The Best-Selling Cookie Across The World Started As A Copycat

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but as it turns out, sometimes it is profitable as well. Regardless of whether you twist or dunk them, Oreos are iconic. Nothing beats a glass of iced cold milk for dipping these chocolaty snacks, but before Oreo became Oreo, these sandwich cookies were nothing more than dupes. (Add that to the list of things you didn't know about Oreos.) In 1908, Hydrox cookies debuted, four years before Oreos were born. Hydrox are two chocolate, crispy wafers flanking a sweet vanilla cream center. So, how did Oreo leapfrog its competition to become the greatest cookie ever sold?

Brothers and business can be a sticky wicket, and such was the case with the makers of Hydrox. Grab a quart of milk and a package of your preferred chocolate cookie sandwich because this story is a good one. It starts with siblings Joseph and Jacob Loose. Together, in the early 1880s, the brothers took over a bakery in Kansas City, Missouri, and aptly renamed it Loose Brothers Manufacturing Co. They acquired additional bakeries and founded the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company. They were good at baking and business, and soon became the second-largest bakery of their generation. However, to paraphrase Pat Benatar, love (for the bakery business in this case) is a battlefield.

As it turns out, Joseph and Jacob Loose were in competition with two other companies. Unfortunately, Jacob got sick and had to step away from the operations. He went to England to recuperate, leaving Joseph and their lawyer, Adolphus Green, in charge. Joseph went against his brother's wishes to merge with its major competitors: The United States Baking Co. and the New York Biscuit Co. In 1899, the three formed the National Biscuit Company. This company eventually evolved into Nabisco.

When Jacob's health was restored, he returned to America ready to get back in the biscuit game. He, along with Joseph and John H. Wiles, created the company in Kansas City known as Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company in 1902. Six years later, the Hydrox was born and became beloved by consumers. In response, their old company, which was now being run by their old lawyer, created the Oreo biscuit. They were just 30 cents a pound, much cheaper than those made by the two brothers. Still, Hydrox was considered the better cookie.

After the Loose brothers both passed away in the 1920s, things went downhill for Hydrox cookies. Demand for the OG chocolate sandwich cookie declined as that for the Oreo increased. Today, Oreo cookies reign supreme. Believe it or not, this snack food has been around for more than 100 years, and Americans eat over 20 billion each year. Even more notable, since their creation in 1912, the Oreo's parent company notes that an estimated 500 billion have sold.