Image: Mondelēz International

It seems clear that Mondelēz International, the parent company of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, doesn’t believe in the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Ever since the conglomerate acquired the two snack brands, it has tried repeatedly to “mate” them.

In 2022, for example, the company released its “Oreo x Ritz,” a snack comprised of “one part cracker and another part cookie, joined together by a layer of peanut-butter-flavored creme and another layer of cookie creme.”

Then there was the Coke Oreo, a conventional Oreo and a golden Oreo dyed red and embossed with the Coca-Cola logo, the two cemented by a cola-flavored creme.

Now for a limited time comes its latest: the “Ritz Fudge Covered Holiday Cracker.” I’m not sure this is technically speaking a mashup, consisting as it does of a single named product — the Ritz cracker — which is enrobed with chocolate.

I also don’t quite get the connection with the holidays other than the package design, which is intended to call to mind a festive wintery landscape.

Perhaps the weirdest Oreo mashup, though one that for better or worse never made it to these shores, was the Lunchmeat Burger, sold at McDonald’s in China and featuring two slices of Spam, mayo, and a layer of crushed Oreos.

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