I remember buying Girl Scout cookies the first year I lived in Baltimore, and feeling… disappointed. The Thin Mints were too crunchy and tasted too minty. For some reason the Tagalongs were called Peanut Butter Patties, and they tasted wrong, too. I always assumed that the Girl Scouts had simply changed their recipe — until today, when I learned that Baltimore has been eating inferior Girl Scout cookies for years.
Okay, so “inferior” is in the taste bud of the beholder. (Or cookie-eater, as it may be.) But as the LA Times reports, there are actually two bakeries that produce Girl Scout cookies for the entire nation, ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. Their recipes are slightly different, resulting in different tastes, different calorie counts, and even sometimes entirely different cookies.
I grew up in Richmond, which is served by Little Brownie Bakers. But Baltimore’s cookies come from ABC Bakers. No wonder they taste wrong! (I should note that the LA Times did an unofficial taste test, and didn’t find any real taste disparity between the two different options.) Fortunately for me, the right kind of cookies are available in both Eastern and Western Maryland. Trust me, folks: They’re worth the drive.
You don’t buy them for the taste anyway or the value.
They are all the worst quality cookies made.
Ha! I grew up in Richmond too and I had noticed the difference. Thanks for clearing this up.