By Jane Feehan
It’s cookie time for the Girl Scouts and for those who enjoy a good cookie as much as they do contributing to a good cause. Hopefully, supporters won't be disappointed.
The Girl Scouts decided to cut back on their gallery of cookies but Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos, Trefoils (shortbread), Samoas, Lemon Chalet Cremes, Tagalongs (a k a Peanut Butter Patties) – ones that have been around awhile - will remain.
If cutting back the variety boosts profits (the suggested reason), I have no problem with it. The problem is the changing quality and taste. Last year, Thin Mints seemed not as thin, the chocolate mint coating just so so; it was an overall less tasty product. I thought no more about it until today when I bought a box of Do-Si-Dos. These former favorites are now slipping. The peanut butter filling seems the same but the cookie changed; cracker-like it’s a short-cut, lackluster -- and disappointing -- version of the former.
So now it seems quality is heading the same direction as variety: south. Something’s missing and hopefully it does not affect sales, which had been slipping a few years until last year. The Girl Scouts use two bakers: ABC Bakers of Interlake Foods LLC, with them since 1937 and Little Brownie Bakers, a Kellogg Company. Is the change in taste the baker, the recipe or the budget?
