We have a winner, folks.
After months of voting for the #MyOreoCreation Contest, Oreo has announced the winning flavor and the winner of the $500,000 grand prize. Eden F. of Winnetka, California took home the big bucks for her Cherry Cola Oreo.
The soda-inspired sandwich cookie beat out the two other finalists, Kettle Corn Oreos and Piña Colada Oreo Thins. All three flavors were submitted by fans and released on shelves in April after thousands of suggestions were “meticulously tested, tasted and reviewed” by the Oreo Wonder Vault.
Cherry Cola—which is still available now but not guaranteed to stick around permanently—was actually only one of many flavors Eden submitted, according to Delish, but the winner added that the fizzy flavor was especially meaningful because it was inspired by her childhood.
“I started to think about sweet sodas and popsicles and fresh fruit. All of those sweet juicy flavors like orange, grape, lime, and cherry,” she told the website. “I was trying to capture flavors that reminded me of happy summers when I was a kid in the late ’70s and ’80s.”
Oreo found itself under fire over this very flavor in May after they announced Cherry Cola was among the three finalists. A Colorado woman, Lauren Young, claimed to have also submitted the flavor on Twitter, but was never notified that she won when the cookies popped up on shelves, and never received her prize money of $25,000, which was awarded to the three front runners.
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A representative for Oreo told PEOPLE at the time that although Young did submit the flavor idea, they received nearly 700,000 contest entries, resulting in multiple suggestions for Cherry Cola.
“As expected, many consumers submitted the same flavor suggestions, including ‘cherry cola,’ but did so in different and creative ways,” the company said. “Knowing that this would happen, the winning submission was based on more than just identifying the flavor (as this Denver Colorado entrant has done), but also on the creative way in which the entrant presented the flavor along with other details about the flavor creation, as outlined in the official rules.”
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