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I am not proud of myself for many reason, including my love of Oreos. Furthering my shame, last night I tried the newest "Special Edition" Oreo - Fireworks Oreo (pictured below). I assume the red and blue colors are to mimic fireworks colors.
In my mind, the first "Special Edition" of Oreos (I know they weren't calling them that back then) was the Double Stuff Oreo which came out in '74. Before it came out, I'd been creating my own double stuff Oreo by taking off one cookie side from each of two sandwiches and then pushing the two open-faced sandwiches together as I love the cream center. But having it actually done for me was pure company genius as it eliminated the challenge of the extra cookie sides which got eaten when all the cream ones where gone and I wanted to keep going - I was ten in '74 and my appetite knew no limits.
These new magical cookies even played a part in a small family drama. My dad and I weren't close or really distant, we just weren't. He did his thing and I tried, mainly successfully, to stay off his radar. That proved to be the formula that kept peace in the house and my childhood world. My mother was the only thing that kept our small family at all connected, but she was mainly focused on keeping my dad happy - that was not an easy task as he was not an easy man. There wasn't a lot of complexity or variation in our daily schedule: My dad came home from work and we ate dinner that my terrible-cook of a mother (something she openly acknowledged) cobbled together through some cooking, some buying of prepared foods and some creative combinations - but heck, it counted as dinner.
I only remember a few nights when something interrupted that routine and my dad and I were left to figure it out by ourselves. Usually, my mom left us something that we ate in near silence as I served and cleaned up, but one time, my mom's dad got sick and that necessitated an emergency trip to him by her and my dad and I were left standing in our kitchen without a game plan. Out for pizza it was followed by coming home for a dessert of the new Oreo Double Stuff cookies.
Sitting at our small kitchen table in our pull-in-your-shoulders kitchen eating those cookies - from the bag (my mom would have put them on a plate) - was one of the few times my dad and I kinda connected. We were both so happy with the new Double Stuffs that the cookie bonhomie seemed to spark a moment between us. That's it - there's no Hallmark-perfect story to follow as that night didn't set us on a new path: the next day we returned to being all but strangers living in the same house, but we'd always have the night we shared those excitingly new Double Stuff Oreos.
But back to the star of our show - the Oreo cookie. After a long hiatus in which not that much seemed to happen in Oreo-land, in 2013, the company took the next step to perfection with the Mega Stuff Oreo where it shoved even more cream between the two cookies. I know this is perfection because I tried putting two "open-faced" Mega Stuff ones together, but it was too much cream (something, until then, I didn't think was possible). Cookie nirvana had been found in the Mega Stuff Oreo. Would my now more-than-two-decades-since-deceased dad and I have had our second connect over the Mega Stuff - I'll never know - but Oreo, since then, has seemed on a roll.
More special editions kept coming out and, to the best of my ability, I've tried them all - I owe the company that much even if I get a bit peeved with the undersized and overpriced packages these special editions come in. None have been great; although, I like the lemon one a lot and thought the mint and peanut butter were fine, safe product-line expansion choices. The more off the wall ones - like the recent Peeps, Candy Corn or Birthday Cake ones - were novelty items at best or, to be honest, flops. There are many others, but other than the Cinnamon Bun Oreo (and aforementioned lemon), there were none that I think I ever bought a second package off.
Last night, I tried the latest, "Fireworks" Oreo, which seems like "Pop Rocks" Oreos without Oreo having to pay Pop Rocks for the licensing. They basically taste like regular Oreos that, if you eat fast, have a crunchiness in the creme, but if you slow down and let the creme sit in your mouth a moment, you do get the old Pop Rocks explosion experience. Yawn. Pop Rocks were quickly boring when I was a kid and time and nostalgia hasn't done anything to change that.
Hence, I'll finish the package - they taste close enough to regular Oreos - as I'll simply create my own double stuff Fireworks Oreos (good anyway to keep in practice with that skill) and be happy enough. So, yes, for the God-knows-how-many-times in my sad, disappointing life, I'll be snacking on Oreos once again.
