Kraft Foods, the proud custodian of the Nabisco Oreo brand, is celebrating Oreo's 100th birthday on March 6, and invites all consumers to join in the festivities for one of the world's most iconic and interactive brands.
- 100th Birthday: March 6, 2012
- Birth year: 1912, the same year the South Pole was discovered, and the Titanic sank.
- First sale: The first Oreo cookie was sold in Hoboken, N.J. Oreo was originally packaged in bulk tins and sold by weight. Grocers paid 30 cents/lb for Oreo.
- Namesakes: Oreo has a street (Oreo Way) named after it. Formerly known as West 15th Street between 9th & 10 Avenues in New York City where the first Oreo cookie was made at the original Nabisco bakery.
- Design: The first Oreo cookie was embossed with a thin wreath on the outer edge, with the Oreo name on the plain surface in the middle.
- Sales: Oreo is the world's favorite cookie and the best-selling cookie brand of the 21st century, with $1.5 billion in global annual revenues. Kraft Foods is the proud custodian of Oreo, and Oreo is one of the company's $12 billion-dollar brands.
- Global Reach: Oreo cookies can be found in more than 100 countries.
- Biggest Markets: Rank order based on 2010 data: U.S., China, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Central America and the Caribbean, UK and Argentina.
- Fastest Growing Markets: Rank order based on 2010 data: France (recently launched), Australia/New Zealand, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, Taiwan, Morocco, Mexico and Hong Kong.
- Twist, Lick, Dunk Ritual: 50 percent of all Oreo eaters pull apart their cookies before eating, with women twisting them open more often than men.
- Bakeries: Kraft Foods is the world's largest biscuit baker, and Oreo is made at 21 bakeries around the world.
- Oreo fans: Oreo has a Facebook community of more than 23 million Oreo lovers around the globe, representing 200+ countries and dozens of different languages. Oreo ranks among the top five brand Facebook pages in the world!
Kraft can boast Oreo is the world's favorite cookie, the best-selling cookie brand of the 21st century (with $1.5 billion in global annual revenues), and one of the company's 12 billion-dollar annual-sales brands. It's enjoyed in more than 100 countries. Some 25 million Oreos are sold per day (more than 9 billion per year), and children and adults have consumed more than 490 billion since "milk's favorite cookie" – an early advertising slogan -- was introduced in 1912.
If you hurry, you can buy Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreo cookies and celebrate at home. One wafer is embossed with a special design (a candle and words "Oreo 100"). The creamy white filling has flecks of colored candy sprinkles reminiscent of birthday cake frosting. This Oreo even tastes a bit like birthday cake.
Everyone loves the unforgettable ritual known as Twist, Lick, Dunk, before they eat their Oreo. Since most of us grew up eating Oreo cookies, we understand what that means and can defend our version of the best way to eat them -- twist off one side, lick the crème off first, dunk them whole or in part in milk, and enjoy.
As an addictive, intuitive, indulgent Scorpio, my philosophy is more is better. I put my Oreos (always seven for good feng shui) in a pretty plate (for visual splendor) standing up on their sides and bookcased with a dark chocolate truffle on either side. I contemplate whether or not to roll the Oreos across the table (to ensure the stuffing is distributed properly), then slowly, one at a time, I investigate and savor the Original Oreo or Chocolate Crème stuffing first, followed by the cookie.
My beverage of choice is a double espresso, but milk is prefered by most fans. If you have not been properly initiated and need dunking lessons, check out www.wikihow.com/Eat-an-Oreo-Cookie.
That said, let's go back to the beginning, when several baking companies merged to form the National Biscuit Co. (NaBisCo) in 1898. Nabisco created Barnum's Animal cookies in 1902 and made them famous by selling them in a little box designed like a cage with a string as a handle. It was 1912 when Nabisco came up with a new idea for a cookie: two chocolate wafer disks embossed with a simple wreath -- a triumph of a design -- with a crème filling in between. The cookie design was augmented in 1924 with two pairs of turtledoves, and its present design debuted in 1952.
Decoding the current design, the circle topped with a two-bar cross with the word Oreo is a variant of the Nabisco logo. Or it could be an early European symbol for quality. Or possibly the Cross of Lorraine, as carried by the Knights Templar into the Crusades, reports Atlantic Monthly.
