There is always some sort of solicitation going on outside of grocery stores here in Seattle. Girl Scout Cookie season is the part of the year that I look forward to giving my money to someone else other than Safeway on a grocery store run. According to the Girl Scout Cookie website, I have to wait another 114 days until I start seeing tables piled with colorful boxes.I always look forward to blowing away any cash I have in pockets on Samoas, those delectable lug nut-shaped vanilla cookies encrusted in coconut shavings and covered in chocolate and caramel. They're also known as Caramel deLites, depending on the area. Two bakeries supply the Girl Scouts with their cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers. Depending on the bakery, the cookie name may be different. Comparing images, deLites seem to have more chocolate stripes than Samoas. Samoas come from Little Brownie, while Caramel deLites are a product of ABC. Regardless of the name, these treasures only come in purple colored packages of 15, as opposed to 30 or 40, like Thin Mints or Trefoils.
I was walking down the cookie aisle of Safeway during and I stumbled upon a purple package of Safeway branded Fudge Caramel Coconut cookies. Generic branded food usually is distinctly different tasting for the worse, but for a fraction of the price of name brands. At $2.50/ box during the offseason of Girl Scout cookies, I decided to give them a try.
Right out of the box, the most noticeable difference is that these cookies are completely covered in chocolate from top to bottom, no Fudge Stripe-like lines revealing the caramel and coconut. The configuration is slightly different, with coconut and caramel both on top AND under the cookie portion instead of being just on top. Upon taking a bite, there seems to be less caramel. Often strings of caramel will stretch out of a Samoa on first bite. I wonder if the chocolate covering has something to due with this: more chocolate, less caramel. Regardless of the lack of caramel, as well as coconut, the cookie taste remarkably similar. As I'm writing this I don't have a Samoa to directly compare the taste, but I cannot tell any glaring differences in taste.
Has Safeway found a way of making a profit off of a nonprofit favorite? Have they partnered up with one of the bakeries or have they figured out the formula. Comparing the ingredients on the box (nutrition facts: Samoas, Caramel deLites), the ingrediants for Safeway's FCC cookies are most similar to the Caramel deLites. While comparing nutrition facts, FCC share similarities with Samoas at 150 calories/serving (2 cookies) to deLites' 140 calories/serving but fits in the middle when it comes to sodium. Samoas are only 55 mg of sodium/serving, FCC w/ 80 mg, and deLites last with 85 mg/serving.
I can't seem to buy these cookies off of Safeway's website, so hopefully these weren't cookies that couldn't sell and are now, or soon to be, discontinued . I'd hate to have to clean out my local store of a hidden treasure.
Both Little Brownie and ABC share recipes featuring their famous cookies. I'm going to have to try the Fried Samoas Shrimp, but if someone wants to grant me a birthday wish it would have to be making me the Samoas Dream Cake.
What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?
You guys want some cookies?
The Man Show Boy sells Girl Scout Cookies
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