S’more Girl Scout cookies to love?

Girl Scout Cookie Season has begun again, with January marking the beginning of orders placed, typically via a sign up sheet that passes around the office from a co-worker with a daughter or niece or grandchild in a troop. 

The first year that the Girl Scouts started selling cookies was 1917 (although the Scouts did not start selling their official, original Girl Scout Cookies until 1935 — up until then, they were selling homemade baked goods). 

To honor the origin year of this tasty and growing enterprise, the Girls Scouts have added a brand new cookie to the 10 established flavors: the S’more.

It’s a fitting name considering the quintessential s’more (a portmanteau of “some more”) was published in the 1927 Girl Scout Inc. compendium, “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” 

The “Some More” recipe, made to serve eight, instructs campers to “toast two marshmallows over the coals to a crisp gooey state and then put them inside a graham cracker and chocolate bar sandwich. The heat of the marshmallow between the halves of the chocolate bar will melt the chocolate a bit.” 

But for those worried about children getting too much sugar, the recipe is quick to offer a reprimand: Even though they are called “some mores,” the recipe scolds  that “one is really enough.” (Ouch.)

The marshmallow may be an easy item to toss into any shopping cart in the modern world, but the gelatin confections had only made their first appearance in the United States in the 1900s. 

Clearly the candy made a big enough splash for the Girl Scouts to incorporate them so intrinsically into our contemporary view of traditional camping, but it also shows inventiveness and foresight on the part of the Scouts; they created an inexpensive yet special snack. 

The new S’more Girl Scout Cookie is actually two cookies, depending on where in the United States the buyers live. With such a high demand for Girl Scout cookies there are two manufacturers: ABC Bakers in Richmond, Va., and Little Brown Bakers of Louisville, Ky. 

Scouts in Litchfield County sell the Little Brown Bakers version: two graham cracker cookies that sandwich thin layers of chocolate and marshmallow frosting; the ABC version has a graham cracker covered in chocolate.

In these changing times, when everyone keeps an eye on ingredients, both versions of the S’more cookie are the first Girl Scout cookies to be completely free of any artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup.  

The Little Brown Bakers cookie is crisp and very sweet, but, it must be reported, shares little resemblance to a classic s’more. But, really, can any cookie compare? The fireside treat is best known for the combination of its heat and its unique textures (the crumble of the graham cracker, the momentary firmness of the about-to-melt chocolate, the dripping goo of the marshmallow beneath the crackling shell of its slightly charred surface). Even the slight smell of a singed branch is part of the enjoyment.

So will either of the new Girl Scout S’mores become a lasting favorite? Perhaps — who’s to say? The delight that a fresh collection of Girl Scout cookies still brings to an office of adults has far less to do with the actual cookies and more to do with their sense of scarcity. If they could be bought in a store all year long would they taste as good?  The sense of ritual and reward is part, perhaps the biggest part, of the Girl Scout Cookie experience — just like making a real s’more after a long hike.

One hundred percent of the profit from the cookie sales remains with each Scout troop. The experience of selling the cookies is supposed to help the girls develop a sense of entrepreneurial confidence and accomplishment. 

Cookies can be purchased through the Girls Scouts of Connecticut by visiting www.gsofct.org. Booth sales will begin March 4 and last through April 2. To find out where to shop, go to  www.girlscoutcookies.org or download the Cookie Finder App.