My co-workers have not forgiven me for the Swedish Fish Oreo incident.
I know this because when I stated in Slack that I left a bag of the new limited-edition Chocolate Strawberry Oreos on the intern desk snack station — also currently home to one-third of a stale Publix cake, a mostly empty bag of pita chips and a six-pack of room temperature beer — no one said a word. There was no piqued interest, no morbid curiosity. The package went untouched for hours. [Editor's note: In the fish episode, the NICEST thing anyone had to say was "It's like ripping a Band-Aid off ... in my mouth." So, yes, they went untouched for good reason.]
Not even something as innocuous as the very familiar combination of chocolate and strawberry could convince my cubicle-mates to trust my free cookies. But unlike the Swedish Fish Oreos this new Valentine's Day-inspired flavor isn't bad. The Chocolate Strawberry Oreos taste like Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries whipped into a creamy filling and squashed between two chocolate cookies. It's almost like Oreo attempted to make a limited-edition flavor that people might actually want to eat instead of just talk about on the internet. And based on very early evidence, these pink-dotted cookies (which look vaguely indecent, by the way) may be the least offensive experimental candy we'll see this season. Other limited-edition flavors bombarding Nashvillians this season include Red Velvet KitKats and cupcake-flavored Hershey Kisses, both of which utilize startling amounts of white chocolate.
But if my coworkers haven't forgiven me for bringing the Swedish Fish Oreos upon them, has the world forgiven Oreo? Will these cookies fly off the shelves and be discussed and displayed on the internet in shocking numbers? Or did the Swedish Fish disaster leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, scaring them away from trusting the "limited-edition" tag ever again?
One thing is clear — seasonal editions of name brand treats is a trend that's here to stay. Oreo can apparently still be the nation's favorite cookie even after declaring warfare on our tastebuds. Oreo knows exactly what it's doing. It knows where humanity stands. They know Americans have grown so used to disappointment, that we'll keep buying it for $2.99 a bag.
