REVIEW: Limited Edition Swedish Fish Oreo Cookies

Limited Edition Swedish Fish Oreo Cookies

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

Dr. Ian Malcolm famously spoke this line in Jurassic Park, and ever since, it echoes in my brain whenever a particularly weird, strange, or repulsive snack food is released. But I bet even Dr. Malcolm would choose an ocean cruise in a plesiosaur’s stomach over a tall stack of Swedish Fish Oreo Cookies. Nabisco might as well have printed the word “WHY?” on the side of every wafer.

But I plan to eat these Oreo cookies with an open mind. Why?

Because I may not be a Jurassic paleontologist, but I am a self-described gummy-ologist. I’ve documented every species of gummy bear. I once caught a 30-pound blue gummy shark with a single gummy worm. Heck, I even rallied for gummy octopus rights when I discovered their intelligence was nearly on par with humans.

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But Swedish Fish Oreos are an entirely different creature. Even though they have Oreo’s iconic, pleasantly crunchy, and cocoa buttery chocolate cookie wafers, Swedish Fish Oreo have a unique creme filling the world hasn’t tasted since the Paleozoic era.

Or so I’m assuming, since the decision to make Swedish Fish Oreo could’ve only been made by either a Neanderthal or a giant roulette wheel in Nabisco’s office.

See, this creme isn’t perfectly pillowy, soft, and squishy. It’s a little more sticky, chewy, and dare I say…slimy. It cracks and falls apart like a child’s Play-Doh diorama of the Berlin Wall, and each Oreo I opened contained a different Rorschach test image in its pasty folds. Below I see Donald Trump angrily looking out a castle window:

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The creme’s taste, though, is just like Swedish Fish. It has potent, puckering pops of candied cherry and a slightly off-putting finish of waxy gelatin. I could probably recreate it with a box of Swedish Fish and a blender, but like shooting fish in a barrel, eating fish in an Oreo is way easier.

I can’t say if it’s more pleasant, though. Eating the cookie and creme together, I can really only taste the overpowering cherry creme. There’s a processed chocolate aftertaste, but even then, it has to battle for supremacy with the cherry cough syrup layer that the creme plastered on the back of my throat.

I really wanted to like Swedish Fish Oreo, but the “crispy fruit medicine puree” textural contrast is too much for even a quasi-licensed gummy-ologist. I thought dunking them might intensify the chocolate flavor, but I worried that dipping these bizarre things in milk might make the beverage renounce Oreo as its favorite cookie.

So since I already felt ridiculous, I dipped ‘em in Kool-Aid instead.

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Surprisingly, it wasn’t even bad. When soggy, the cocoa wafers are “activated,” and the whole Oreo starts to taste like a vaguely pleasant Dirt Pie.

Remember Dirt Pies? Those chocolate pudding cups with scattered Oreo crumb soil and gummy worms on top? The desserts you haven’t had since your cousin’s 4th grade Halloween party? They’re delicious, and after squinting my eyes and eating a juice-soaked Swedish Fish Oreo, I relived a little of that nostalgia.

For 99 percent of people, these cookies will be a major “no.” The texture’s weird, the flavor’s medicinal, and the smell would scare a coyote. But for those rare one percent who are eternal kids-at-heart and want to scratch a doozy off their “Culinary Adventure Bucket List,” then oh boy, does Nabisco have an Oreo for you.

As for me? I’m just gonna lay down and dream about Dirt Pies for a week.

(Nutrition Facts – 2 cookies – 140 calories, 60 calories from fat, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 35 milligrams of potassium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and less than 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 10.7 oz package
Purchased at: Kroger
Rating: 3 out of 10
Pros: Wistful Dirt Pie memories. Completing my Gummy Pokédex. Cookie creme ink blot tests. Googling pictures of plesiosaurs to cleanse my palate.
Cons: Chemical cherry fish paste. Chocolate flavor that disappears faster than Houdini. Scraping the bottom of the flavor idea fish barrel. “Oreo: Milk’s Recently Divorced Cookie.” The falling Frankenstein piñata that broke my nose at my cousin’s 4th grade Halloween party.

21 thoughts to “REVIEW: Limited Edition Swedish Fish Oreo Cookies”

  1. This is such a weirdly specific flavour.

    Also, love how blatantly the “limited edition” is plastered on the package, exclamation point and all, as if begging consumers to buy them.

  2. Swedish Fish are becoming “that brand.” You know, the one that doesn’t have new ideas/innovation within the brand itself and instead partner with gum and cookie companies. I thought the idea of Swedish Fish gum was bad, but Swedish Fish Oreos sound even worse.

    On a somewhat related note, what happened to the trademark Oreo packaging with the pull tab on top? This package doesn’t have the tab. Also, the whole front of the package looks weird because there the whole bottom left of the package doesn’t have anything on it.

  3. Couldn’t they just have used the vanilla wafers instead? that sounds 100% more appealing.

  4. When “dirt pie” was a new thing, we brought a flower pot of it (with flowers in it, stems wrapped in plastic of course so they didn’t get the pudding and such on them) to my aunt’s house. Then I started eating bits of the dirt in front of them, to their horror lol

  5. The new swedish Oreos looked and smelled soooooo good, until I took a bite and it all went down hill! The sweetness of the red filling is overwhelming…. I almost felt like I was biting into a piece of sour gum covered in chocolate. The flavors together are not flattering and almost a gooey texture. I will stick to orea thins! Thank you.

  6. What ticks me off is a bag of Oreos is like $3 but Amazon sells them for $12 plus S&H!!! Ridiculous!!you can’t buy them anywhere but one store that’s not anywhere near me so Amazon is going to rip everyone off who wants to try them! I wanted them for my son who loves Swedish Fish but guess he’s sticking with the candy?

  7. Zis is zie rarest gummy of zem all: zie gummy Venus De Milo! Hand carved by gummy artisans who work exclusively in zie medium of gummy.

  8. I bought these on a whim yesterday. I love Swedish fish and I love Oreos. What could possibly go wrong?

    A lot.

    The cherry flavor is so ridiculously overpowering that I could even taste the cookie. I couldn’t even tell I was eating an Oreo. My husband wouldn’t try one. My son turned up his nose. My daughter, normally the household disposal and lover of all cookies, took one bite and spit it out.

    They’ll be that cookie that I find buried under this year’s reject Halloween candy two years from now, in the barren lands of the top shelf of my pantry.

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