An American icon reaches the century mark today: the Oreo sandwich cookie. A classic. Two crisp, round, embossed chocolate-colored wafers separated by a thin stratum of sweet white paste. Nothing but the finest sugar, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1}, riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid, high oleic canola oil and/or palm oil and/or canola oil and/or soybean oil, cocoa (processed with alkali), high fructose corn syrup, cornstarch, leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate), salt, soy lecithin (emulsifier), vanillin — an artifical flavor, chocolate. Yum.
The Oreo has been sneakerized into dozens of variations, none of them terribly memorable. When Oreos invaded China, the cookies became totally tubular. $2 billion-worth of Oreos were sold worldwide last year.
You can celebrate the 100th birthday of the Oreo with fun and games or social media, but it can also be a teachable moment. Steve Spangler uses Oreos to demonstrate the phases of the moon. Sweet!
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Tags: 100th Birthday, American cuisine, American culture, baked goods, birthdays, Centennial, cookies, history, junk food, Kraft Foods, milestones, Nabisco, Oreos, snacks
NotionsCapital 
March 6, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Nice phase animation – will never think of a decapitated Oreo now as anything but a full moon. But not definitive without a libration component, no?
http://www.universetoday.com/93973/pick-up-some-good-librations-with-this-stunning-moon-video/
January 1, 2013 at 6:56 pm
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