replaced the original Hydrox with a reformulated, sweeter cookie aimed more at children, called Droxies. When they failed to make a dent in the Oreo, Kellogg, which had acquired Keebler in 2001, quietly stopped making Hydrox two years later.

Last fall, Craig Young, a 57-year-old builder in Arcadia, Calif., was food-shopping, having learned just a couple of months earlier that Hydrox had given up the ghost, when he spotted Famous Amos crème-filled sandwich cookies. He wondered whether they were Hydrox in disguise since Kellogg also owns Famous Amos.

When he tried one, he says, he shouted, "Oh my God, this is it!" He bought four packages. "I want to do my part to make sure they don't disappear again."

Others think they taste the Hydrox recipe in supermarket chain brands including Tuxedos, Twisto's and even the Paul Newman version, called Newman-O's.

Kellogg acknowledges Hydrox still exists in "crushed cookie form" as a mix-in for yogurt and ice cream -- which explains some of the recent sightings -- and in "ground cookie meal" for pie crusts. But a Kellogg spokeswoman says the Hydrox recipe differs from the Famous Amos version, and the company has not sold the recipe to anybody else. There are no plans to bring back the cookie itself, she adds.

Some fans hope Kellogg changes its mind, especially since this year is the cookie's 100th anniversary.

Write to Christopher Rhoads at christopher.rhoads@wsj.com

and this yesterday:

Hydrox Redux: Cookie Duels Oreo, Again
By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
May 28, 2008; Page B1

Hydrox, the defunct chocolate-sandwich wafer, is returning for one more rematch with its nemesis, the Oreo.

Bowing to more than 1,300 phone inquiries, an online petition with more than 1,000 signatures and Internet chat sites lamenting the demise of the snack, Kellogg Co. has decided to temporarily relaunch Hydrox, the left-for-dead cookie.


WSJ's Christopher Rhoads speaks to Adam Najberg about Hydrox cookies, and why consumers are fighting to bring back the defunct chocolate-sandwich wafers. (May 28)
"These loyalists can be proud to know they've been heard," says Brad Davidson, head of Kellogg's snack division.

Kellogg quietly killed off Hydrox in 2003, ceding victory to its longtime rival, Oreo, made by Kraft Foods Inc.'s Nabisco unit. Many Hydrox eaters initially thought their cookie had just become more difficult to find, learning only much later that the cookie had been discontinued. The online mourning and efforts to bring it back were the subject of a page-one article in January in The Wall Street Journal.

Kellogg's move is more about marketing, and showing its responsiveness to consumers, than about a permanent product reintroduction: The cookie will be sold nationally starting in August, but only for a limited time.

Mr. Davidson is leaving open the possibility the cookie with the vanilla crème filling would come back for good, "if it takes off and there turns out to be a real affinity for it," he says.

He doesn't guarantee the relaunched version will have the same recipe. One difference: no trans fat. "We maintained all the good we could and took out a little bad," he says, noting this year marks Hydrox's 100th anniversary.

The cookie had lost out to rival Oreo due to Nabisco's far larger advertising budget for Oreo, as well as its odd name, Hydrox devotees believe. "A good product name for a toilet cleaner, maybe, but a cookie?" says Dan Lerner, a 75-year-old retired radio-station owner and Hydrox fan in Merion, Pa.

Hydrox also likely suffered from the impression that it was a cheap knockoff of the better-known Oreo. In fact, Hydrox was created by what would later become Sunshine Biscuits Co. in 1908 -- four years before National Biscuit Co. (later Nabisco) launched the similar Oreo. Sunshine is now a unit of Kellogg.

But Hydrox's niche status earned it a hard-core following. Its fans came to see their sandwich-cookie choice as a call to arms for nonconformists.

An informal Oreo-Hydrox blind taste test by 20 Journal reporters resulted in 14 favoring Oreo, citing its sweeter taste. The sample Hydrox cookies were supplied by Kellogg.

A Web site that recently listed the top 25 things people miss ranked Hydrox at No. 4, just behind in-store lunch counters and ahead of Howard Johnson restaurants and the popcorn snack "Screaming Yellow Zonkers."

Write to Christopher Rhoads at christopher.rhoads@wsj.com