45 Girl Scout Cookies, Ranked From Worst To Best

The Toffee-Tastic gluten-free cookie was launched back in 2014  and is still on the list of available Girl Scout cookies — which is a pretty long time for a cookie that's not one of the core originals. Obviously, the Girl Scouts had their work cut out for them when developing a gluten-free cookie that would appeal to a wide audience and live up to the sacred Girl Scout cookie legacy. The cookies are described as, "Rich, buttery cookies with sweet, crunchy toffee bits." Unfortunately, this particular cookie seems to have missed the mark with some people. 

In 2017, a notorious review of the cookie by an actual Girl Scout went viral. "The Toffee-tastic is a bleak, flavorless, gluten-free, wasteland. I'm telling you its as flavorless as dirt," she griped (via People). But to keep things in perspective: People who follow a gluten-free diet are typically already aware of some of the texture and flavor differences between gluten-free foods and their glutenous counterparts. So for them, a cookie that's a little more on the crumbly side because it's made with rice flour instead of wheat probably won't be that surprising. Luckily, Toffee-Tastic isn't the only gluten-free cookie option currently available.

Little Brownies sound great in theory — brownie-style cookies studded with mini chocolate chips has got to be a winner, right? Not necessarily. The Little Brownies cookies were introduced as a sugar free option in 2008. It was a good idea to make a sugar free cookie deeply chocolatey to mask some of the artificial sweetener flavors, but even still, it ended up coming up short. It turns out when you tell people that something's a brownie (even if it's actually referring to a young Girl Scout), they expect a brownie. 

These cookies didn't make a lot of waves, and only ran until 2009. But the Girl Scouts didn't completely give up on the idea of brownie-inspired cookies. In 2022, they took another pass at it with the Adventurefuls cookies (more on those later). It remains to be seen how long the newest rendition will fare, but we've got high hopes.

In 1977, granola was just beginning to find its place in everyday kitchens, and in an effort to join in on the emerging trend, the Girl Scouts released a "Granola" cookie. The 1960s saw a re-emergence of granola as an alternative food for those seeking out healthier anti-establishment products (yes, hippies). But by the 1970s, it started to catch on, making its way out of hippie culture and into mainstream production. According to Jesus Sanchez of the Los Angeles Times, General Mills created Natural Valley Granola as a granola cereal in the early 1970s, but instead of pouring it in a bowl with milk, they found people were eating it dry as a snack. This revelation launched the Natural Valley granola bar, popularly known today as the Nature Valley brand.

So it's no surprise that the Girl Scouts would also pull this relatively new snack into the cookie lineup, especially when the younger generation was leading the charge here. The Granola cookie itself was relatively straightforward, made of rolled oats, molasses, unbleached flour, sesame seeds, wheat germ, and brown sugar — many of the same ingredients you might find in a bag of granola. While the cookie was pulled from the lineup in 1978 granola-style products would go on to fill the void.

With a name like Snaps, you might be thinking these cookies were like gingersnaps, but it turns out that they were actually crunchy oatmeal raisin cookies. Available from 1994 to 1997, the confusingly-named cookies offered a low-fat oatmeal cookie option. The highlight of these cookies is that they were glazed with a little bit of icing, perhaps to offset the relatively boring composition of Snaps. 

But the cookies clearly had appeal, since they managed to last for four seasons — longer than many of the other oatmeal cookie options over the years. Snaps were one of several Girl Scout cookies offered in the 1990s that were low fat, low sugar, low sodium, and even no-sugar for those following restrictive diets. Different reduced-fat and sugar-free cookies have stayed in the mix since, with the addition of gluten-free options to help appeal to a wider range of consumers.

There are several oatmeal cookies that have made the list over the decades, but very few of them have stuck around for any substantial amount of time. As a matter of fact, the only oatmeal-type cookie on the list right now is the Do-Si-Dos which many people consider more of a peanut butter cookie than an oatmeal cookie. But for one Girl Scout cookie season in 1999, Upside-Downs were available. According to Food Network, they resembled one of America's favorite oatmeal cookies, the Oatmeal Cream Pie by Little Debbie. 

