Oreo O’s Cereal (History, Varieties, Pictures & Commercials)

Oreo O’s is a cereal that has an Oreo flavor and is in the shape of O’s, thus its namesake. First made in 1998, Oreo O’s cereal has been somewhat elusive, but is a popular cereal with a strong fan following. The cereal has a creamy Oreo flavor and is eaten with milk as a breakfast cereal and snack for hungry consumers.

History And Information

Oreo O’s cereal was first produced in the year 1998 and was quickly taken up as a breakfast food and snack that tasted much like the Oreo namesake that Oreo O’s hails from. Produced by a joint venture with Post Cereals and Kraft Foods back when the 2 companies were once merged, Oreo O’s became popular and developed a fan following, a support base that would help keep the product alive in later years.

In the year 2001 Oreo O’s had its original recipe reformulated, adding the real cream filling. The change of recipe was said to have been to get the cereal closer to the classic taste of the Oreo cookie from where the inspiration for Oreo O’s cereal took place.

Kid guest tasters seemed to approve of the cereal at The Spokesman-Review’s reader food panel in 1998. In 2002, Oreo O’s came out with a new variety of the brand called Extreme Crème Oreo O’s cereal, and it added marshmallows for a richer and more creamy chocolate taste than the normal version.

After the initial launch, the product received several commercials promoting it on television, with one commercial in 1998 portraying a country in crisis from lack of milk due to everyone eating Oreo O’s cereal. Indeed, the product seems to have been well received, with many nostalgia-sick fans begging for the products to return to shelves after Oreo O’s was discontinued in most regions after 2007.

In 2007, the joint venture to make Oreo O’s between Post and Kraft ended, due to the formerly merged companies being separated when Post was spun-off from Kraft, leaving the fate of Oreo O’s in question, if not in peril. The companies were no longer merged, and thus no longer had entitlements to each other’s branding and properties.

With Post being spun-off and sold to Ralcorp, the companies were no longer working together on joint ventures that allowed them to both reap the rewards of co-created products like Oreo O’s, and neither company was willing to give up their rights to their own aspects to Oreo O’s. Post owned the copyrights to the cereal recipe itself, while Kraft Foods owned the rights to the name “Oreo”, and neither side seemed willing to give up their rights to the other for the product, thus this made Oreo’s become discontinued nearly worldwide.

A single company was allowed to produce the cereal after the joint venture between Post and Kraft Foods Inc. ended, that being Dongsuh Foods, based out of South Korea. Dongsuh Foods saved Oreo O’s from being discontinued worldwide, and allowed Oreo O’s to be produced in, and exported from, South Korea.

Dongsuh Foods was able to continue to produce Oreo O’s thanks to having the distributing rights to produce Post Foods cereals in South Korea, and also being that Dongsuh Foods was a joint venture of General Foods and Dongsuh Companies Inc, when Kraft acquired General Foods half of Dongsuh Foods’ stock automatically became the property of Kraft, thus making Dongsuh Foods the only company with both licenses from Post and Kraft required to make Oreo O’s.

Dongsuh Foods already had the rights to make Post cereals in South Korea, granted it the ability to produce Oreo O’s after 2007 because Dongsuh Foods was owned by Kraft after General Foods was acquired by them, and thus had the rights to make Post cereal and use Kraft brand names. Dongsuh Foods remained the only entity that could produce Oreo O’s after the former joint venture between Post and Kraft ended in 2007 until a resurgence of the Oreo O’s production in 2017.

Oreo O’s was recalled in 2014 due to Dongsuh having intentionally diluted E. coli-contaminated product with normal product. In September 2016, Dongsuh resumed selling Oreo O’s within South Korea when it spun off from General Foods. Prices of boxes of Oreo O’s that were for sale online began to fall by around soon after Dongsuh resumed selling Oreo O’s in 2016.

