When I said that junk foods trying to replicate the taste of other junk foods (Froot Loop and Apple Jacks Pop Tarts; Twinkies and ICEE Cereals; Funyon Lays Potato Chips, etc.) was the stupidest trend I had seen, I think the food scientists at Nabisco heard me and took that as a challenge. Because now there's an even dumber trend...celebrity Oreos!
I know we may never solve the age-old "chicken or the egg" conundrum, but to that headscratcher we can now add this question: Which came first--the celebrity endorsement or the flavor? That is, did Post Malone's agent contact Nabisco to let them know he had an idea for a new cookie? Or did Nabisco reach out to Selena Gomez (and probably a number of other celebrities) seeking her endorsement of something they came up with? Perhaps, like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop, the world will never know...
What I do know is that I had to Google "Post Malone" because I had no idea who he is. [When you see the name "Malone," if your first thoughts are of Karl, Moses...or Sam ("Mayday")...then welcome to my world...we can go get our AARP cards together.] I do know who Selena Gomez is, though, having had a teenager at home in the not-to-distant past, but to be fair neither of these two would top my list of desired celebrity endorsements. Maybe Taylor Swift and Pedro Pascal didn't return Nabisco's calls?
But enough about the attention-grabbing celebrity names. The flavor is the most important thing, whether Post and Selena really like the taste or not. Post Malone's Oreo is a half chocolate, half golden cookie with a swirled creme that is supposed to taste like salted caramel and shortbread. Selena Gomez' Oreo, on the other hand, is a traditional chocolate cookie (albeit with cinnamon flavor) surrounding chocolate, cinnamon and sweetened condensed milk-flavored creme. Although I don't recall seeing the name on the package itself, the advertising suggests that the cookie was "horchata-inspired." And I do like horchata...
Of the two, I enjoyed Post Malone's cookie the most. Although the creme didn't taste like shortbread to me, it was still enjoyable and the chocolate and golden cookies and creme all balanced each other perfectly so that none of the flavors were overwhelming. Nothing spectacular, but good enough and definitely something I would eat again. Selena Gomez' cookies were disappointing, unfortunately. Maybe the price of cinnamon has increased to the point that Nabsico couldn't afford to include more than a few microns worth, but if I hadn't read the packaging I would have had no idea that "cinnamon" was part of the recipe. Seriously! It tasted more like some sort of chocolate mousse cookie, which wasn't bad, but certainly not what was advertised. I wasn't a fan of their "hot and spicy cinnamon" Oreo from a few years back, but here the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction of not even being able to taste the key flavor.
As celebrities are not typically associated with food...the only endorsement I can think of that would make sense is Gallagher and a watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher...it will be interesting to see who Nabisco signs next. From a business perspective, however, I'm not sure I understand where they are going with these. Certainly, great new flavors of Oreos will sell without a celebrity endorsement (and without the price to pay for it), while awful Oreo flavors won't sell no matter who is on the packaging. Except maybe Taylor Swift...
RATINGS:
POST MALONE 4 / 5 SELENA GOMEZ 3/ 5
