I Blind-Tasted Oreos and Aldi’s ‘Benton’s’ Cookies, and One Was the Clear Winner

It feels almost scandalous to share this opinion, but share it I must: Some store-bought cookies are better than homemade. I love baking, and I’ll almost always find myself whipping up a quick batch of snickerdoodles or browned butter chocolate chip cookies as opposed to heading to the grocery store for something packaged. But there are exceptions to every rule, and in my case, that exception is Oreos.

While I tend to buy the classic Oreo cookies, the brand releases limited-edition flavors that continue to intrigue us. Plus, Oreo has been around for over 100 years, so it’s had time to perfect its recipe. That being said, it’s not the only chocolate sandwich cookie on the market. There are quite a few, with one that rankled Oreo’s parent company Mondelēz to such a degree that Mondelēz filed a lawsuit: Aldi’s Benton’s Original Chocolate Sandwich with Creme Cookies. 

The lawsuit is over alleged copycat packaging, but there are more similarities. That led us to conduct a head-to-head taste test to discover just how similar these two cookies are—and which is the better buy.

Do Benton's Cookies Taste Like Oreos?

Aldi’s house-brand cookies look quite similar to Oreos. The chocolate biscuits are a similar thickness and have a similar ridged design, and there’s about the same amount of filling in both cookies. In fact, I weighed 20 cookies from both packages, and the cookies consistently weighed 11 grams each. I removed the tops of 10 cookies from each package to try to get a sense of whether there was a dramatic difference in filling, and the weights were again consistent.

There is one big visual difference in the cookies: their color. Aldi’s house-brand chocolate sandwich cookies have a darker color compared to Oreo cookies, though both ingredient lists include “cocoa (processed with alkali)” aka Dutch-process cocoa.

The description of the cookies is similar as well, with one small exception: Aldi’s version refers to the filling as artificially flavored vanilla filling. Oreo doesn’t say anything about the filling on the package, but online, the brand refers to it as a “rich creme filling.”

While those differences are seemingly minor, they matter. Regardless of how similar the two cookies appear, they absolutely taste different.

Taste Test: Benton's vs. Oreos

I separated the chocolate wafers from the filling to taste both components individually before sampling the cookies as a whole. I found the Benton’s cookies' individual components more appealing than the Oreo cookies. Benton’s chocolate wafers had a surprisingly deep chocolate flavor, especially in comparison to the Oreo chocolate wafers. The Oreo wafers had a lighter chocolate flavor with a salty element that wasn’t wholly appealing on its own.

The differences between the two fillings were also notable. Benton’s filling had a distinct vanilla flavor (unsurprising, given that they actually call it a vanilla filling) compared to the Oreo filling, which was more of just general, bland sweetness. Also, the Benton’s filling was much smoother than the Oero filling, which had a grainy texture.

I enjoyed the components of the Benton’s cookies better, which naturally may lead you to believe that the Benton’s cookies reign supreme. But, when eaten as the whole cookie, I still came back to the classic Oreo cookie. The slightly salty edge to the Oreo wafers made for a more interesting bite (or, at the very least, one so nostalgic that it broke through my blind taste test).

As much as I wanted to enjoy the Benton’s cookies more thanks to their more wallet-friendly price, I still prefer Oreo cookies.