Regardless of the production of the cereal continuing in South Korea, the rest of the world mostly believed Oreo O’s to be totally discontinued. Social media often held users asking questions about where they could find or buy Oreo O’s, with many calling for Oreo O’s production to be re-continued. Prices for buying Oreo O’s online began to rise to over 10 dollars a box as people competed to import Oreo O’s from South Korea. Multiple petitions were launched to try to urge the production to resume, and eventually, Post and Nabisco remitted, slowly.

In early 2017, a subsidiary company of Post, Malt-O-Meal Cereals, began selling a form called “Cookies & Cream” under its brand in the United States as a market test. The only differences between the 2 products were that the marshmallows from the 2001 version of Oreo O’s weren’t included, the cereal contained artificial flavors, and it didn’t use the Oreo name for licensing reasons. Instead, the alternative was called “Cookies & Cream”, and was sold in bags in many Walmart stores.

Encouraged by the high sales data for its Oreo O’s alternative, Malt-O-Meal “Cookies & Cream”, and a marketing deal made with Walmart, Post announced that Nabisco and itself will once again co-brand Oreo’s O’s, officially announcing that Oreo O’s would resume production. Soon after, Oreo O’s were re-released with its original 1998 recipe worldwide as a Walmart Exclusive Product, including the United States on June 23, 2017.

Oreo O’s cereal will be a Walmart exclusive for 3 months after it begins being sold to the public. Post wanted the cereal to be as close to the original formula as they could get, in order to provide nearly the same experience to the consumers, and Post also confirmed it was removing the marshmallows that were a trademark from the Extreme Crème spin-off of the classic Oreo O’s.

Post has also stated to the media that Oreo O’s production is intended to continue indefinitely and that Oreo O’s is here to stay. It seems the South Korean-produced Oreo O’s still includes marshmallows.

On March 7th, 2018, The website FoodAndWine checked the last 12 months of google trends for cereal popularity and found that Oreo O’s cereal was the most popular cereal in the last 12 months for 14 states in America. With those being Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

With a seemingly successful relaunch, the media and consumers praising the production of the product, Oreo O’s seems to be expanding with new varieties of its classic version for the first time in years. In May 2018, Golden Oreo O’s was released, featuring golden corn pieces in the shapes of an O, with a rich vanilla creme flavor. This marks the first time a major new variety of Oreo O’s has been introduced into the Oreo O’s brand since 2002 When Extreme Crème Oreo O’s were released.

The Year Oreo O’s Cereal Was First Made

Oreo O’s cereal was first made in the year 1998, with much applause and with creative advertisements. The cereal was aimed at children and acknowledged it was a chocolate product but that kids wanted it anyway.

The Companies That Makes Oreo O’s

Oreo O’s cereal is produced by Post Consumer Brands and is co-branded by Nabisco, both located in the United States. Oreo O’s is also produced by Dongsuh Foods, located in South Korea. Post Foods and Nabisco resumed making and selling cereal on June 23 after a long gap with Dongsuh Foods was the sole seller during that period.

More About Who Makes Oreo O’s

Who it is that exactly makes Oreo O’s can be slightly confusing, so this section will clarify the answer for readers. Oreo O’s cereal is a joint venture between the once merged Post (Now Post Consumer Brands) and Kraft Foods Inc.

(Now Mondelēz International), both large food and snack producers. Oreo O’s can be produced by both companies, though there is an impression that Post seems to be the primary one that is actually doing the manufacturing of Oreo O’s, however that is speculation.

One other company does have the rights to produce Oreo O’s, that being Dongsuh Foods, who was the only food producer in the world for a decade that could produce Oreo O’s, until Post and Mondelēz International hashed things out and Co-branded them together again in 2017.

Dongsuh Foods was a joint venture between the General Foods and Dongsuh Companies, and was a subsidiary company partly owned by Kraft and has its own licenses to produce Post cereals. Dongsuh Foods was spun-off from Kraft and General Foods and is still selling Oreo O’s.

Why Oreo O’s Was Discontinued

In 2007, Oreo O’s cereal was discontinued in all areas except for South Korea. The reason Oreo O’s was discontinued had to do with ownership, rights, and companies not working together.

