It’s the best time of the year. And no, we aren’t talking Christmas. It’s Girl Scout cookie time.
Girl Scout cookies trace their roots back to 1917 when an Oklahoma troop sold cookies as a fundraiser at their local high school. (Bless.)
Five years later, the Girl Scout magazine featured an article including a recipe by a Girl Scout director in Chicago. The recipe yielded six to seven dozen cookies for any Girl Scout troop to make and sell to fundraise. The cookies were sold for less than a quarter per box. 100 years later and I’m buying five boxes just to avoid breaking a $20.
Girl Scout cookies started being commercially produced in 1936 and one year later, more than 125 Girl Scout councils reported holding cookie sales.
Fun Fact: Girl Scout troops sold sugar cookies or shortbread cookies until 1939 when “Cooky Mints” were introduced. We now know (and love) these as Thin Mints, which actually make up 25% of all girl cookies sold. I mean, have you ever eaten a frozen Thin Mint? 🙌🏽
When World War II was underway, shortages of ingredients like flour, sugar, and butter stifled the sale of Girl Scout cookies but not their spirits. Girl Scouts started selling calendars as an alternative to raise money. After the war ended, cookie sales increased, and by 1948, 29 bakers were licensed to bake Girl Scout Cookies across the United States.
Today there are only two licensed bakeries producing cookies: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers (which is owned by Kellogg’s). Each of the Girl Scout councils chooses between those two bakers and each baker uses different names for some cookies, like Caramel deLites/Samoas.
Up to eight varieties of cookies are made each year by the bakers, three of which are mandatory: Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-Si-Dos, and Shortbread/Trefoils. Any of the five other cookies can be changed each year, with approval from Girl Scouts of the USA. We’ve seen some great cookies come and go throughout the years...RIP to the Le Chip, a chocolate-dipped, chocolate chip hazelnut cookie.
The number one cookie sold in South Carolina? Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs.
If you are craving some cookies now, here are ways to buy them:
- Know a girl scout. (Or their parents. There are 2.7 million of them.)
- Find a girl scout cookie booth, which will start to be set up next week.
- Order online/through Digital Cookie app. To find out if the Digital Cookie platform is available in your area, check this list of participating Girl Scout councils.
Girl Scout cookies are win-win for everyone involved. Girl Scouts learn valuable skills through raising funds to support their programs and everybody else gets cookies.
If you want to spend the weekend trying to bake your own version of the Original Girl Scout cookie recipe until you can dig into your own box later this month, we don’t blame you. Hint: It’s basically a sugar cookie. If you happen to have some extra boxes laying around, the Girl Scout Pinterest page has tons of ideas for recipes. Good luck getting out of that wormhole.
Share your Girl Scout cookie (or other fun weekend) photos with us using #GVLtoday. Have a sweet weekend, Greenville.
