Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Girl Scout Cookies

When I was about 9 years old, my Girl Scout troop took a field trip to the Grandma's Cookies plant near the Seattle Center. I was so excited (yes, I loved cookies then too) because this was the place that made Girl Scout Cookies. When I was a kid, they only had a couple of varieties of cookies and Thin Mints were my favorite. We got to the plant and they took us on a tour. We saw the huge oven and conveyor belts that moved everything along. They were making THIN MINTS! I was in heaven. We saw the chocolate cookies come down the line. They were baked, then cooled. A dollop of creamy white mint was dropped into the center of each cookie and then they got a bath of dark chocolate. I could hardly contain my excitement as they told us we got a free package of cookies at the end of the tour. My mouth was salivating as we neared the end and got handed a package of Coconut Macaroons. WTF! I'm sure they weren't allowed to give away Girl Scout cookies but I was a kid, what did I know? I took my cookies and did not tear into them like all the other girls as I hate coconut. I hate how it smells, I hate how it tastes and I hate the texture of it in my mouth.

Girl Scout Cookies are no longer made my Grandma's Cookies in Seattle. GSUSA has licensed a couple of bakeries to make their cookies. So that means that all Girl Scout Cookies are not the same. Every year the Girl Scouts work with the bakeries to shake things up and they change the line up of cookies. The old favorites are there but they have 3 kinds that they are always messing with. Almost every year they bring out 1 or 2 new cookies. This year they have a new cookie "Dulce de Leche", a caramel cookie. Now I can't pronounce this cookie so how are my 1st graders going to? And to add insult to injury, they got rid of All Abouts! I love All Abouts, the shortbread cookie that had a chocolate layer on the bottom. There were perfect for making s'mores.

Of course my freezer is full of Girl Scout cookies and we drag a box out now and then and then add cases more each spring. Once I found a box of cookies in the freezer, Thin Mints, and figure out they had been in there 5 years. Did I mention that frozen Thin Mints, although they no longer have that creamy layer of mint, still Rock, even after 5 years.

1 comment:

  1. I'm totally with you on the coconut thing. My husband doesn't get it at all, but I'm very much a texture eater. If it feels weird in my mouth I won't eat it. And yes, I know that sounded weird and maybe a little dirty, but there's really no other way to say it.

    Like you, I'm a Thin Mints girls. And sadly, I did NOT need you to tell me that the frozen ones are still good after five years. I already knew that from my own personal experience.

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