Sunday, October 25, 2015

Creeping Up On Halloween With Caramel Apple Oreo

When it comes to Halloween we do rather get obsessed with Pumpkin, or rather Pumpkin Spice. We love it, we hate it, we're over it.

Hey, I still love some pumpkin.

But apples have such a history with Halloween, and it's just feels like it's getting passe by too easily. Who doesn't love a Halloween party and some Bobbing For Apples? ...Do people still bob for apples? Is that still a thing, or is that that gone the way of peeled grapes as eyes? (Not that I really loved the messy experience to get an apple. Felt like a way to trick kids into washing their faces and getting fruit.

But the apple has it's history. The Fall caramel apple is still a joy...If you like working through hardened caramel to eat a Red Delicious apple. And then there's getting an apple when you go door to door Halloween Night...which really bit it...

But it has a noble history. The apple. Foe of many the young maiden. Biblical to Fairy Tales,


So how have we forgotten our old friend, fresh off the tree?


Well, it is a fruit, and one we have access to all year, including as a sweet. Apple Pie. Apple Crumble. Apple Juice. Apple Tea. Where's the shortage, the artificial rarity?

Who cares? If you can use it right, it's a fun treat for this season. And as noted above, it fits nicely in. And it's a break from the pumpkin, chocolate, and marshmallow.

And Oreo has  just the thing. Annoyingly, it seems it won't be around long.





Along with being "Limited Edition", I've also failed to find these anywhere, but Target. Come on! More people need access.

Still, let's talk apples. Or rather, the taste. I do like apples. Have since I was a kid. But outside pie and fresh apples, what do we usually taste? It's a tweaked flavor. Some extra sugar here. Some extra tartness there.

It's like the conversation they had recently on Purple Stuff Podcast about Pumpkin flavor. Is it really that flavor? Clove and cinnamon and something something. Once we get those first two flavors on our tongue, it's all we taste. So that's often all we are getting. If even that.

Which makes Pumpkin Spice Oreo smart. At least products that talk spice are cluing us in on what we re really getting.



So Apple? When you have it, what do we expect? Generally it's along the lines of a green apple taste. That tartness. We know that tartness. It's distinct. And it also conveys a bit of a freshness.

(If you want to taste what for we is, currently, that definitive apple flavor, try a Connell Red. It's a great mix of tart, freshness, and a nice bit of sweetness.)

But apple, is a year long treat. To make it something of the Fall, and Halloween, we add some caramel. Just a bit of naughtiness. But the caramel apple can be a pain to eat, made to sit out for some time before being eaten.

If you can convert it to a quick treat, you and I can be friends. And the Oreo approach is a success.


Like with the Pumpkin Spice cookie, they again use the vanilla cookie to hold the taste. Personally, I am all for an excuse to break from the chocolate cookies.

The cookies as a whole are an improvement on the Pumpkin Spice, holding together far better. I guess they made a better mix with the Caramel Apple.


I had thought at first I was going to have to criticize how the insides were made. They create the Caramel Apple effect by placing one part a Caramel creme and one part an Apple creme. At first glance it looks like they off and on screwed up the balance of the two.

But it seems the way they inserted the creme in the cookie causes the cremes to merge and overlap. So if you look at the creme one way, it looks like you have almost none of one of the flavors, but it's there, on the other side.

I am pleased we ended up with a sound bit of production. The cookie is balanced, so as you...work your way through the bag, it's a consistent experience. A sweet and tart and evil experience.


Curse you, Oreo! I now have to go and buy more!!!


The limited edition qualifier may be the only thing to save me.


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