Food Theory: The DARK Secret of Oreos

Oreo is literally the guy who repeated your joke louder and became popular with everyone.

I’ve never heard of Hydrox before, and I genuinely want to try them now.
That being said, sounding like a mouthwash isn’t gonna help them

I’ve had hydrox cookies, and honestly, they taste better than Oreos ironically

How did Matpat not cover the lawsuit? Oreo actually sued Hydrox for copyright infringement. Even though Hydrox proved they came out first from two different sources still lost and had to pay Oreo a cut of its profit.

*Oreo every time Hydrox makes a comeback*
Oreo: "Stay down. Final warning".
Hydrox: "I can do this all day".

I had no idea that big food companies could send their representatives to stock store shelves. I would like to hear more about business tricks like that if possible? Very interesting history on Oreos vs Hydrox!

Lol imagine Hydrox loyalists working under Oreos' parent company being all secretive and whispering to each other, "Hail Hydrox."

Hydrox has always sounded like a chemical to me. Even though it stands for basically the chemical compound of water it reminds me more of Clorox.

I think my grandmother actually preferred Hydrox cookies over Oreos. I have this vague memory of her putting them into a vintage cookie jar and getting mad when I called them oreos. (Because I didn't know Hydrox existed at the time.)

I’m actually not surprised that Hydrox is hidden on the shelves because I’ve never seen or heard of it ever in my life

Oreos and hydrox: *having a feud*
Tates bakery: let me introduce myself

With how the comments are, Oreo is gonna come at MatPat with a cease and desist because their sales are gonna tank 🤣

Gotta change my name to hydrox now I guess

At my Walmart, Hydrox is actually placed at the end of the coffee aisle and is stocked by the Walmart employees, a full 22 aisles away from Oreo. That way Oreo has NO say in where it goes

This story of two brothers working together only to end up in a massive fight over what would eventually become a legendary product of the food industry reminds me a lot of the Kellogg Brothers

After watching this video, next time I go to the grocery store I will be looking for the Hydrox cookies. I really want to taste them now 😋

Even now, I still eat Hydrox. My parents ate them as kids because they were the only kosher ones, so I ate the too. They are delicious and I think they are way better than Oreos. Also, their outside of the biscuit is way more detailed than an Oreo.

I grew up eating Hydrox, and Oreo was there as well, but my mother bought the cheaper brand. They were literally the same thing but cheaper. Some snacks can’t be copied(Doritos comes to mind) but hydrox was fine, I feel bad for them

This dude did a better job advertising Hydrox than their whole marketing team

I love how Lunchables had to change from Oreos to “Chocolate Creme Sandwich Cookies”.

I remember eating Hydrox back in '94, my mother and I braved a snow storm to go to Walmart one night out of boredom. For whatever reason she purchased a package of Hydrox instead of Oreos. I was 9 and I remember being so confused by this Oreo looking cookie, I also remember it had a distinctively different taste from Oreo, the cream had an almost marshmallow aftertaste if I recall.

I didn’t realize how crazy big Mondelez was until I nearly got a job as a product placer for them in my last semester of college, they literally own like 30+ brands for their placing on the shelves of stores, it’s insane

am i the only one that still continues eating whatever he doesnt tell us to eat and watches this just for fun?

I’m allergic to Dairy and once ate an Oreo in front of my friends. They were horrified and asked where my epipen was. I had to laugh and tell them Oreos don’t contain dairy, and showed them the package ingredients list to prove it. They started freaking out wondering if there’s no dairy then what on earth is the cream in the middle 😂

Sounds like you need to do a part 2 of this theory and do a blind taste test!!

I love how Matpat goes out of his way to give us a cheesy pun at the start of every food theory video! 💕

As much as I love Oreo, I will now buy some Hydrox if I ever happen to see them. Now I see I will probably have to really look for them, though. That seems really wrong to be able to dictate how store shelves are arranged, especially that of competitors. That really should be up to the store.

If I ever see hydrox in a store, I'll definitely try it
I don't normally eat oreos, because of how bad they are, so this could be a better alternative

You know, I think that to end the sandwich cookie feud we need to choose a side. I choose Hydrox!

It always weirds me out how many of these older business stories involve friends or family betraying the other.

Fun fact a guy named Ellia who was a close family member of the owner of Leaf decided to bring back Hydrox after thinking about all the great sweets that had been discontinued such as the Astro pops lollipops Leaf made. He bought the company and started to bring back Hydrox with some food scientists

Also, Oreos are biscuits not cookies. Telling the difference between a biscuit and a cookie is a talent Brits have.

