Did you know Girl Scout cookies can taste different depending on where you live?

It’s true. There are TWO different bakeries that produce the delicious Girl Scout Cookies, and honestly, it makes no sense to me how the distribution geography is broken down. I’m sure it has to do with gerrymandering. But I digress.

Either way, I wanted to do some taste tests to see if there were differences between the two. And what I found is super interesting. But first, a little backstory about the cookies themselves.

The Tale of Two Cookie Bakeries

Girl Scout troopers report up to a Girl Scout council. There are over 100 councils across the United States. Each council decides which bakery they would want to license with; either ABC Bakers or Little Brownie Bakers.
Here’s a map to show the current distribution:

I was a Girl Scout for many years in the Chicago area, eating and selling cookies from Little Brownie Bakers. When I moved to Florida, I was very confused that Samoas were called Caramel deLites. I never investigated, until now. Another cookie name confusing, Tagalongs vs. Peanut Butter Patties. Do-si-dos are Peanut Butter Sandwichs now. And Trefoils? Those are just called Shortbread cookies. As a life-long cookie addict, it’s very confusing. So I decided to put my family and friends to the test.

The Study

The testing process was simple. A blind taste test would occur where participants were each given four different types of cookies, one from each bakery, for a total of 8 cookies each.

Two research questions guided this project:

RQ1: Would participants be able to tell the difference between the cookies? And if so, was one better than the other?
RQ2: Would those that grew up with cookies from a certain bakery be drawn to that cookie over the other?

The cookies sampled were:

Samoas (Little Brownie Bakers) vs. Carmel deLites (ABC Bakers)
Tagalongs (Little Brownie Bakers) vs. Peanut Butter Patties (ABC Bakers)
Thin Mint (Little Brownie Bakers) vs. Thin Mint (ABC Bakers)
Girl Scout S’mores (Little Brownie Bakers) vs. Girl Scout S’mores (ABC Bakers)

Each participant had to judge each cookie based on appearance and on taste and pick the best. This was a blind test where participants did not know which cookie was from which bakery.

The Results

While all cookies were eaten by the end of the testing phase, there was a clear winner.

To answer the first research question, yes, people could tell the difference between the two bakeries. And the winner as unanimous. Little Brownie Bakers won every category for the first three cookies; Samoas, Tagalongs and Thin Mints. The last cookie, the Girl Scout S’more, the winner was ABC Bakers.

To answer the second research question, it didn’t matter was you grew up with. The winner hands down was Little Brownie Bakers. I even tried the Thin Mints in the freezer, as that is how I usually eat them, and again, Little Brownie Bakers were better.

The pandemic has allowed Girl Scouts to sell cookies online, so I challenge you to replicate this study and let me know your results!!!