Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of trying a new creation at McDonald’s… a twist on its traditional handheld apple pie… the Cookies & Creme pie.

Wow.

Barely a month after I tried the Grimace Shake (also McDonald’s!) and a week after I posted about the new churro-flavored Kit Kat, we see the summer has proved fruitful in its unusual and delicious food items. Yes, searching out such is a favorite hobby of mine.

I’ve posted about it here, I’ve talked about it on the podcast, and someday I’ll write a book about it. A popular book, perhaps, or maybe a doctoral thesis, because this stuff gets a little heavy. I’m going to call it, at least for now, the Oreoification of America. What’s Oreoification? The branching out of a single product into wilder and wilder flavors. Why Oreo? To my mind they were the first. Everyone is doing it now–Kit Kat, Pop-Tart, Pringles, M&Ms… McDonald’s pies–but there’s no better example than Oreo. What existed for nearly a hundred years as an Oreo, your basic black-and-white variety, an “Oreo” now comes in dozens of flavors, from “special edition” brands to holiday themes to collaborations with other snack items.

It’s evidence of a broader theme of individuality in our culture. Creating one’s own playlist, as it were. The fractured universe of news and entertainment has entered our snack foods as well.
I, for one, am in flavor.