Before the Saja Boys in KPop Demon Hunters, there was BTS.
If you live under a rock (no shade), BTS is a seven-member South Korean boy band that officially crossed over to the US charts around 2017 and was absolutely on fire – breaking Billboard records and creating catchy tracks that had everyone’s Spotify Wrapped looking a little different.
Then, one by one, all seven members headed off for mandatory military service in South Korea.
But their comeback? Wild. Their fanbase, called ARMY, is voracious and ready, and the proof is in the cookie: BTS’ World Tour sold out, and on top of that, they completely sold out their Oreo x BTS Cookies on the Oreo website (including the pre-sale) before most of us could even get to checkout. But now the cookie collab is available in brick-and-mortar stores.
The flavor they chose is appropriately personal: hotteok, a warm brown sugar-stuffed pancake popular in Korean street food markets that BTS has fond childhood memories of.
To honor their 13th anniversary as a group, BTS apparently designed all 13 unique embossments themselves, which already puts this above other Oreo music collabs (looking at you, Selena Gomez: only six special designs? Ha!).
The embossments include things like the BTS light stick (a wand that pulses to the beat of their music), member names, Korean finger hearts, and love notes to ARMY. Three of the designs even piece together into a hidden message – spoiler: BTS loves ARMY. Cute! The embossing itself is also impressively crisp and clear. No accidentally merged letters. Props!
The wafers are a pleasant lavender color. Oreo’s first-ever purple cookie was created specifically to honor ARMY, since purple symbolizes love and trust within the fandom after one member coined “I Purple You.”
Eating it, though, it turns out it’s a dyed golden Oreo, and that’s perfectly fine by me. Some cookies arrived cracked and/or broken, boo, but most were intact.
It smells like sweet caramel, but the creme’s flavor gives big brown sugar boba vibes in the best way. The creme has a mixed swirl of tan and white with little flecks throughout. Scraping some with my front teeth, I realized the flecks are sugary flavor crystals that enhance the whole experience. Eaten whole, it’s dang good, and the cookie part nods to the pancake-y exterior of a hotteok.
This is probably my favorite Oreo flavor in a long, long time. If you find this limited edition flavor, cop it!
Purchased Price: $5.29
Size: 10.68 oz
Purchased at: Meijer
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 cookies/29 grams) 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (includes 12 grams of added sugar), and less than 1 gram of protein.