Oreo O’s cereal was originally a joint venture between merged 2 companies, Post and Kraft Foods Inc., and each company provided different aspects to the product. Kraft provided the name branding rights for Oreo’s, and Post provided the recipe for the product, with each company having its own rights respectively.

Even though Oreo O’s was a success, the company eventually stopped split and thus working together and the joint venture ended, and with it, so did Oreo O’s. However, all was not lost for fans of the cereal, because 1 company in South Korea, Dongsuh Foods had its own rights to produce Oreo O’s in South Korea.

Dongsuh Foods became the only company to make Oreo O’s cereal for 10 years, giving the impression that Oreo O’s was completely discontinued.

In reality, people in South Korea could still buy Oreo O’s, and fans of the cereal would import it into other countries, but acquiring Oreo O’s was still a challenge for most people. The packaging on the South Korean Oreo O’s was different also, in the picture and in language.

Eventually, Oreo O’s was produced large-scale again once Post and Mondelez International, (formerly Kraft Foods Inc.), decided to work together to Co-brand and produce the cereal, bringing Oreo O’s back onto shelves.

Oreo O’s Cereal Returns To Stores

In 2017, Oreo O’s cereal has once again entered production large-scale worldwide, after a decade-long hiatus. It is now being produced worldwide again thanks to Post and Kraft’s Nabisco subsidiary working together to co-brand and make the breakfast cereal and snack. Fan and media have been quite ecstatic at the news, with many media outlets and social sites talking about the new release of the product.

It is not surprising that there was hype to the news that Oreo O’s was returning, with many fans, even entire media outlets, all calling for the production to resume. Indeed, there have been several petitions circulating online pushing for the return of Oreo O’s, and well as a near-constant buying pressure on imports of Oreo O’s to prove its desirability to consumers, with listed prices for imports of boxes of Oreo O’s cereal reaching over $$226.80 U.S dollars at times on sites like eBay.

In May 2017, Post Cereals announced that it would restart production indefinitely starting June 23. A Post spokesperson said in a statement, “Fans of the iconic OREO O’s cereal will find the product has stayed true to its roots, with OREO cookie bits and a crème coating combined to make the chocolaty, crunchy O’s that can be enjoyed in a bowl with milk, or straight out of the box,”

According to PopSugar. Post is making Oreo O’s cereal-based as closely possible on its original recipe from 1998 and is aiming to provide nearly the same experience. Of note, the South Korean version of Oreo O’s cereal produced by Dongsuh Foods still appears to contain marshmallows and a design based on the Extreme Crème Oreo O’s version.

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Types And Varieties

Oreo O’s has had several types, versions, and flavors introduced.

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The Original Oreo O’s:

The original Oreo O’s cereal was released in the year 1998. It contains a chocolaty flavor of cereal with an Oreo-like taste and branding. This was the original formula of Oreo ‘O’s before any changes were added in 2001.

The cereal was an immense hit and was popular for an enjoyable chocolate taste when combined with milk. Advertisements for the original Oreo O’s joked in a news parody about how the nation was running out of milk due to the cereal.

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The Reformulated Version

In 2001, Oreo O’s had a change to its recipe. The change was said to have included a new type of real cream filling. This marks the first known change to the cereals formula and added to what seemed to be the following trend of increasing the creamy taste of Oreo’s O’s after this change. Perhaps the idea was to make Oreo O’s taste more like Oreo’s or to be perceived as such.

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Extreme Creme Oreo O’s:

In the year 2002, a new version called Extreme Creme Oreo O’s was released. This new version of the cereal added marshmallows to the cereal, giving it a new look and taste. The Extreme Creme version aimed to produce a more rich and creamy taste to the chocolaty cereal. This change further adds to the previously reformulated recipe of Oreo O’s, which was already leaning in the direction of making a more creamy taste.

The new marshmallows added into the cereal also gave much more of an “Oreo” look, with the familiar black and white / chocolate and cream style that standard Oreo’s have thus been very visible in Oreo O’s cereal.

