Oreo Day

I don't think there is another cookie that leaves that black crust in the corners of your mouth quite like an Oreo. Young. Old. Black. White. Brunette. Blonde. There is no discrimination when it comes to the Oreo cookie. We all love them! Lunch boxes have housed the little goodies for generations and have you looked in the Oreo aisle lately? There is an Oreo for everyone now! They even have reverse Oreos with vanilla wafers gently hugging chocolate cream. Oreos have even gotten involved with several other ingredients and have created recipes. There are loads of them from pies to cupcakes to milkshakes to candy bars. My personal favorite...dirt cake. You can't get much better!

It all began in 1898 when several baking companies decided to come together to form the National Biscuit Company or, what we fondly know as, Nabisco (Na Bis Co). Their first little treat were the Barnum's Animal Cookies that came in a little red box that looked like a cage with a string on it. Now I thought this string was a handle. That is what I always used it for, but, after reading some articles, I found out that the string was actually put there to hang it from a Christmas Tree. Oh. The precious Oreo was born in 1912 which makes it 103! That's one old cookie! Not much has changed. Like the saying goes, if it ain't broke, then don't fix it! One thing remains a mystery...where did the name come from? Theory 1 - "or" which is the French word for gold which was the color of the old packaging. Theory 2 - The hill shaped test version (I'm not sure what that means) but the German word for mountain is "oreo". Theory 3 - two "o"s sandwiching "re" for "cream". Last, just because it was short and simple. You never know. Kodak was named after what the shutter sounded like! No matter what the name stands for or where it came from, the Oreo cookie is an American icon. Over 362 billion of the little chocolatey delights have been sold which makes the Oreo the best-selling cookie of the 19th century and the BFF of milk for all time!