As your resident sugar-loving spice-fiending food blogger boy there are few Oreo flavors I have been more excited for than Carrot Cake. With the onslaught of chocolate, mint, and bizarre fruit flavors we’re no doubt going to be bombarded with throughout the year, it’s a very welcome start to the Oreo New Year with something fresh and spicy. Essentially combining two of my favorite full time Oreo’s into one, Cinnamon Bun and Red Velvet, this feels like a surefire win from Nabisco’s cookie think tank. Carrot Cake Oreo combines a carrot cake flavored cookie with cream cheese frosting flavored crème.

Opening the package the aroma is overwhelmingly cream cheesey with a dash of spice lingering beneath the smell-surface that definitely channels carrot cake. There’s even a softly sweet quality that rounds out the sniff-sperience that reminds me of carrots in the best way. I might be projecting but I can see a towering slice of vibrant orange and white layer cake through my nostrils.

Taken as a whole as they’re meant to be, sandwich style, the carrot cake vibes immediately jump onto my tongue like a hoppy little bunny carrying springtime delight and a great yet sweet and balanced amount of spice. Notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and even a hint of ginger crunch from the crumbly cookie with a graham cracker-y base augmented by a perfectly creamy and tangy cheese-forward crème that so many companies overlook when trying to emulate one of my favorite cakes. Cream cheese is an essential component to carrot cake, and that powdered sugar meets white block of richness is on brilliant display with Nabisco’s latest non-limited (skrrrrt) release.

When isolating the crème the flavor is no doubt cream cheese dominant, but I get a bit of spice in the finish as well. It’s hard to say if this is just absorbed flavor from being nestled up against the cookies, but the carrot cake essence is heightened and drives the impressive execution even further in the right direction. It tastes less of pure cream cheese like the crème in Red Velvet, and while I love those Oreo’s I think I like these even more. Spicy, cheesy, creamy, crunchy, and yeah, a little sexy too.

Rating: 9.5/10

Found at: Target ($2.99)