The Oreo Rolled Out The Door Un-Noticed

The Oreo craze is taking off around the world. It’s unstoppable.

You’ve probably noticed the popular United States snack time treat show up on your doorstep, in Germany, Sweden, France, Australia or even Indonesia. This post is not to say we don’t like Oreos, or anything bad about them, or to affend anyone with great childhood memories, it is try to understand why the hell they have become so popular. Just like some countries have developed a tradition with things that aren’t popular in other countries like Jägermeister in Germany, Vegemite in Australia, haggis in Scotland, or pickled eels in England.

To understand a little more we investigated what biscuits (cookies for a Yankee English speaker) are popular in other countries.

In Germany Bahlsen Leibniz, which are a biscuit filled with a Nutella like chocolate. If you knew about their addiction to Nutella then you could understand this one, but this is much sweeter than an Oreo
In France, Le Petit Écolier, which is not a bad biscuit just with a chocolate covering. I’d choose these over Oreos
In England, Milk chocolate digestives and custard creams. I wouldn’t go for the first one but the custard cream Yumm Yumm
In Australia, Scotch finger or Tim Tams, they are so popular amongst women folk, that it is almost like an addiction, with their heavy sweet chocolate content
A man performing a Tim Tam Slam. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the United States, I believe Chips Ahoy are also popular. I can understand a liking for this
In Colombia, a popular snack is a “bocadillo-little mouthful” which is a type of guava jelly (jello) with soft cheese of top (yuck)

To make an example of why it’s seems strange that they are so popular, Arnotts biscuits in Australia has a combination packet called Assorted Creams. All of the 9 varieties of biscuit have a basic tasting biscuit, combined with a nice cream inside. Of these there is a brown coloured equivalent called Delta Cream. Of these the Delta Cream is the least popular. A recent example was while on a tour, for morning tea, the tour company provided a full packet of Classic Creams. As to be expected the 2 most poula varieties disappeared first. Then slowly the others disappeared according to popularity. But in the end most of the Delta Creams were left over.

Arnotts Assorted Creams

To see why we did a test. 3 people tasting Oreos. The response, it didn’t taste bad or good. We didn’t receive any superhuman abilities, and it didn’t make us speak with an American accent. Damn it! What now?

So we started asking questions. Why is it so popular? We did a google search and a yahoo forum came up with some good answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120216172351AAdm4XE:

Because they are delicious and made with crack.
Things that are from your childhood make you feel happy
If you don’t like them some funny Americans get angry and violent,
Who the hell doesn’t like Oreos I’ll kick their a**!
People who don’t like Oreos make me feel kind of violent.
I’m about to choke someone out.
Not really. Oreos are delicious!
Point taken. I really like Oreos, believe me! They are the best in the world (Please don’t hurt me! Please!)
Then an answer was given, they are good in milk (a revelation in understanding)

Double Stuf Oreos, by Nabisco. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That’s it! Dunk them in cool to tepid milk or ice cream! Now I understand a little. Dry Oreo’s not so tasty. In milk a little more scrumptia-licious. I’m probably tapping into some thoughtwave here. From my understanding, drinking a glass of milk (rather than beer-mothers milk) is a tradition in America, so dunking a chocolate biscuit in the milk would have developed side by side with that the drinking of a nice glass of milk.

Now a bit of understanding. Whilst doing some research we have come to a realisation, why Oreos have become popular. So the question arises. Do any Americans want to try vegemite? It looks like squashed ants, and is made from the left overs at the bottom of the beer barrel. Or what about some dried chillied mangoes? Or maybe some haggis?

What to brush up on your American Slang from Street Talk Savvy click here?