I have a question for Americans...

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant]

...and I'm too embarrassed to ask the Americans I know in real life as it's a strange question and kinda pointless.

What's the deal with girl scout cookies?

Are they the same types of cookies every year?

Are they only sold at certain times of year or are they sold all year round?

What types can you get? I know on Friends they've mentioned thin mints, The Office has mentioned Shortbread.

Are they actually nice or do people buy them to help the girl scouts?

Can you buy the same kinda cookies in supermarkets or are they literally just sold via the girl scouts?

They are only sold by Girl Scouts and only for like a month or two at a certain time of the year, so you have to buy them when you see them, or else you have to wait another year to get them again.

They are mostly the same ones every year, but usually there is a special one or two that's only available that year.

They are nice in a 'I remember this from my childhood!' sort of way. Compared to actually nice cookies, they aren't very nice though! Highly processed, often a bit dry, very sweet.

They are also very expensive for like 20 cookies. It's a fundraiser so people buy them and a bit of nostalgia really.

I would totally buy some if I could and I used to have friends who would ship them to me in the UK, but if they were available all year round, the thrill would be lost really because they aren't the best cookies you've ever had.

Thank you! I definitely see what you mean about not having them year round, almost like getting sick of Easter eggs if they were available 12 months of the year.

I grew up in Australia and at Brownies we used to make Anzac biscuits and Lamingtons - then take them round houses to sell for Anzac Day in the 1970s. Anzac Day is basically the UK Remembrance Sunday, but it's the 25 April.

Anzac biscuits are sort of chewy coconut flapjacks and Lamingtons are squares of cake, rolled in chocolate and dipped in coconut.

I imagine child safeguarding rules are better now, but I've not lived in Oz for almost half a century, so maybe some Aussies can update!

Who actually makes them though? My kids are scouts and they have bake sales but they have to bake. This sounds like they are just buying and reselling??

Yes, this is really interesting, I always thought that Girl Scout cookies were baked by the Scouts themselves! Had no idea it was just a buy wholesale and resell type exercise!

wait... they're not baked by the scouts?

There's two different bakeries that produce the cookies. There are some regional difference in what cookies are called and sometimes which cookies are available.

Originally the cookies were made by girl scouts themselves. https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/cookie-history.html

https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/cookie-flavors.html

The cookies go on sale late January/early Feb. They used to go to door to door, but I think it's mostly booth and online sales now.

I used to sell them as a kid and I hated going door to door, but I did like the prizes you'd get for selling them! 🤭

We used to get have Girl Guide biscuits in NZ. They used to be sold as fundraisers and I don’t think were available all year round. Memory a bit hazy as it was over 40 years ago…. They were very sweet and were rationed by my mother as we usually had homemade biscuits and cakes so these were a special treat.

No need to be embarrassed! Trust me we've heard much worse.

Per PPs they are once a year, not sold in a shop and processed like oreos or similar.

The only good ones are Thin Mints and they're best kept in the refrigerator. There's a circular coconut one too but I forget what they're called.

Even as an adult I would buy these from parents at my office.

As a Brit in the USA I have discovered, they are commercially made, a range of flavors that seem to be mostly on repeat, they aren't very nice, they are expensive, they are a major fundraiser, people have a lot of nostalgia about them, huge numbers are sold.

They are sold at a certain time of year for a certain time period.

This thread has made me so happy, I finally have answers 😂

Oh I'm really disappointed they aren't home made. I assumed there was recipes that they followed and made 😔

Coconut

Sorry finger slipped got too exited. Coconut ones used to be called Samoas but are now caramel delights.

Biscuit
Caramel
Toasted coconut
Dark chocolate

Love them so much. First thing I do with a box is a bit sniff. 🥹

THEY’RE NOT EVEN MADE BY SCOUTS? 😫

Thin Mints from the freezer are SOOOO good! They are getting so expensive now though

I'm in NZ and we had Girl Guide biscuits, which were the same biscuit every time (commercially made) although in later years they had chocolate ones. The Guides used to sell them door to door, or their parents would take orders from people at work, but then they just sold them in the supermarket in later years. I'm not sure if they are still sold or not. I used to buy a pack or two each year, they were nice with a coffee.

Whoops - should have read the whole thread!! Someone has already kindly explained the NZ ones.

They used to be good. I think they took sugar out or something. Not good now. We buy them for donation to troops overseas.

My friend got really excited about them and offered me one, they weren't very nice, too sweet and tasteless. I don't really get it. At least here it's home made cakes

When pps say they’re expensive, how expensive are we talking?
My knowledge of these is limited to the Friends episode.

they sell 200 million boxes of the cookies every year. about 700,000 girls are involved in selling them. there are crazy prizes for the girls that sell the most, I think one of the top prizes is a scholarship that pays for the whole of their University fees and costs.

The ones sold in my region are produced by an industrial cookie manufacturer called ABC bakeries.

I was a troop 'Cookie Mom' for many years and organised the paperwork and cookie distribution from the delivery site to the girls in the troop, then made sure the money was all collected from the people the girls sold the cookies to, did all the bookkeeping, and then did the bank drop.

We also had a few site sales every year where we sold cookies to the public (these were extras ordered specifically to sell outside the library, local supermarkets, etc).

The cookies themselves are pretty awful imo. You can buy much cheaper and much nicer dupes in supermarkets.