OREO is releasing three new flavors by way of a limited-edition trio pack (available for presale on August 17), and the one people will stop and stare at is Chicken & Waffles.
The flavor in question features fried chicken creme and maple syrup creme, layered together and sandwiched between wafers stamped with a waffle grid. The whole thing is engineered to look like breakfast and taste like a bad idea that might work.
The cookie is vegetarian, and while it is the first sweet-and-savory cookie the brand has ever put out on American soil, the brand has dabbled in savory flavors internationally (think mushroom Oreos in parts of Asia, hot chicken wing versions in select overseas markets, and a KFC fried-chicken collab in China).
The other two flavors are less of an event and yet offer a study in contrasts. Deep Fried Cookies go three crème layers deep with dark chocolate flanking either side of vanilla, inside a wafer built to taste like something battered at a county fair.
In contrast, Banana Pudding pairs Golden OREO wafers with banana and vanilla pudding cremes, which is about as safe as OREO can get these days.
The sweet-and-savory showdown
What’s interesting about the trio of flavors isn’t just that it is a limited-edition drop that leans into both innovation and tradition. It is the fact that the release also functions as a head-to-head competition where only one will emerge on top.
OREO is calling the campaign ‘Twist, Lick, Vote.’ The setup is simple enough. Every trio pack has a QR code that allows shoppers to scan and vote once a day (every day if you like), from August 17 through October 12 (ends 11:59 p.m. ET on Oct. 12).
The winning flavor gets named on October 13, and it will then make a comeback sometime in 2027, while the other two will probably disappear into whatever limbo OREO reserves for rejected experiments.
There’s an incentive attached to getting customers involved in the campaign. Casting a vote doubles as an entry into a sweepstakes for a year’s supply of original OREOs, defined by Oreo as ten 13.29-ounce packages shipped per quarter over 12 months.
The flavors go on presale today (Aug. 17) through OREO’s website and TikTok Shop, then roll out to grocery and retail stores nationwide on Aug. 24.
Sources: PR Newswire, OREO, ePrize, Sporked