Girl Scout Cookie Buying Guide
It's that time of year again. While you're looking to stay strong in your resolutions for healthier family dinners, don't forget to let yourself have a treat every so often! If you're looking for ideas, we've got a good one: Girl Scout cookies. As cookie season gets into full swing, what better time to purchase some boxes that sell for a limited time about a month or so? DinnerTool has some tips and a buying guide to make sure you get the newest (and tastiest) cookies for your family.
It may not come as a surprise to some, but a Good Morning America and SodaHead.com poll recently revealed that Thin Mints are America's favorite Girl Scout cookie. With 49% of the vote, Thin Mints are followed by Samoas (28%), Tagalongs (11%), Do-Si-Dos (6%) and Trefoils (6%). The poll had over 28,000 responses and was conducted during the first week of January 2012. (Unsurprisingly, the stats from GirlScouts.org, while not identical, reflect the same order of popularity). If you don't recognize a few of these cookie names, there's a reason for that...
Naming a Cookie
If you wonder why the cookies you used to know and love now have new names, or are wondering if they're even still on the market, not to worry! Girl Scout Councils choose their licensed bakers, each of which produces its owns cookie names (outside of Thin Mints and Trefoils, owned by GSUSA). Each of these licensed bakers can offer up to eight varieties of Girl Scout Cookies, with three types, including Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos and Shortbread/Trefoils, which are mandatory. Any of the five optional cookies can be changed every year.
Each bakery names its own cookies, so Girl Scout Cookies that are quite similar may have different names. So a cookie like the Trefoil/Shortbread may look and taste similar, but your local Girl Scout council determines which one will be on the market when they select their baker. The same goes for why your Caramel DeLight is now called a Samoa, and so on.
Discontinued and Renamed Cookies
It's always sad when a favorite childhood cookie type gets discontinued or altered beyond recognition. The upside, if there is one, is that many are morphed into an even better cookie, or simply renamed.
In 2011, Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips, small sugar-free cookies, were taken off the market. Cinna-spins, a cinnamon-flavored cookie shaped like miniature cinnamon rolls (they come in 100-calorie packs) were retired and replaced by Daisy Go Rounds in 2009; Daisy Go Rounds were the same type of cookie, only shaped like daisies. These were again retired and replaced in 2011 with Shout Outs.
Also retired are All About cookies, which were shortbread topped with chocolate fudge embossed with a phrase such as "Girl Scouts is all about friendship" or "Girl Scouts is all about honesty." Cinnamon sandwich cookies with lemon creme filling, Lemon Chalet Cremes, were changed to round cookies from rectangular ones in 2010. and replaced by Savannah Smiles in 2012.
This year, Girl Scout cookie enthusiasts have something to look forward to -- Lemon Chalet Cremes have been replaced with the newly-launch 100th anniversary cookie, Savannah Smiles, a homage to the association’s birthplace and its founder.
Since you can't buy cookies online from the Girl Scouts (the reasoning being that the cookie selling period is too short), you can get an updated listing of all current varieties and find cookies near you by using your zip code at the Girl Scouts Cookies web site.
Tell us: What's your favorite kind of Girl Scout cookie?
