Oreo. Tasting. Party. Make it happen in your life
Want to know what I did for Easter? I went to an Oreo Tasting hosted by the wonderful Scott Lundgren. There were…
– 25 different types of Oreos*
– 7 different types of milk**
– 175 different combinations
– Score sheets
– 50ish awesome people spending the afternoon eating themselves into an Oreo coma.
The data is still being tallied for the winning combination, but my two personal favorites were Golden Chocolate Oreo + Unsweetened Almond Milk and Reese’s Oreo + Organic Whole Milk. The worst was Mega Stuff, way too much creme!
Jealous, right? Scott answered a few questions that can help you host your own Oreo Tasting party.
Q. How did you think of the idea?
A few years ago I was in the grocery and noticed the overwhelming variety of not only creme flavorings but also shapes. (This was before they discontinued many of the shapes.) I felt like I was standing before a wall of Oreos … I think I counted over 30. I wondered, How do you decide which one to buy if you don’t compare them against each other?
Q. How did you make sure you had all Oreo flavors covered?
I did some research. Oreo seems to be a staple click bait topic for Buzzfeed & Huffington Post. They’ll cover a new flavor, combining the creme flavors or researching dunk time. There’s even a list of limited edition flavors not made anymore. The most exhaustive list I found was on Wikipedia.
For this project I went right to the source of the current list of available Oreos, and I made a shopping list. I managed to buy 25 different kinds.
A photo posted by Scott Lundgren (@scottelundgren) on Mar 22, 2015 at 5:00pm PDT
Q. How did you acquire all these Oreos?
I bought them all locally at Harris Teeter, Target, Walmart and Big Lots. When you buy more than $30 worth of Oreos and it’s the only thing in your cart, expect a reaction from your clerk. Most often they’d say “You must really like Oreos” and I’d tell them about the party idea. Big Lots was a huge help in avoiding having to go to the secondary/auction market for some of the special editions. The Peppermint, Winter and Candy Cane minis were found only there and cost $1 less per box than other retailers.
Q. Which flavors were you not able to get and why not?
Like any project, the limiting factors are time and money. Oreo used to make their own version of a Whoopie Pie they called the Cakester. It didn’t make it to the party because it was discontinued in 2013. One current special flavor I couldn’t find was Dulce De Leche.
Also, you have to look at the expiration date. On a fresh bag, it’s about 6 months into the future. If you get to 7 months, eating the said Oreo may not kill you – but it probably won’t be as delicious. For instance in Fall 2014 there was both a Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Apple Oreo available. The Caramel Apple Oreo is still available on Amazon for $35 for a single bag. But it’s not Amazon selling it, it’s some other merchant in the marketplace.
In addition to being expensive those cookies are definitely past the “Best By” date. There are a lot of the special edition flavors you can find on Amazon & eBay that are over $10/bag and past their date.
I wanted guests to have a good experience, and I wasn’t obsessing about having every flavor possible. The reason I had the party over Easter weekend is because the Winter edition Oreos were going to be past their Best By date the following weekend.
Q. What was your personal favorite combination?
I was impressed how well soy milk works for softening up a cookie when dunking but surprised Almond or Coconut milk did not. Coconut milk and Chocolate Berry were really good. All the shortcomings of Reduced Fat Oreos can be overcome by dunking it in whole milk.
While not eligible for voting, a friend brought his gear to make pour-over coffee. It was exquisite with Vanilla Mega Stuff.
*Oreo flavors: Plain, Double Stuff, Mega Stuff, Birthday, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Mint, White Fudge Covered, Reduced Fat, Golden, Golden Double Stuff, Golden Mega Stuff, Golden Birthday, Golden Chocolate, Spring, Lemo Double Stuff Heads or Tails, Reese’s Peppermint, Fudge Creme Mint, Mini Peppermint
A video posted by Scott Lundgren (@scottelundgren) on Apr 5, 2015 at 10:27am PDT
**Milk flavors: Organic Skim, Organic Whole, Unsweetened Coconut, Organic 2%, Unsweetened Almond, Unsweeted Soy
Q: Whatcha having for dinner Easter Sunday? A: Leftover Milk #oreotasting
A photo posted by Scott Lundgren (@scottelundgren) on Apr 5, 2015 at 5:27pm PDT
Photos: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg; Charlotte Observer archives
This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Oreo. Tasting. Party. Make it happen in your life."