OREO, powered by the Nabisco company (US), is undoubtedly the most easily recognizable brand of cookie cream sandwich on the market. The cookie is loved for its strange combination of bitter and sweet: two dark and bitter chocolate cookies enveloping a white layer of vanilla-flavored cream. OREO also comes with its catchy commercials, in which the cookie is always served by twisting to reveal its inside, before dipping it in fresh milk to enjoy. Today, OREO has become so popular that the flavor is adopted for other sweet treats, such as ice-cream and ice-blended shakes. Although these newer products are known as ‘cookie-flavored’, ‘OREO-flavored’ is the preferred way when they are mentioned in normal conversations.
However, as odd as it may sound, OREO was not actually the first to come up with such idea. Despite the long-standing history, there was a brand that came before it – HYDROX. In terms of authenticity, HYDROX was the first ever released cookie of this type on the market, while OREO merely copied and pasted the concept. In 1908, Sunshine Biscuits (US) launched the cookie sandwich, distributing its products across the United States. The name HYDROX was a reference to Hydrogen and Oxygen – the two chemicals that make up water – to imply the meaning of purity and goodness. Compared to OREO, HYDROX cookie took on a more complex design, resembling six flower petals surrounding the logo.
As one might have guessed, this was not so great a name for a cookie. People often thought of the word ‘Hydrox’ as something clinical, or medicinal, and not something they would love to consume on a daily basis. The name also provoked the thought of ‘Hydrogen peroxide’, a harmful substance for human. Worse still, there was an existing company named Hydrox Chemical, which was facing a trademark lawsuit at the time. When Sunshine Biscuits started rolling out their cookies, sales figure was not so bad. That was until four years later when the OREO was born. In 1912, Nabisco relesaed three lines of biscuits: MOTHER GOOSE, VERONESE, and OREO. MOTHER GOOSE and VERONESE eventually became lost in history. Meanwhile, OREO constantly grew in popularity and soon would overtake the one that came before it. The name was easier to the mouth, and could be understood as two ‘Os’ – the two chocolate biscuits – with ‘RE’ – cream inside.
HYDROX was then taken over by another company – Keebler, but it did not help. In 1998, HYDROX sales was down dramatically, only $16 million compared to OREO’s $374 million. Keebler tried to rename the cookie ‘DROXIES’ to no avail. In 2001, the cookie was then again owned under another company – Kellogg’s. By 2003, the production of DROXIES stopped altogether. Nevertheless, HYDROX did not die completely in the mind of the people, but instead had its own cult following. Ellia Kassoff, a Jewish man who had grown up eating these cookies, decided to revive the brand in 2015 under his company – Leaf Brands. He did this based on the knowledge he had gained on how to utilize unused trademarks, while Kellogg’s had already lost interest in the brand. HYDROX never became the empire that it could have, but seems to have stable sales nowadays.
The concept of cookie and cream sandwich is not new. In fact, so many ‘knock-off’ brands have been established and are still running today, such as Smiley, Sandee, Hi-Ro and the likes. Among these, CREAM-O (powered by Universal Robina Corp – the Phillipines) finds the most success in the market, having direct competition against OREO. The two cookies may feel identical eating on their own, but appear to have some distinctions in a taste test. OREO is all about harmony, its cookies slightly chocolaty and its cream mellow. On the other hand, CREAM-O has more to-the-face dark chocolate flavor for the biscuit, and sweeter cream in-between. Therefore, CREAM-O is often the go-to choice for bitter chocolate lovers, and also a more suitable source of ‘cookie flavor’ for milk-shakes.
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