We Try 25 Kinds of Oreo

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

Once upon a time, in my lunchbox and in the lunchboxes of the other kids at my lunch table, there was just one kind of Oreo. You know. An Oreo. The lucky kids had Double Stuf. The unfortunate kids had Reduced Fat Oreos. (We went through a few dark years in my family when my mother would only buy the Reduced Fat version. It cut Oreo consumption in our house by at least 50%.)

But today, there are Oreos with chocolate filling and with mint filling, slim ones covered in chocolate, even Oreos with three cookies rather than two. We've tried these guys as we picked them up at supermarkets and such, but had never actually tried them all in one go. So, of course, we had to do the dirty work for you, and slog through all 25 kinds.

The originals and sort-of-originals: Oreo, Double Stuf, and Reduced Fat.

You know the classics, of course...

Football, NASCAR.

But you might not know that very classic Oreos can take different shapes, like these single-stuf Football Oreos or double-stuf NASCAR-stamped ones.

Flavors and colors, from top left: Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Spring, Cool Mint, Birthday.

But those, at least, preserve the classic flavor of an Oreo. Things start to get weirder when we change up the creme filling: super-minty Mint, barely-chocolatey Chocolate, hyper-sweet, sprinkle-flecked Birthday, sweetly PB-ish Peanut Butter, and the yellow Spring.

Golden Fudge Creme, Triple Double, Heads or Tails.

All those have chocolate cookies, but what about when we swap the cookie out? The easy-to-like golden cookie—which reminds us of Grandma's vanilla cookies or the sweeter sort of animal crackers—takes the chocolate cookie's place at times. Here's the golden-cookie based Fudge Creme and the half-golden Heads or Tails, along with the Triple Double: an Oreo with an extra cookie right in the middle.

Creamsicle, Berry Burst Ice Cream.

The oddball flavors can go either very well (Creamsicle) or very poorly (Berry Burst.)

Fudge Cremes: Peanut Butter, Classic, Mint.

What are those Fudge Cremes? Very slim Oreo bases covered with cream of whatever flavor and then a thin shell of chocolate akin to what you'd see on a Thin Mint.

Peanut Butter Fudge Creme.

They're also in Peanut Butter, which tastes something like a Reese's cookie...

Golden Birthday Fudge Creme.

... and the Golden Birthday: golden cookie, standard filling, chocolate, sprinkles on top. (That's now three deviations from the norm: the Fudge Creme model, the golden cookie, and the "Birthday" sprinkle addition. We're not in Kansas anymore.)

Cakesters etc.: Regular, Double Stuff, Golden, Brownie.

And finally, we go off the reservation altogether, to the "not even cookie" set: "Cakesters" and brownies.

Curious about the cookies? Click through the slideshow above to find our take on every single Oreo.

About the author: Carey Jones is the Senior Managing Editor of Serious Eats. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).