Made with 100% natural purple yam powder from Ube Nolia
August 7, 2026 · Culture
Purple OREO x BTS: What the Purple Cookie Actually Tastes Like (and Why It Is Not Ube)
OREO turned its wafer purple for the first time in history to honor BTS and their fans. The internet immediately called it "the ube Oreo". It is not.
The Limited Edition OREO x BTS cookies pair a first-ever purple wafer with a dual-layer brown sugar pancake creme inspired by hotteok, the Korean winter street-food pancake. Below: the confirmed facts, the release timeline, what the 13 embossments mean, and an honest comparison between a purple-dyed cookie and a real Filipino purple yam.
Want the real purple yam version? Make our homemade ube Oreo cookies with Ube Nolia ube powder — the same 100% pure Filipino purple yam used in every recipe on this site.
Quick answer
The Limited Edition OREO x BTS cookies are purple but not ube flavored: the creme is a dual-layer brown sugar pancake flavor inspired by Korean hotteok, and the purple comes from the first purple OREO wafer ever produced, chosen because purple is the BTS fandom color. Announced May 26, 2026, they went on sale June 1 online and June 8 in stores across 80+ markets. Real ube, like 100% pure Ube Nolia purple yam powder, gets its color from anthocyanins in the root and tastes of vanilla and hazelnut, not brown sugar pancake.
Key facts
- Flavor: dual-layer brown sugar pancake creme inspired by hotteok (not ube, not taro)
- First purple OREO wafer ever made, as a tribute to BTS and their fans
- Announced May 26, 2026 · online June 1, 2026 · in stores June 8, 2026
- Rolled out in 80+ markets, the biggest OREO partnership to date
- 13 unique embossments designed by BTS for 13 years of the band · $10.00 for the 2-pack on oreo.com
Less than a coffee. Better than a matcha.
With the 5-pack subscription, you get 165 ube lattes at home. Cheaper than a café - and delivered to your door.
What Is the OREO x BTS Collaboration?
On May 26, 2026, Mondelez announced that RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook had co-created a Limited Edition OREO cookie: the first-ever global snacking partnership for BTS, and the largest collaboration OREO has ever run, live in more than 80 markets. The cookies landed online on June 1 and in physical stores on June 8, 2026.
The pitch is cultural as much as culinary. The packaging borrows the neon energy of a Seoul night market, the packs are resealable, and OREO invited fans to submit love letters echoing the letters BTS and their fandom exchange, with a chance to see them featured globally.
The Real Flavor: Hotteok, Not Ube
The creme is a dual-layer brown sugar pancake flavor built to taste like hotteok (호떡), a yeasted Korean street pancake stuffed with brown sugar and cinnamon that melts into a hot syrup when it fries. Think caramelized brown sugar, a warm spiced edge, and a doughy pancake note. The creme itself is white and tan; only the wafer is purple.
So every headline calling it "the purple ube Oreo" is wrong on the flavor. It is a Korean street-food cookie wearing the fandom's color.
Why does the confusion spread so fast? Because purple has become a flavor shorthand online. Search behaviour lumps together three different things: ube (a Filipino purple yam), taro (a starchy root that is mostly white with purple flecks) and purple food coloring. The BTS cookie belongs to the third group. Its wafer is a cocoa base tinted purple, so what you taste is OREO wafer plus caramelized brown sugar creme, with no root vegetable anywhere in the profile.
What it actually tastes like, layer by layer
- • Wafer: classic OREO crunch and cocoa bitterness, simply purple instead of black
- • First creme layer: sweet, caramelized brown sugar, close to a molasses note
- • Second creme layer: softer, doughy, faintly spiced, the pancake side of hotteok
- • What is missing: the vanilla-hazelnut roundness that defines real ube
Release Timeline, Price and Where to Find Them
The rollout was staged, which is why availability still feels uneven from one country to another.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| May 26, 2026 | Collaboration announced: the first global snacking partnership for BTS |
| June 1, 2026 | Online launch on oreo.com, 2-pack listed at $10.00 |
| June 8, 2026 | Retail launch in stores, rolling out across 80+ markets |
| While stock lasts | Limited Edition run, no announced permanent listing |
Two practical notes. First, packaging, ingredient lists and certifications vary by manufacturing country, so check the pack you actually buy rather than a photo from another market. Second, limited editions feed a resale market: listings at several times retail are common once local shelves empty, and a collector pack is not a better cookie.
