The Off-Brand Aldi Cookie That Tastes Identical To The Real Deal

There are dozens of cookie types and brands to choose from when grocery shopping. While off-brands provide cheaper alternatives to name-brand favorites, many of them fail to meet expectations. Case in point, nobody makes chocolate crème cookie sandwiches like Oreo. Or, do they?

While tasting several Oreo off-brand imposters, Daily Meal's Jenn Carnevale found that Benton's Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are the best copycats. Compared to the others she tested, this Aldi brand is the only one that "even came close" to tasting like Oreos, and she even likes it better than the name brand. The Benton's cookies didn't have any weird smells when she opened the resealable container, unlike some of the other faux Oreos she tried. She prefers the extra chocolate flavor and crunchier cookie compared to Oreos, too, commenting that there is nothing stale about them. Also, the "cream filling is spot on," she said, and they don't have an odd aftertaste or flavor either.

Carnevale isn't the only one to agree that some Aldi knockoff products taste like the real thing. Users on Reddit have expressed their love for Benton's copycat Oreo cookies, with one saying that they call the knockoffs "aldios" in their household. Additionally, a user commented with a fun fact that Oreos are actually a sweeter version of Hydrox cookies, which were originally made in 1908 — four years before the first Oreo.

The ingredients and recipe used to make Oreo cookies are protected under patent and trade secret laws, so how do Benton's Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies taste just as good (or better to some people)? Interestingly, the ingredients are quite similar: Both use enriched flour; some combination of canola, palm, and/or soybean oil, sweeteners, cocoa, leavening, and natural and artificial flavors.

Since these are most of the ingredients, what's different between the two cookies? The answer lies in the amounts of those ingredients, which are listed so that higher ingredient amounts appear first. Looking at the packages side by side, you can see that sugar is the first ingredient in Benton's cookies, whereas it's the second in Oreo cookies.

On the other hand, Oreo appears to use more high fructose corn syrup than Benton's, while the Aldi brand adds dextrose to its formula, reducing its use of high fructose corn syrup. Even though one user on Reddit noted that Benton's cookies taste less sweet, a serving of each brand contains the same 14 grams of sugar overall. The reason for the lower sweetness could be that high fructose corn syrup has a higher sweetness relative to sucrose than dextrose. And, perhaps, these varied sweetener ratios are why Aldi's Nutter Butter imposter and Aldi's Girl Scouts knockoffs are so loved by loyal shoppers.