I’m gonna look for hydrox cookies now. Wish they would make a gluten free version

Haven't watched yet but the little quiz reminded me of when I bought myself a standard pack of birthday cake Oreos, sat down to binge watch some Doctor Who, and after a few episodes I reached down to grab another cookie when my hand touched empty packaging. I just remember thinking, "Well that's not good."

"Oreo, I've come to bargain!"
-Hydrox every time Oreo makes a dirty move
btw, what's the name of the song at the end? The one during the sponsor segment?

I work at a grocery store and I actually can confirm that the Hydrox cookies are usually on the top shelf while the Oreos get a whole section of shelves for all their flavors of cookies.

Love these videos. The way he can take a random subject or object and build such interesting factual entertaining videos is honestly amazing. Fantastic work

You missed something. The lawyer helping with documents made himself the head of Nabisco not the brothers, that's why they started a different company.

So remember when you said the Hydrox and Oreo has the similarities, "Flavorings, Colors, Filling, and Biscuit", the last three are correct, but the flavorings are really different, I've bought myself one pack of Hydrox a few months later after watching this video, and I tried one, it's good, but WAY different to the Oreo I grew up with, just saying...

I find oreos to be one of those foods you get tired of eating quite quickly. Fav cookies? nothin beats freshly baked as was said with actual ingredients, not some funky chemicals.

Funny how you added the delorian. Imagine going down THAT timeline. “Im getting more Hydrox from the grocery store”. 😆 it really does sound like chemicals lol.

I’ve literally walked past these cookies in a Kroger and thought “Why does Oreo have so many ripoffs?” I now know who the imposter is

This seems like an interesting case to take to the US anti-trust and monopoly board. They've literally got control over how consumers interact with their competitor's products at the point of sale. How can this be anything but acting as a monopoly to push competitors out of the market?

Never knew those sweet and innocent looking little cookies were so cut throat. I see Oreo differently now. From now on I'll eat them while saying a silent prayer for Hydrox. Sad. 🍪😂💀

🙊Woah, I've seen those Hydrox cookies shoved to the corner on the shelf near Oreos at Kroger a while back. I remember thinking what is this sad Oreo rip off lol. This video changed everything.

hydrox: "yes pat thats the plan. it was supposed to be a surprise hostile takeover but you just told the world our plan"

Thank God the GF Oreo exists! My favourite cookie of all-time! Unfortunately, I had to cut back. No longer in those years of being able to eat whatever I want without consequences. Most of us get here one point or another.

Hydrox should hire Food Theory as their ad rep. This video actually made me want to switch over to Hydrox just to stick it to a big corporation like Nabisco.

None of the above. I put my Oreos in a bowl and pour the milk over them like cereal. There is literally no other way I know to eat an Oreo.

This whole video felt like Matt’s wife was away for the weekend, so the boys took over! Love it!!!

Going to the store in an hour, will check to see if they have Hydrox. I wanna do a blind taste test.

Great, now I can never conscientiously allow myself to eat an Oreo ever again. Thanks, MatPat

My Dad used to work at the Oreo factory here in Illinois, they closed the factory and moved production to Mexico. All those good paying commercial bakery jobs gone!

Oh boy, I can’t wait until we learn about the “secret history of Fanta” 💀.

So what you're saying is that Oreos are the real imposter and that innocent Hydrox got sent into space!?

I worked for a company that designed the shelves for Kroger. I stocked them. They definitely control every centimeter of the shelf so no mistakes were allowed in food and sticker placement. I made a good amount and worked from 11 to 7 four days a week.

I know this is an old video, but I have it mention Oreos are vegan. They were one of the few cookies we could give to campers with food restrictions and allergies to milk and egg. Which was ALOT more than I ever expected.

I swear if he doesn’t end it with “and that’s how the cookie crumbles” I WILL FREAK OUT

I've had both a bunch of times. It's like Pepsi vs Coke and Oreo is the Coke of cookies. Obviously the better tasting option

Fun fact: Oreo's are not "cookies" in all their legal documents, they call the outside bits "Base cakes"

Internet: "why do you ruin our childhoods?"
MatPat: "Internet, I am not trying to ruin your childhood, I'm just a simple youtuber with a tin foil hat and a vendetta against all things pure in this world"

I actually eat my Oreos kinda weird… I grab a thin tipped fork, shove that between the cookies into the cream, dunk that into the milk until it gets to that soggy yummy state and then eat it off the fork, it’s suuuuuper helpful cause I don’t have to get my fingers in the milk and I still have milk with my cookies 😂☺️🤤

I actually pop the whole cookie in my mouth and take a little swig of milk until it's evenly soaked.

