It's been more than a month since Mr. Tidbit last detected a new kind of Oreo cookie, and he was getting worried. Had something terrible happened at Oreo's Peculiar Variations Development Lab?
Nope! New from Nabisco are "limited edition" Peppermint Creme Oreos. The filling is pink, not to be confused with this year's Winter Oreos, which have a (rather alarming) red filling.
The far more likely confusion involving Peppermint Creme Oreos is their relationship to Cool Mint Creme Oreos. The Cool Mint Creme filling is light green, so if you had both kinds you could see which is which. But what's the flavor difference between them?
Good question. No doubt some Oreo aficionados will disagree, but Mr. Tidbit and several of his little friends unscientifically concluded that there is so little difference that a blindfolded person could not tell them apart. (Mr. Tidbit would describe the slight extra flavor note he thought he detected in the Peppermint Creme Oreo as "toothpastey.")
All of that is not to say that there is no significant difference between Cool Mint Creme Oreos and Peppermint Creme Oreos: They are the same price on the shelf, but the package of Cool mint Oreos is 15.25 ounces (30 cookies), and that of Peppermint Creme Oreos is 10.5 ounces (20 cookies). So Peppermint Creme Oreos cost 45 percent more per ounce -- or 50 percent more per cookie.
Enlarge mint Over at Little Debbie, Mr. Tidbit's spiritual home (no matter how far he wanders, Mr. Tidbit's heart always returns to the Little Debbie Nutty Bar), they have long produced what they call the Swiss Roll (a creme-filled rolled-up snack-cake, whose cousin over at Hostess is called the Ho Ho).
Now (just until February) there are also Peppermint Swiss Rolls, which not only are mint-flavored but -- at 1.66 ounces each -- are more than half again as big as regular Swiss Rolls or Ho Hos. Mr. Tidbit opines that the flavor is subtler -- but more toothpastey -- than either kind of Oreo.
AL SICHERMAN
