I remember when I was a kid my mom used to bring home Hydrox cookies. That was the brand name. They were almost identical to Oreos, but they were cheaper. So that’s the one that was chosen over the more popular Oreos. The Oreos were so much better, so you get what you pay for. Or were they?

There are people who swear Hydrox were actually the better cookie. The name itself was a combination of the words hydrogen and oxygen. Eating cookies certainly had nothing to do with two of the essential elements of life on earth, but maybe the Sunshine Baking Company was trying to give that impression when Hydrox was introduced in 1908.

Four years later Oreos were introduced and even though Hydrox had the better cream filling – more flavorful and less sweet, plus a crunchier cookie that didn’t dissolve when dipped in milk, Oreos were perceived to be the better cookie.

Why? Advertising. Nabisco put on a huge promotional campaign to push Oreos. It worked on me. There were so many kids’ TV shows sponsored by Nabisco when I was growing up and since they pushed Oreos so often, you couldn’t help think they were the better cookie.

So what happened to Hydrox? They were a distant second in cookie sales and the brand was bought and sold to a number of different companies over the years until Kellogg’s brought it back for a limited run for its 100th anniversary in 2008. Then it kind of faded away into cookie history again.

 

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