In my mind, the first "Special Edition" of Oreos (I know they weren't calling them that back then) was the Double Stuff Oreo which came out in '74. Before it came out, I'd been creating my own double stuff Oreo by taking off one cookie side from each of two sandwiches and then pushing the two open-faced sandwiches together as I love the cream center. But having it actually done for me was pure company genius as it eliminated the challenge of the extra cookie sides which got eaten when all the cream ones where gone and I wanted to keep going - I was ten in '74 and my appetite knew no limits.
These new magical cookies even played a part in a small family drama. My dad and I weren't close or really distant, we just weren't. He did his thing and I tried, mainly successfully, to stay off his radar. That proved to be the formula that kept peace in the house and my childhood world. My mother was the only thing that kept our small family at all connected, but she was mainly focused on keeping my dad happy - that was not an easy task as he was not an easy man. There wasn't a lot of complexity or variation in our daily schedule: My dad came home from work and we ate dinner that my terrible-cook of a mother (something she openly acknowledged) cobbled together through some cooking, some buying of prepared foods and some creative combinations - but heck, it counted as dinner.
I only remember a few nights when something interrupted that routine and my dad and I were left to figure it out by ourselves. Usually, my mom left us something that we ate in near silence as I served and cleaned up, but one time, my mom's dad got sick and that necessitated an emergency trip to him by her and my dad and I were left standing in our kitchen without a game plan. Out for pizza it was followed by coming home for a dessert of the new Oreo Double Stuff cookies.
Sitting at our small kitchen table in our pull-in-your-shoulders kitchen eating those cookies - from the bag (my mom would have put them on a plate) - was one of the few times my dad and I kinda connected. We were both so happy with the new Double Stuffs that the cookie bonhomie seemed to spark a moment between us. That's it - there's no Hallmark-perfect story to follow as that night didn't set us on a new path: the next day we returned to being all but strangers living in the same house, but we'd always have the night we shared those excitingly new Double Stuff Oreos.
But back to the star of our show - the Oreo cookie. After a long hiatus in which not that much seemed to happen in Oreo-land, in 2013, the company took the next step to perfection with the Mega Stuff Oreo where it shoved even more cream between the two cookies. I know this is perfection because I tried putting two "open-faced" Mega Stuff ones together, but it was too much cream (something, until then, I didn't think was possible). Cookie nirvana had been found in the Mega Stuff Oreo. Would my now more-than-two-decades-since-deceased dad and I have had our second connect over the Mega Stuff - I'll never know - but Oreo, since then, has seemed on a roll.
More special editions kept coming out and, to the best of my ability, I've tried them all - I owe the company that much even if I get a bit peeved with the undersized and overpriced packages these special editions come in. None have been great; although, I like the lemon one a lot and thought the mint and peanut butter were fine, safe product-line expansion choices. The more off the wall ones - like the recent Peeps, Candy Corn or Birthday Cake ones - were novelty items at best or, to be honest, flops. There are many others, but other than the Cinnamon Bun Oreo (and aforementioned lemon), there were none that I think I ever bought a second package off.
Last night, I tried the latest, "Fireworks" Oreo, which seems like "Pop Rocks" Oreos without Oreo having to pay Pop Rocks for the licensing. They basically taste like regular Oreos that, if you eat fast, have a crunchiness in the creme, but if you slow down and let the creme sit in your mouth a moment, you do get the old Pop Rocks explosion experience. Yawn. Pop Rocks were quickly boring when I was a kid and time and nostalgia hasn't done anything to change that.
Hence, I'll finish the package - they taste close enough to regular Oreos - as I'll simply create my own double stuff Fireworks Oreos (good anyway to keep in practice with that skill) and be happy enough. So, yes, for the God-knows-how-many-times in my sad, disappointing life, I'll be snacking on Oreos once again.
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