One may wonder if making the cereal look more like real Oreo’s was partially the intent of these changes, or perhaps it was all about the taste in the end, with the product leaning to making the taste of the cereal or the impression of it to be more like real Oreo’s. Dongsuh Foods, selling out of South Korea, appears to still produce the Extreme Creme version as of 2019.

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The New Oreo O’s Version:

On June 23, 2017, the new version of the cereal marked the brand’s re-release back into major distribution. Redesigned to be similar to the classic formula of the original, the new version brought Oreo O’s back into the homes of many people worldwide.

The taste and look of the new version of the cereal is similar to the original, however, there are some differences, such as corn flour being the main ingredient in the new version of Oreo O’s, vs oat being the prime ingredient in the original version of Oreo O’s. Other ingredients have also changed, as well as the taste of the cereal.

However, the new version is still a solid attempt to remain faithful to the classic taste and hits pretty close to the mark. The new version of Oreo O’s was largely well-received, with consumers largely liking the taste, and the product was released to much excitement and fanfare.

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Golden Oreo O’s:

Golden Oreo O’s Cereal is a new version of Oreo O’s introduced in May 2018. It marks the largest change in Oreo O’s, drastically turning away from the chocolate craze and moving into a more vanilla and sugary flavor zone. Golden Oreo O’s has a vanilla and sugar flavor and can be described as somewhat shortbread-like in taste.

This version moves away from having a focus on a creme taste that used to be the increasing trend for the Oreo O’s brand, and adds more of a frosted-like or sugary bread-like taste, with vanilla. It is still somewhat similar to the other versions of chocolate Oreo O’s, despite its different in taste.

Golden Oreo O’s generated a lot of excitement, being so soon after the re-release of the chocolate version of the Oreo O’s after many years of the cereal being in limited production. The reviews to the cereal have been mixed, with many saying the chocolate version is better, however, Golden Oreo’s O’s does have its fans.

The real buzz from the release of Golden Oreo O’s has largely been speculation about if other new versions of Oreo O’s will be made, perhaps with the cereal taking a leaf out of the real Oreo’s book and creating products inspired by the normal Oreo, such as “Red Velvet Oreo O’s, or Mint Creme Chocolate Oreo O’s”.

This, of course, is an exciting notion to fans of Oreo O’s, although, at the time of the release of Golden Oreo O’s it is still just merely fantasy and speculation.

Box And Packaging Style

The packaging of Oreo O’s cereal is similar to most cereals in that it comes in a cardboard box that serves as its outer packaging, protector, and box art canvas, along with an inner plastic bag that holds the actual cereal inside of it. The original packaging art of the first edition of Oreo O’s cereal was a blue-colored box with a large white lettered print that popped out to the eye and read “Oreo O’s” in the center of the box.

The top half of the package had a small red back-rounded and white lettered “Post” logo at the top, with the bottom half of the packaging being taken up with a depiction of a bowl of the cereal with milk in it and a splashing effect for the cereal and milk so that it looked like the cereal or milk was being poured.

The flap area to open and close to the cereal box had Oreo O’s written on it as well as a small Post logo to show the company that produced it.

The new edition of Oreo O’s that are produced by Post after the cereal was reintroduced by the company contains a similar box art and packaging style. The blue box color is still there, though it is now a lighter shade of blue. The big white lettering is still in the center of the box, but now it says “Oreo O’s Cereal” rather than simply “Oreo O’s”, and the lettering is slightly less prominent.

The red and white Post logo has been moved to the upper right-hand corner of the box, rather than the center upper part, and now includes a golden-colored sun-like symbol within the Post logo red background.

For a limited time, the new Oreo O’s box released in the U.S had a green rectangle strip across the packaging that said “New!” on it and was partly overlapped the Post logo in the upper right-hand corner of the cereal’s box.

The new Post Consumer Brands sold an edition of Oreo O’s also contains a depiction of milk being poured into the bowl shown on the bottom half of the packaging for the cereal, finally solving the mystery of why the cereal and milk seemed to be splashing about. The marshmallow mascot was removed from the American box art on Oreo’s O’s cereals packaging in the newer version.

