By Karen Schillings, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Council Historian
At the beginning of the Girl Scout phenomenon known as “The Cookie Sale,” the troops baked the cookies themselves. Then, in 1934, the Greater Philadelphia Council contacted the Keebler–Weyl Company, requesting their assistance. The company agreed to bake and package vanilla Girl Scout cookies in the trefoil shape, making Keebler-Weyl the first official commercial baker of Girl Scout cookies. By 1937, commercially baked Girl Scout cookies were sold nationally by 125 Girl Scout councils. At one time, as many as 29 bakers supplied cookies for Girl Scouts. With so many bakers providing the sweet treats, a good number of varieties were also being produced. Over the past eight-plus decades, we have seen more than 60 flavors of Girl Scout cookies being offered. So, let’s go down memory lane to recall some of the hits and misses in the world of Girl Scout cookies.
Although the iconic trefoil-shaped cookie was the first type to be commercially baked, the licensed bakers started developing other types of cookies for Girl Scouts to sell. Some of the most iconic were the Vanilla and Chocolate Sandwich Cremes offered by Burry Biscuit Corporation from 1949 to 1973. However, the same cookie was rebranded in 1974 as Van’Chos and continued until 1983.
Another memorable cookie variety is the Scot-Teas that were made by Burry from 1959 to 1980. This was a shortbread cookie with sugar sprinkled on top. It’s possibly the longest seller of any of the discontinued cookies, whose name is immediately recognizable as a Girl Scout cookie.
An unforgettable cookie name is the Kookaburras, which was another one of the Burry Biscuit Corporation offerings. This cookie was similar to a Kit Kat bar and featured wafers layered with caramel and coated in milk chocolate. Although it only lasted from 1983 to 1986, it is still one of the most popular for cookie connoisseurs from that era who long for its return.
Throughout the 1980’s, Burry provided Golden Yangles for the annual cookie sale. It’s unclear why this product was considered a Girl Scout cookie and should be marketed as such since it was basically a triangular cheese cracker. After the discontinuation of the Golden Yangles, our organization has avoided savory snacks for the cookie sale, offering those food items during the fall product sale instead.
Then there were the cinnamon-flavored cookies, which didn’t seem to be very popular with Girl Scout customers. ABC Bakers tried to entice the public with the Five World Cinnamon cookie, which lasted the longest, from 1996 to 2001. A future endeavor with Cinna-Spins in 2008 found that flavor was being replaced the very next year, in 2009, with another cinnamon cookie, the Daisy Rounds. That cookie was gone by 2011. Each flavor was dropped for lack of sales. The only cinnamon cookie that achieved some success was Little Brownie Bakers’ (LBB) Apple Cinnamons, which were available from 1997 to 2001.
Sugar-free cookies also seemed to be unpopular with consumers. The first try was with the Sugar-Free Lemon Chalet Cremes. Introduced by Little Brownie Bakers in 1997, they were gone after 1998. However, LBB made another attempt in 2007 with the Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip cookie, but that too lasted only a year. Not being discouraged, LBB tried again in 2008 with the Sugar-Free Little Brownies, which didn’t fare any better, leaving the cookie lineup after one year.
Although the cinnamon flavor and sugar-free cookies proved not to be very popular, there were other varieties that had a much larger fan base. While the Sugar-Free Lemon Chalet Cremes didn’t garner much support, other lemon-flavored cookies performed much better. Besides the five permanent varieties made by both current cookie companies, Lemonades by ABC Bakers is the only cookie currently sold that has lasted for more than a decade. It’s a shortbread cookie with tangy lemon-flavored icing. Lemonades started in 2008 and have proven to be the most successful cookie of any of the 21st-century lemon flavors.
Savannah Smiles was another popular variety of lemon cookies that Little Brownie Bakers produced. These cookies were lemony wedges coated with powdered sugar and were available from 2011 to 2019. The precursor to Savannah Smiles was the Lemon Coolers, a reduced-fat bite-sized cookie that lasted from 2003 to 2006. When Savannah Smiles was discontinued, Lemon-Ups took their place and are still sold today. This is a crispy lemon cookie with a layer of sweet glaze on one side and one of eight positive messages, such as “I am a leader” and “I am an innovator” on the other. Only time will tell if this cookie has the longevity of ABC’s Lemonades.
The Burry Biscuit Company’s original Lemon Cremes, a vanilla sandwich cookie with lemon filling, also had a long-staying power. They were introduced in 1973 and morphed into Cabana Cremes in 1989 under the Little Brownie Baker moniker. However, a box of Cabana Cremes included cookies with two different fillings: lemon filling and vanilla filling. They were sold until 1995.
Another popular cookie was the ABC Bakers’ Thanks-a-Lot, 2006-2021, which replaced a similar cookie, Animal Treasures, that started in 1995 and became extinct in 2005. Animal Treasures was a rectangular cookie with endangered animals stamped on it. In contrast, the Thanks-a-Lot cookies were round and imprinted with the words “thank you” in five different languages.
Both were shortbread cookies with a fudge bottom. Little Brownie Bakers offered a similar cookie from 2001 to 2008 called All-Abouts. The LBB version featured a message that proclaimed what Girl Scouts were “all about,” such as respect, friendship, confidence, and courage. The shape of All-Abouts changed to circles before being discontinued in 2008.
During the 2016 season, both bakers rolled out their versions of the Girl Scout S’mores. The ABC Bakers (left cookies) variety featured a graham cookie, double dipped in marshmallow creme icing and chocolate. Whereas the Little Brownie Bakers (right cookies) offering is a graham sandwich cookie with chocolate and marshmallow filling. ABC has discontinued its s’mores cookie, but LBB continues to offer it.
There have been many other cookie flavors along the way. Some of them you might even remember, or wish would return.
- Little Brownie Bakers has had:
- Golden Nut Clusters (1971-1973)
- Golden Nut Clusters, version 2.0 (1974-1976)
- Forget-Me-Nots (1979-1981), forgotten after just three years
- Chocolate Chunks (1979-1981)
- Medallions (1983-1984)
- Pecan Shorties (1985-1987)
- Le Chips (1996-1999)
- Aloha Chips (2000-2004)
- Ole Ole (2001-03)
- Double Dutch (2003-2005)
- Dulce de Leche (2008-2014)
- Rah Rah Raisins (2014-2016)
ABC Bakers has also had a plethora of cookie offerings. You might recall these varieties:
- Praline Royals (1992-1993)
- Friendship Circles (2002-2003)
- Iced Berry Pinatas (2003-2005)
- Shout Outs! (2010-2012)
- Mango Cremes with Nutrifusion, an infusion of nutrients from a number of vitamin-rich foods and not the greatest selling point (2013-2014)
- Cranberry Citrus Crips (2013-16)
- Trios (2015-17)
Girl Scout cookie flavors will continue to come and go as long as there is a Girl Scout cookie sale. However, the two current officially licensed bakers, Little Brownie, and ABC, maintain the five standard cookies offered yearly, although each company has its own names for these cookies. The exception is the classic Thin Mints, the name used by both companies for this cookie, which has existed under various names, such as Cooky Mints, Chocolate Mint, Thin Mint-Teas, and Mints, since 1940!
