Limited Edition Brownie Batter Oreos

The flavor people at Oreo have been very busy lately. They came out with Smoreos at the beginning of the summer, then there were the cotton candy ones for Fourth of July (I wasn't going near those, sorry), and now there are these:

Yep, Brownie Batter Oreos.

I was skeptical of these right away, because, really, how are these different from the chocolate-on-chocolate Oreos? Very different, as it turns out.

The filling really does taste like brownie batter. It's rich and thick and chocolatey, just like brownie batter should be. The problem is, these cookies taste like brownie batter, and that's a little weird. Like, maybe if you covered them in tin foil and baked them for 45 minutes, then they might be better. But I'm not about to wait 45 minutes to eat Oreos (or brownies), so these Oreos remain as-is: strangely accurate.

They are much better dipped in milk, but still a little weird. The "ew, this is raw, we're all gonna get salmonella" vibe goes away, but it turns into a fudge-frosting filled cookie. That isn't entirely bad, especially if you happen to like fudge frosting, but it's kinda too much. You know how a spoonful of fudge frosting coats your throat and leaves you with a permanent sugar high and a fuzzy chocolate-flavored tongue? These do that. It's very, very weird. The beautiful balance of gentle chocolate cookie and sweet vanilla creme is completely lost on these cookies. Instead, they're more "you like chocolate? Here, eat a can of cocoa and some Hershey bars, and look! brownies! and Oreos! and fudge! and chocolate frosting! Eat it! Eat it all!" And you know, that really isn't my thing.

These aren't bad, really, but they're definitely not my favorite and they don't quite live up to Oreo's usual standards. Thus, the Limited Edition Brownie Batter Oreos are formally awarded four out of five Half Asses.

Also something to keep in mind is that while these are blatantly advertised in the Target ad this week, they are not available in my local Target. Instead, the Target Oreo section is filled to its brim with Reese's Oreos and Cotton Candy Oreos, because, really, did anybody eat those?

If you tried these (or the cotton candy ones and you lived to tell about it), let me know! I'd love to hear what you think!

Also, what new flavor do you think Oreo should try next? They have to be running out of ideas by now. I'm thinking we need to expand into the weird-flavored-chips arena. Like, we could do sushi flavored Oreos and macaroni and cheese flavored Oreos and maybe even Doritos flavored Oreos. (Fair warning, I wouldn't actually eat any of these, but they're bound to turn up eventually.) Alternatively, we could petition Nabisco for butterscotch flavored Oreos, but I doubt those would be nearly as successful as Sriracha Oreos.