History of Oreo cookies

In 1898, several baking companies merged to form the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo), the maker of Oreo cookies. By 1902, Nabisco created Barnum's Animal cookies and made them famous by selling them in a little box designed like a cage with a string attached (to hang on Christmas trees).

In 1912, Nabisco had a new idea for a cookie - two chocolate disks with a creme filling in between. The first Oreo cookie looked very similar to the Oreo cookie of today, with only a slight difference in the design on the chocolate disks.

The shape and design of the Oreo cookie didn't change much until Nabisco began selling various versions of the cookie. In 1975, Nabisco released their DOUBLE STUF Oreos. Nabisco continued to create variations: 1987 -- Fudge covered Oreos introduced, 1991 -- Halloween Oreos introduced, 1995 -- Christmas Oreos introduced.


The Mysterious Name

So how did the Oreo get its name? The people at Nabisco aren't quite sure. Some believe that the cookie's name was taken from the French word for gold, "or" (the main color on early Oreo packages). Others claim the name stemmed from the shape of a hill-shaped test version; thus naming the cookie in Greek for mountain, "oreo." Still others believe the name is a combination of taking the "re" from "cream" and placing it between the two "o"s in "chocolate" - making "o-re-o." And still others believe that the cookie was named Oreo because it was short and easy to pronounce.




No matter how it got named, over 362 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since it was first introduced in 1912, making it the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

Ten fun facts about Oreo cookies:

1. Oreo Way: Oreo has a street named after it – Oreo Way – formerly known as West 15th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in New York City, where the first Oreo cookie was made at the original Nabisco bakery.

2. Oreo 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.

3. Oreo 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 and Oreo: Kraft Foods is the proud custodian of Oreo, and Oreo is one of the company’s 12 “billion-dollar” brands.

4.Oreo’s global reach: Oreo cookies can be found in more than 100 countries.

5. Oreo’s biggest markets: Oreo cookies are most popular (in order) in the United States, China, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Central America and the Caribbean, UK and Argentina.

Oreo’s fastest growing markets: Oreo is quickly becoming the cookie of chice in France, Australia/New Zealand, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, Taiwan, Morocco, Mexico and Hong Kong.

6. Twist, lick and dunk: 50% of all Oreo eaters pull apart their cookies before eating, with women twisting them open more often than men.

7. Oreo bakeries: Kraft Foods is the world’s largest biscuit baker, and Oreo is made at 21 bakeries around the world.

8. Oreo fans: Oreo has a Facebook community of more than 25 million Oreo lovers from around the world, representing 200+ countries and dozens of different languages. In fact, Oreo ranks among the top five brand Facebook pages in the world!