The old South Korean version of the cereal had a different packaging and box art style. Keeping the characteristic blue color of the box style, the South Korean version also had a lighter blue area in the center of the packaging art that seemed to depict a spotlight of sorts highlighting the largely white South Korean writing that said “Oreo O’s”.

The South Korean box of Oreo O’s also showed pieces of marshmallows zooming around on the packaging artwork, as well as a marshmallow mascot looking as if he was diving into or being thrown away from the large depiction of a bowl of Oreo O’s cereal and milk, with the same splashing effects as the original box release for Oreo O’s in the United States.

The new South Koran version packaging contains some minor differences from the older version of packaging. The mascot on the newer version of the box art has been moved to the center, with a more realistic spotlight effect around the center area where the mascot is looking like it is diving feet first into a bowl of the cereal.

The bowl with the cereal in it that is depicted on the box art seems to contain fewer marshmallow bits on the cereal pieces, and the cereal pieces seem a bit darker. Also, the bowl of cereal depicted on the box art of the packaging now seem to have milk being poured into it, finally explaining where the splashing effect of milk in the bowl comes from, The Post logo in red is still in the upper right-hand part of the packaging, though is slightly larger than the older South Korean style of Oreo O’s box art. The top part of the box now has a red and white streaked across it, making the post logo more noticeable.

The new South Koran version of thepackaging released in 2016 contains some minor differences to the older version of packaging. The mascot on the newer version of the box art has been moved to the center, with a more realistic spotlight effect around the center area where the mascot is looking like it is diving feet first into a bowl of Oreo O’s cereal.

The bowl with the cereal in it that is depicted on the box art seems to contain fewer marshmallow bits on the cereal pieces, and the cereal pieces seem a bit darker. Also, the bowl of cereal depicted on the box art of the packaging now seem to have milk being poured into it, explaining where the splashing effect of milk in the bowl comes from, The Post logo in red is still in the upper right-hand part of the packaging, though is slightly larger than the older South Korean style of Oreo O’s box art.

The top part of the box now has a red and white streaked across it, making the Post logo more noticeable.

A special Halloween packaging style was released for Oreo O’s cereal, featuring a ghost marshmallow creature soaring across the top of the box as the mascot. This box features an orange-colored announcement blurb on the box, showing the box to be a limited Halloween candy edition box, as well as orange flecks on the cereal pieces depicted on the box art.

The box featured a “ghoulish” sound when opened, and dared the consumer to go ahead and open the box if they dared. The Post logo is shown in the top center of the box, right where the ghost-like marshmallow mascot is displayed, with the red Post logo basically resting on or over the mascot.

The Golden cereal edition included a different packaging style. Rather than the typical blue coloration of all the other boxes of the cereal, this version was colored yellow-gold. Golden Oreo O‘s featured a bowl of yellow cereal pieces in a bowl with a stream of milk pouring into it and splashing cereal around.

The box packaging is a yellow and gold shade of color, with the recognizable red, white, and gold Post logo remaining in the upper left-hand corner of the box art. A green banner featuring the words “new” was included across the top of the box art.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for Oreo O’s.

• Corn Flour
• Sugar
• Whole Grain Oat Flour
• Cocoa (processed with al- kali)
• Canola Oil
• Corn Syrup
• Unbleached
• Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, niacin, re- duced iron, thiamin mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Ribofavin (Vitamin B2), folic acid)
• Salt
• Degermed Corn Meal
• Natural and Artifcial Flavor
• Cornstarch
• Palm Oil
• Titanium Diox- ide (color)
• Chocolate Liquor, High Fructose
• Corn Syrup
• Leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate)
• Soy Lecithin
• BHT to Preserve Freshness

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 cup cereal (30g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat	14
Calories	120
Total Fat	1.5g	2%
Saturated Fat	0g	0%
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	150mg	6%
Potassium	45mg	1%
Total Carbohydrates	25g	8%
Dietary Fiber	0.5g	2%
Sugars	13g
Protein	1g
Vitamin A		0%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		0%
Iron		20%

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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