Samoas, Thin Mints ranked top ’15 cookies

SALISBURY — Samoas are the most popular cookie among area Girl Scouts, with the classic Thin Mints coming in a close second. 

Scouts from Daisy Troop 4039 and Brownie Troop 40126 (older siblings of the younger Daisy Scouts) came to the offices of The Lakeville Journal on Friday, Jan. 16, to have a tea party and to taste and test the cookies being sold this year by the Girl Scouts of America.

Girl Scouts in different parts of the United States sell their cookies at different times of the year; and they get their cookies from either of two bakeries, ABC or Little Brownie. Connecticut Scouts get theirs from Little Brownie Bakers, and they began selling this year on Jan. 2.

On the cookie menu are the classics: Thin Mints, Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos (which are like peanut butter cracker sandwiches, but sweeter) and Tagalongs (chocolate on the outside and peanut butter on the inside). Samoas are a relatively new addition but they were the top vote getter among the Scouts who gathered here at The Journal.

The consensus seemed to be that the Samoas (which are called  Caramel deLites if they are baked by ABC) combine several flavors that children (and adults) like: chocolate, caramel and coconut. 

The peanut butter-based cookies were favorites among several of the Scouts, but failed to get a majority of votes because several of the girls had peanut allergies. 

The Girl Scouts have addressed the growing concern with food allergies by offering, for the first time this year, a gluten-free cookie called Toffee-Tastic, which is only available online at www.gsofct.org.

Anyone who doesn’t know a Connecticut Girl Scout  can also order any and all of the cookies online. However, the annual cookie sales program is designed to help the young Scouts learn to be entrepreneurs. And money collected from cookie sales can be used for troop projects.

It used to be that Scouts could sell their cookies by going door to door; the world has changed, though, and girls can now only sell door to door if they are accompanied by an adult. More and more, the Scouts leave a sales sheet at the office of a parent or other adult; and they sell cookies in March at tables set up outside area grocery and hardware stores. 

Maureen McBreairty is co-leader of the Daisy troop with Melissa Jack. She explained that the troops have to buy an entire case of any cookie for which they receive an order; overflow cookies are sold at the March “box sales.” Most troops also order extras of the most popular flavors (which we now know, based on our small but not completely random sampling, are the Samoas and Thin Mints). 

The least popular flavors, according to the Scouts at our testing last week, included a new flavor called Rah-Rah Raisins, which were deemed to be too dry and which had too many raisins. Also at the bottom of the popularity list were the new Savannah Smiles, which are lemon flavored and coated in confectioners’ sugar. The Scouts here gave the thumbs down on both counts.

But two Scouts did say they like the Smiles. One Scout noted she liked it because she can’t eat the cookies with nuts, so her voting options were limited.

The Trefoils also broke the group into factions. Some of the Scouts liked them because they were plain and buttery and were good dipped in tea; the other Scouts did not like them, because they were too plain. 

Anyone interested in voting can share their views with The Lakeville Journal by posting their favorites (and least favorites) with an explanation of why on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thelakevillejournal. 

To order cookies, contact McBreairty at mcblmt@gmail.com or Jack at melissaemily222@yahoo.com.