Why Purple? The "I Purple You" Story
Purple became the BTS color in 2016, when V told fans "I purple you", turning the last color of the rainbow into shorthand for trusting and loving each other for a long time. Making the wafer purple, a first in OREO's history, is a direct nod to that. It also rides a broader wave: purple food, from taro milk teas to ube lattes, is now one of the most photographed categories on social feeds worldwide.
The 13 Embossments Designed by BTS
BTS hand-picked 13 unique cookie embossments, one for each year of the group. They include the seven members' names, fan symbols such as the outline of the light stick raised at concerts, a "BTS Hearts OREO" cookie, and a set of three cookies that read together as a love letter to fans. Each pack ships a random assortment, which is exactly why collectors are opening several packs to complete the set.
OREO x BTS at a glance
- • Announced: May 26, 2026
- • On sale: June 1, 2026 online · June 8, 2026 in stores
- • Flavor: brown sugar pancake creme inspired by hotteok
- • Wafer: first purple OREO wafer ever produced
- • Designs: 13 embossments chosen by the members
- • Reach: 80+ markets · Price: $10.00 for the 2-pack on oreo.com
Purple Food Decoder: Ube, Taro, Purple Sweet Potato or Dye?
Four very different things end up on the same purple shelf. This is the quickest way to tell them apart before you buy anything labelled "purple".
| Purple source | What it is | Flavor |
|---|---|---|
| Ube | Filipino purple yam, naturally violet inside | Soft vanilla with a hazelnut note |
| Taro | Starchy root, flesh mostly white with purple flecks | Mild, starchy, slightly vegetal |
| Purple sweet potato | Sweet potato variety, often confused with ube | Sweeter, earthier, closer to classic sweet potato |
| Food coloring (the BTS OREO) | Color added to a cocoa wafer, no root involved | Whatever the recipe adds, here brown sugar pancake |
Full breakdown in our ube vs taro comparison and our ube glossary.
Purple OREO vs Real Ube: The Honest Comparison
A limited-edition cookie is a fun cultural moment. A purple ingredient is a different thing entirely. Here is where they separate.
| Criteria | Purple OREO x BTS | Ube Nolia ube powder |
|---|---|---|
| Source of the purple | Colored wafer, a branding choice | Anthocyanins naturally present in the purple yam root |
| Flavor | Brown sugar pancake (hotteok), caramelized and spiced | Soft vanilla with a hazelnut note |
| Ingredients | Industrial cookie: sugar, flour, fats, colorings, flavorings | One ingredient: 100% pure Filipino ube, no sugar, no coloring, no additives |
| Availability | Limited edition, already hard to find at retail | Available year-round, 100g pouch = 33 lattes |
| Use | Eat as is, or crush over desserts | Lattes, baking, ice cream, pancakes, frostings |
If you want the color and a real ingredient behind it, that is exactly what Ube Nolia ube powder does. More detail in our complete ube guide and our comparison of ube vs taro.
Is the BTS OREO Worth It?
Short answer: yes as a collectible, no as a purple-food experience. You are buying a 13-year anniversary object with 13 embossments and a genuinely new flavor direction for OREO, not a purple ingredient.
Buy it if
- • You collect BTS merch and want the 13 embossments
- • You are curious about a hotteok brown sugar creme
- • You find it at retail price, not at resale price
Skip it if
- • You expected an ube or taro flavor
- • You avoid added colorings
- • You want something you can actually cook with
For reference, a limited 2-pack sits at $10.00, while a 100g pouch of pure ube powder makes 33 purple lattes at about 0,39 € per cup. Different products, very different math.
How to Eat Them (and What to Pair Them With)
A brown sugar pancake creme is sweeter than the classic vanilla one, so pairings matter more than usual.
- With a hot drink: the caramelized creme works best against something unsweetened, a black coffee or a plain ube latte rather than a sugary milk tea.
- Crushed on ice cream: the purple wafer keeps its crunch for a few minutes, so add it right before serving.
- As a cheesecake or pie crust: blitz the wafers with melted butter, the brown sugar note reads like a spiced biscuit base.
- Keep the pack sealed: the packs are resealable, and OREO wafers go soft fast in humid kitchens.
Make Your Own Purple Cookie Moment at Home
The BTS drop is limited. A purple kitchen is not. Three ways to keep the purple going once the packs sell out:
- Ube Oreo cookies: our ube Oreo cookies recipe folds crushed Oreos into a naturally purple ube dough.
- Purple latte: one scoop of ube powder in hot milk gives you an ube latte at about 0,39 € per cup.
- Purple dessert base: try the ube cheesecake with an Oreo crust, a genuinely good use for a leftover pack.