What better way to celebrate a special day than with two special cereals?

Or to be more sentimentally apt, what better way to celebrate the fourth anniversary of Cerealously.net than with a new variant of this blogger’s all-time favorite cereal?

Yes, it feels like I’ve preached the virtues of South Korean Oreo O’s so many times in the past four years that it borders on trite fanboyism at this point. But guess what? It’s my party, and I can gush about longitudinal variances in cocoa and marbit potency if I want to.

Especially since this occasion’s significance surpasses any individual’s milky milestone. Despite being voted the best Oreo O’s in their class by D.G. Power & Associates for the past half decade, South Korean Oreo O’s have never gotten a new flavor variant—a tragedy when we see just how lame America’s rebooted OO’s cinematic universe turned out.

Technically, there were Honey O’s bearing the aqueous mascot of Oreo O’s—a crossover we’ll see again later in the this article—but now the Oreo name and implied legacy officially endorse Oreo O’s RED, which is a Chocolate–Strawberry combo far more interesting than Golden or Mega Marbit Stuf’d.

In honor of Cerealously 4th birthday, I will humbly endure the jolly good burden of eating four bowls.

South Korean Oreo O’s RED Review

In deference to history books everywhere, triumph in international cereal combat requires waging a two-front war. This is how South Korean Oreo O’s, and RED especially, get an upper hand on their American counterparts. Mega Stuf Oreo O’s are a good example of the wrong way to do this:

You have cereal pieces and marbits, but only the cereal pieces are infused with chocolate flavor—and weakly, at that, for the weighty sprinkles and exterior sugar glaze pretty much radiate marshmallowian vice.

The real marbits are left to serve as forgetful sweetness meteors, crashing every poured party like, well, a sugar crash.

But not Oreo O’s RED. No, in these, both ring-sprinkles (rinkles?) and marshmallow alike are infused with strawberry flavor—and good strawberry flavor, at that. Think “vine-ripened, gelatinized Pink Starburst perfume.” It’s subtle, yet ever-present and ever-complementary. To the chocolate rings, it evokes molecular fondue; to the marbits, it calls to mind the strawb-juice drizzled whipped peak of a strawberry shortcake.

Don’t believe me that SK Oreo O’s are more chocolatey? I did a side by side that reveals while South Korea’s rings aren’t really bigger—as my internal opinion towards them may have mentally inflated—they are far darker. And while that may not technically evidence cocoa content, the granulated sweetness of American Oreo O’s is no-doubt more cloying—even as South Korea’s tend to have larger marshmallows/strawberry balloons.

Milk is this cereal’s favorite friend as well—until I finished a bowl of these bloodied obsidian bits, I had no idea just how hard Cap’n Crunch bungles the delightful potential of chocolate-strawberry endmilk. From the first spoonful to the final slurp, Oreo O’s RED isn’t better than the OG SK variety. Rather, it is exactly what an Oreo O’s variant should be: a welcome mix-up that plays well with mix-ins (like Mint Chocolate Drumstick Cereal!).

Unless the idea of crunchy strawberry Oreos in milk instinctively turns you off, or perhaps if you can’t field first class seats for the brand’s PSY lookalike, this is kind of a must try. Though if you’ve never tried South Korea’s undisturbed original Oreo O’s, I’d recommend starting there.

(So you already possess the Gauntlet when Post South Korea starts adding other colorful gems of Oreo O.)

The Bottom Line: 9.5 crunchy Reality Stones out of 10

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South Korean Peanut Butter O’s Review

And it is here that the beloved Oreo O’s genome mutates into a different entity altogether. As the roaming blob on the box [we gotta give him a name. perhaps Stephen (pronounced with an ‘uh’)?] pours a jar’s worth of beige pantyhose into the cereal, it’s as if we’re watching him create new life. Dr. M. C. Stephen, what madness have you concocted here?

Turns out, the most unique peanut butter cereal I’ve had in some time—a compliment that comes with caveats. Where General Mills’ recent Peanut Butter Chex excels at being straightforward and savory-sweet, or where Nutter Butter Cereal goes all out on the PB-sugar dusting, Peanut Butter O’s take a very specific approach: that of a peanut butter biscuit.

The base texture here feels much different than the more traditionally crunchy fare found in Oreo O’s RED. Peanut Butter O’s have the airier crispness of a graham cracker or wafered cookie. And the cookie comparison is particularly apt when discussing their flavor, too. From my first taste, I found my brain teleported to the most wonderful time of the year: Girl Scout Cookie season. If you can picture the flavor of a Do-Si-Do cookie (not the filling), imagine it baked into an aerated animal cracker, and you wouldn’t be far off.

If you’ve never square-danced with a nut butter sandwich before, first things first you’re not invited to my PB&J Rodeo-themed Blogirthday Party, but you’ll also find Peanut Butter O’s to be pillowy and pleasantly misted with PB sweetness. It is definitely subtler than any American peanut butter cereal—outside of maybe Peanut Butter Puffins—leading to the cereal’s biggest drawback. Once the PB-forward notes fade, you’re left with a lightly-perfumed husk of sorta-stale-smelling grain—not unlike the war-torn and discarded crusts of a Wonder Bread peanut butter sandwich.

That’s why milk is recommended again, as even when the peanut butter soul of this stuff has been chewed off this mortal coil, milky refreshment can still wring every last drop of buttery fun out of it—leaving behind endmilk that’s perfect for Do-Si-Dunkin’.

Peanut Butter O’s is certainly a welcome addition to the Oreo O’s extended mythos, but in the end, it doesn’t have the creative staying power of something like Peanut Butter Chex (which can be successfully mixed with just about anything), nor the unrestrained flavor explosion that propels Nutter Butter Cereal with the sheer power of indulgence.

The Bottom Line: 7.5 his & hers Oreo O perfumes out of 10

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And with that, another year of Cerealously is in the books. My sincerest thanks go out to everyone who still reads this site, from the four-year diehards to the newcomers who found me through The Empty Bowl. Our podcast in particular has humbled me like nothing before. I am honored to talk about cereal in an atmosphere that many find genuinely relaxing—even if, to me, I sound like a cartoon walrus.

The cereal industry never ceases to amaze me with what they put on shelves, domestically or abroad. It’s been a heck of a strange journey running a cereal blog, but all the worldwide friends I’ve met from it—including Luke R., who generously shipped me these Oreo O’s—reassure me that there’s beauty in strangeness, no matter the nutrition facts.