Oreo Has Released Two New Flavors, Which Is One Too Many

It's a new year, and you know what that means: new Oreo flavors! Well, okay, Oreo pulls out new flavors regularly, including the ones they make us guess, but a new Oreo is still something to be happy about. And Oreo didn't just give us one new cookie, it gave us two: Chocolate Marshmallow and Caramel Coconut.

But really, they could have stuck with one.

We tore into a package of each new Oreo flavor and asked our coworkers to share their thoughts. After a day of gathering data, we sat down to reflect on our findings.

Marnie Shure: Let's get this out of the way up top: we both vastly preferred the Caramel Coconut, right?

Aimee Levitt: Yes. And it seemed like everyone else did too.

Marnie: The responses to the Caramel Coconut are much more detailed and complex; the Chocolate Marshmallow one garnered a range of reactions, but those reactions all center around the idea that it's a pretty flatly sweet cookie.

The over-sweetness of the Chocolate Marshmallow Oreo is interesting in itself, though, because its failing is that it's wedded to a chocolate cookie. Turning its chocolate cookie into a graham cracker would probably be preferable—though that might disrupt the fundamental Oreo-ness of the Oreo.

Aimee: They do have S'mores Oreos, though.

Marnie: That's right! Maybe chocolate and marshmallow just beg for graham flavor, then?

Aimee: Since already have S'mores, maybe Chocolate Marshmallow is superfluous?

Marnie: Yeah. If they already have chocolate and marshmallow wedded with graham, this just feels like it has less reason to exist.

Aimee: Exactly, especially since it's not good.

Marnie: It's not that it doesn't nail marshmallow flavor; it's that marshmallow flavor + chocolate flavor + chocolate cookie = too damn much.

Aimee: No nuance.

Marnie: Would we say that the Caramel Coconut ones have nuance? Or maybe just a good balance of three very sweet things?

Aimee: Balance, I think. The caramel is distinct from the chocolate.

Marnie: Agreed. You need both of the cookies to temper this one. Eating the Oreo open-faced, or just licking the cream from the center, is too sweet.

Aimee: I wonder if that means that Oreo is sick of us splitting them?

Marnie: Maybe! "Consume this as we've presented it to you, fools."

Aimee: Ha! Oreo gets dictatorial! Or purist.

Marnie: I guess there's a joke to be made about how Oreo will continually reinvent itself until the end of time in order to prove it's not just a Hydrox knockoff.

Aimee: Poor Oreo. So successful, and yet so insecure.

Marnie: Can you think of a cookie that's as restless as the Oreo? I guess Chips Ahoy and others come out with fun flavors sometimes, too. But man, Oreo seems to be on quite the tear, what with flavors, various levels of stuffing, etc.

Aimee: There's a lot to work with!

Marnie: And with something like the Caramel Coconut cookie, which tastes a lot like a Samoa, it seems like they don't just want to go for every flavor—they want to become every other type of cookie!

Aimee: Ha! They already did the Thin Mint. So why not the Samoa/Caramel deLite?

Marnie: Very true.

Aimee: Maybe the Chocolate Marshmallow was the Oreo take on Mallomars?

Marnie Shure

Marnie: Mallomars are definitely better. But again, it's because of that graham cracker in there. Did you notice with these Oreos that the cookie had flecks of white, like the marshmallow flavor was on the cookie part, too? It looks like the cookie has dandruff!

Aimee: Oh, yeah, I see it now. Maybe that's why the cookies tasted stale? If they were trying to make a statement, it should be more integrated in the cookie.

Marnie I'm focusing hard, and I cannot taste the marshmallow in the cookie.

Aimee: It's a very half-assed effort.

Marnie: Yeah. weird to integrate dry marshmallow pieces into a crisp cookie.

Aimee: Well, one good cookie out of two isn't so bad. I really liked the Caramel Coconut Oreo. Then again, I have always loved Samoas/Caramel deLites.

Marnie: Totally. It's such a good market for them to capitalize on. People are bonkers for Samoas. And coming in April: the Tiramisu Oreo!

Aimee: Oooooh! And it has a double layer of creme!

Marnie: Fancy!

Aimee: So Chocolate Marshmallow is a bust, but we have so much to look forward to.

Marnie: I like that OreOptimism.

More commentary from our Onion and A.V. Club coworkers:

Chocolate Marshmallow:

Tastes like my stepmother's meatloaf. TERRIBLE.

I absolutely love this, but I would die for marshmallows. Does taste like Lucky Charm, tho.

Tastes like Count Chocula.

Just kind of tastes like a regular Oreo gone stale.

Caramel Coconut:

I would eat a box of these, BUT I prefer Classic. I just love sugar, so I'll eat anything.

Didn't get a ton of coconut, but it tasted like a Samoa! Good!

Tastes more like a s'more than a Samoa.

I hate both caramel and coconut and you taste both strongly, so good job, Oreo, but not for me.

Aimee Levitt

Serving of 2 cookiesCalories: 140Total Fat: 6 gCholesterol: 0 mgSodium: 90 mgTotal Carbohydrates: 21 gSugars: 13 g

Serving of 2 cookiesCalories: 140Total Fat: 7 gCholesterol: 0 mgSodium: 90 mgTotal Carbohydrates: 20 gSugars: 13 g