How did the Oreo get its name? Even Nabisco veterans aren't certain. Some believe it was taken from the French word for gold, "or," since the cookies initially came in gold-colored packages. Others claim the name stemmed from the original hill-shaped test version; "oreo" is Greek for mountain. My favorite theory is the name is a combination of "re" from crème, sandwiched between two "O's" representing either the shape of the cookie or the two O's in chOcOlate. Then again, it could simply be because Oreo is easy to pronounce and rolls nicely off the tongue.
When the first Oreo rolled off the production line at Manhattan's Chelsea Market bakery in 1912, the first sale was in Hoboken, N.J. The dunkable cookies were first packaged in bulk tins and sold by weight. Back then, grocers paid 30 cents per lb. for Oreo.
For almost 50 years the Oreo cookie remained fundamentally the same, but brand extensions emerged beyond the cookie category. Oreo expanded into desserts in foodservice with Oreo Cookie Pie Crust and Oreo Brownies, and today is available as Oreo Pie Crust, Oreo Wafers, Oreo Base Cake cookie crumbs, and Oreo Crème Icing Variegate.
- 1950 -- Uh!, Oh! Oreo!
- 1980 -- For the Kid in All of Us
- 1982 – America's Best Loved Cookie
- 1982 --The One and Only
- 1986 – Who's The Kid with the Oreo Cookie?
- 1990 -- Oreo, The Original Twister
- 2004 – Milk's Favorite Cookie
In markets around the world, Oreo comes in local flavors, like dulche de leche and green tea ice cream, as well as fun shapes and forms. In China, Oreos are shaped like straws, and you can buy a long rectangular Oreo wafer, the length of your index finger -- great for dunking.
On February 15, 2011 Oreo was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the first brand to attempt, and achieve, the record for most "likes" on a Facebook post within a 24-hour period, generating 114,619 likes. And Oreo, which has the third-largest Facebook community of any brand worldwide (and a page accessible in Spanish and French, as well as English), received responses such as, "We need a love button instead of a like." I agree! (See the page at http://www.facebook.com/oreo)
Happy birthday, Oreo. A we raise our glass (of cold milk) for this occasion, we wish you continued longevity, and thank you for all the fun you've provided for 100 years.
History of Oreo … 100 years and counting!
1912 -- Oreo is introduced, with the first Oreo rolling off the line at the Chelsea Market bakery in Manhattan. 1913 -- Oreo cookie is registered as a Nabisco trademark.1921 -- The name "Oreo Biscuit" is changed to "Oreo Sandwich."1923 -- First advertisement showing the "twist" appears on trolley cars. Oreo cookies available in a self-service fiberboard package. 1928 -- Oreo is exported to several Spanish-speaking countries in Central and Latin America.1937 -- The name "Oreo Sandwich" is changed to "Oreo Crème Sandwich."1949 -- Oreo introduced in Canada.1952 -- Cookie design modified to include the Nabisco Biscuit Co.'s colophon emblem.1965 -- Oreo cookies packaging changes to a 1-lb. cardboard carton that contains three waxed paper wrapped "stack packs" (but are still available in the 1-lb., 11-oz and 6-oz cellophane bags, as well as single-serve packets).Late 1960s -- Oreo launched in Venezuela.- Triple Double Oreo
- Oreo Fudge Crèmes: Peanut Butter and Golden
- Double Stuf Oreo Heads or Tails
- Oreo green tea ice cream: Oreo cookie with green tea ice cream flavor crème with a cooling sensation that simulates ice cream.
- Oreo wafers: Oreo in a traditional wafer cookie form that's popular in China.
- Oreo Double-Fruit in Orange & Mango and Raspberry & Blueberry crème.
- Oreo Vanilla
- Oreo Chocolate
- Oreo Double Delight (Chocolate and Peanut)
- Oreo Strawberry
- Oreo Blueberry Ice Cream
- Oreo Orange Ice Cream
- Oreo Golden Vanilla
- Oreo "x3" (pronounced "Por Tres") cookie introduced in 2010. Inspiration for the U.S. Triple Double Oreo cookie, the Oreo "x3" features three layers of cookie, and two layers of crème.
- Oreo Duo. Oreo cookie, with a layer of crème featuring two complementary "half and half" flavors. There are two varieties: Strawberry and vanilla and banana and dulce de leche.
- Oreo Alfajor: Three layers of Oreo cookie and crème covered in chocolate in the form of a traditional Argentine snack cake.
- Oreo Trio Chocolate: three different chocolates in the same Oreo … one per each cookie and a third in the crème.
- Oreo Cookies & Crème: Oreo with Cookies & Crème filling
- Oreo Double Stuf
- Oreo Dark Fudge
- Oreo White Fudge
