Wacky Snacks: Rumba

Edwin Goei

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Name: Rumba - Chocolate Flavored Sandwich Cookies With Coconut Flavored Filling

Origin: Argentina

Found at: Villa Roma, Laguna Hills

Cost: $2.99

Edwin Goei

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Ingredients:

Wheat Flour, Sugar, Beef Fat, Cocoa Powder, Corn Syrup, Wheat Starch, Salt, Skimmed Milk Powder, Leavenings (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Coloring (Caramel), Soybean Lecithin, Dough Conditioner (Sodium Metabisulfite), Artificial Flavors.  Contains: Wheat, Gluten, Milk, Soybean, Traces of Almond, Barley, Egg, Peanut and Nut.

Why I Bought It:

At first it it was the cartoon mascot, a character named Yico Rumba, with gold rings on virtually every finger, a gold pendant necklace, and both hands pointed askew in a gunslinger pose, which sells the fun even better than the festive font and sparkly accents around it.  He seems caught mid-move in an actual rumba dance.  And there's the hair, which is in the shape of a cookie itself.

But what sold me was the ingredient list.  Fearing it contained partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or margarine, as these things always do, I breathed easy when I noticed beef fat.  Not butter, not palm oil: BEEF FAT!  It's a major component, listed just behind flour and sugar.

Figures, right?  What would you expect Argentineans?  It's arguably the most bovine-loving country in the world after all! 

I do find the irony of the skim milk powder especially tasty, however.

Tasting Notes: 

It tastes exactly how I expected to taste, sort of like a cross between an Oreo and a vanilla sandwich cookie.  Though it's not as cocoa-y as an Oreo, it is as crumbly as one. But the coconut flavor in the filling is not very pronounced.  And, I am not sure if it's imagined or if the majority of the beef fat is actually there in the frosting-like filling, but after eating two cookies, my mouth feels as though I've eaten a steak.