After watching this I've been trying to find Hydrox cookies because I genuinely wanna try them. Only problem is, I can't find them ANYWHERE. I see an Amazon listing and their official website showing they are available, but they're not for sale anywhere I can find a product listing on them. The fact they use the original historic recipe without deviation is intriguing to me. A company using something real without being an uber expensive niche product is something I can get behind. In addition, I'm just a huge nerd who wants to experience those moments others have had before. You can't taste a KFC meal like the Colonel made, or an Oreo from the early days... but you can taste the cookie that they ripped off from.
If anyone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

This video inspired my family to search out Hydrox- we finally got our first pack and they are so much better than Oreos 😂 Thanks!!

Says something about me when my answer to the video's first question is "E - I hold the thing down as it's submerged until the bubbles stop showing." Legit food for thought right there.

If I work at grocery stores, I will fight for hydrox. I will move them to the front and fight the food fight. Hail Hydrox!

Look, I eat Oreos the same way everyone else does: one human soul at a time.

Ah yes nothing better than watching MatPat at 2am while eating oreos you had in your bag and listening to him talking about them.

this honestly makes me want to try hydrox now

Fun Fact: There was another person who helped unite all three baking companies into the company we all know today as Nabisco. This person was named Adolphus Green, he was a lawyer and the founder of Nabisco who worked with Joseph Loose to conglomerate all the baking companies into one entity and ended up betraying the Loose Brothers by rewriting the contract to make himself the CEO while making the Loose Brothers as Board Members.

I feel like want to try Hydrox out of spite now. I wonder which actually tasted better

The fact that MatPat has to clarify that ‘Kosherized’ is a real word makes me feel like while writing the script for this episode, him and Steph had a debate on whether or not it was the proper term.

Legit, I’m going find me some Hydrox and do a comparison between the two cookies! I’m obsessed with Oreos, but I must know!lol 😈👏🏾👏🏾

Speaking of Oreos MatPat, remember that one time you said, and I quote, "Ah, look at that thick layer of cream in there - I want that thickness inside of my bo-"

I always thought Hydrox should be called Hyyro (Hero). That way they keep the H2O origins with a soft and more approachable name. Then you could Call it the "Hero cookie".

I want to say ive seen this cookie brand before, but im honestly drawing a blank.... Imma have to grab a pack and try em out now!

I always preferred Hydrox. As a kid, it was fun to say. Im 66yrs, and today I found out what the name meant....🙃 Will go out of my way now to find them, and re arrainge them if they need it. 😁

I actually feel bad for Hydrox, they came up with this good product and got completely ripped off, and they were brothers too!

When the crewmate you have been following around the entire game turns out to be the imposter

Orthodox Jew here, and I totally loved the whole explanation of kosherizing (Grammarly agrees that it's a real word, btw).

I’ve heard of this story before, and it was shocking.

"Third time is the charm"
Hydrox:this is my oportunity

I LOVE the ‘coming back from the dead’ segment (as long as it tastes good, I don’t really care WHO comes out on top)

Tbh I don't see how a cookie that sounds like a laundry detergent is gonna make some miraculous comeback.

I'm just wondering how you stopped at the second sleeve.
And I eat my ores with a glass of milk and a spoon. Grab 3 to 4 toss them in your milk. Smash em with the spoon and chow down. Once I start regretting how many I've eaten I give the milk a stir and gulp it down.

Love the way you deliver your documentaries.

Love it. I'm around your age so I always like learning more about applying eye make-up especially. Thanks for the vid.

The fact that Oreos are accidentally vegan is fantastic.

One of my personal favorite episodes, and to answer the man’s question, I just eat it with milk

this still doesn't make me think twice before destroying an entire pack of Oreos.

As a kid, I thought of Hydrox as the cheap knock-off. In fact, they were the original.

For the beginning part, I'm actually the type of guy who stabs the cream with a fork, dumps the entire cookie in milk and then put it in my mouth but that's just me.

And we can't forget E. Eat the cream between the cookie and then put the cookie back in the sleeve when you're done eating the cream between the cookie!! :D

The annoying thing is, it's hard to choose which brand is worse
Oreo may be the copycat, but hydrox chose to leave when Nabisco was just trying to help when he was recovering

My family actually preferred Hydrox cookies over oreos. They were cheaper & tasted sweeter.

Personally, I throw my whole cookie into a glass of milk, wait approximately 8 seconds, fish it out with a spoon, eat it whole, and repeat the process in a trance like state until I eventually come to realizing I need a new package of oreos.

The interesting thing about brands in grocery stores is that in specific aisles, mainly the cookie and cereal aisles, they actually have to have reps from each company to come in when the store wants to change how things are shelved in any way shape or form since they all have guidelines on who has to go where.

This is probably why Nabisco finally came out with a Gluten Free version of their cookie not so long ago - another one upping over the original !

I'm gonna use this video to get the info I need for a presentation im making because I know all these facts have been researched thoroughly