This Is How Oreos Are Actually Made

If you are ever having a bad day, just remember that every minute, 3,000 Oreos are made — and that's in each factory (via Business Insider). Basically, you will probably never have to worry about there being a shortage of Oreos because, while 3,000 cookies per minute might sound like a ridiculous amount to produce, Oreos are literally "Milk's Favorite Cookie," so it makes perfect sense why they are constantly in such high demand.

From knockoff brands to homemade copycat versions, many have tried to replicate the famous cookie, but few have truly succeeded because nothing beats the real thing. The recipe, of course, is a trade secret of Nabisco, but thankfully the process isn't. Back in 2012, in honor of the cookie's 100th birthday, Oreo opened up the doors of their factory in Montreal, Canada to share the steps that go into making this best-selling cookie. As you would imagine, it involves quite a lot of chocolate, flour, and sugar — enough to fill a 2,000-lb tub, to be exact.

When you think of any baked goods, the ones that are made by hand are normally considered the best quality. For Oreo, that isn't the case — or even an option. The Oreo factory is full of heavy duty machinery equipped to churn out more than one billion cookies each year. It starts with a giant mixing vessel in which all the secret ingredients — including two kinds of cocoa and dry ice, according to Discovery Channel Show "How It's Made" (posted on YouTube) — are blended together to form a cohesive dough. 

Once the dough is ready, it moves on to a separate molding machine that cuts out the dough into circular pieces that are then imprinted with the signature Oreo pattern. From there, the cookies are baked in an oven before they are cooled by a fan and flipped. Another machine dispenses the creme filling onto half of the cookies, which are then sandwiched with the other half. Finally the Oreos are packaged for distribution to retailers, where they will eventually make their way into your lucky hands!