The Upside-Downs weren't a direct knock-off of Oatmeal Cream Pies by any means. The cookies were crunchy instead of soft like the pies, and rather than sandwiching a cream filling, the Upside-Downs had frosting on the bottom (which is essentially how they got their name). Whether or not Upside-Downs were really made to compete directly with Little Debbie or not, we may never know — but they didn't last more than a year, whereas Oatmeal Cream Pies have been going strong since 1960.

Each of the two major bakers for the Girl Scouts has their own gluten-free cookie offering. While Little Brownie Bakers makes the Toffee-tastic, ABC Bakers produces the Caramel Chocolate Chip cookie. From first glance alone, we're already more excited about this gluten-free option. Chocolate chip cookies are difficult for most people to turn down, making these an ideal gluten-free offering, in our opinion. To thwart some of the textural issues cookies made with rice flour face, these cookies are made with oat flour instead. The caramel isn't just a fun choice, but also a useful addition to replace some of the toasty flavor imparted by toasted wheat in traditional cookies. 

Generally, these cookies are geared towards people who like crispy chocolate chip cookies. If you're a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie kind of person, these probably aren't going to rock your world, regardless of the gluten content.

This is the first appearance of Juliettes, although when they show up again further down this list, they are an entirely different cookie. The first Juliettes appeared from 1984 to 1985, and were daisy-shaped shortbread cookies. According to Food Network, the cookies were named for the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low. The package came with two sleeves of cookies, not unlike the way Thin Mints are packaged, but the two sleeves of Juliettes cookies were backed with two different types of coatings: One sleeve of shortbread cookies had a lemon coating, while the other sleeve had a pecan-praline coating. 

It seems like the lemon Juliettes cookies would eventually become the Lemonades cookies that are so popular today, and the pecan-praline cookies would inspire the Juliettes created nearly a decade later. We're not sure how well the lemon and pecan praline flavors go together, but we're impressed that the producers went to so much effort to give us essentially two types of cookies for the price of one.

By name alone, it isn't entirely clear what kind of cookie this is. You can assume it's meant to be enjoyed with coffee or tea, but is it made with coffee? Are we serving coffee to Girl Scouts now? It was, in fact, not made with coffee. The Café Cookie was available from 2005 to 2007, and was essentially a crispy brown sugar cookie, delicately spiced with cinnamon, which sounds nice. The top is stamped with the cookie's name, which we feel like was a little bit of a missed opportunity, given how creative the Girl Scout bakers have been in the past with stamped cookie designs. 

While we're a big fan of spiced cookies with warm apple cider or tea, we understand that this particular offering wasn't quite as exciting as some of the other chocolate-dipped or caramel-drizzled options. We like this cookie as a starting point, and hope to see the brown sugar and cinnamon flavors developed into a new cookie in the near future.

The Iced Berry Piñatas are one of those Girl Scout cookies that are relatively fresh in some peoples' memories, having been available from 2003 to 2005 (via Eat This, Not That). The cookies were similar to jam-filled thumbprint cookies, with a sugar cookie base and berry jam baked on top of the cookie. The cookie's box even claimed that the cookies were made with real strawberries, so it's safe to assume that the berry jam was predominantly, if not entirely strawberry-flavored. There was also an addition of small cinnamon-flavored crumbs added to the top before the cookie was drizzled with icing. 

As for why they're called piñatas, we assume it's because they're stuffed with jam, sort of like a piñata stuffed with candies, but it's a vague association. Nevertheless, this fruit-forward sugar cookie is still missed by many and we're hoping it makes a resurgence in some form or another in future years.  

Somehow, Do-si-dos are the Girl Scouts' fourth best selling cookie, which is a little bizarre to us because we've never heard anyone exclaim that these are their favorite. Thin Mints and Samoas, sure. Tagalongs, not everyone adores them but we get it. But Do-si-dos? These peanut butter sandwich cookies (the ABC Bakers version is actually referred to as a Peanut Butter Sandwich) have been around since Little Brownie Bakers began producing Girl Scout cookies in 1974. The cookies themselves are crunchy ground oatmeal cookies — smoother than the oats in a classic oatmeal raisin cookie — which are stuffed with a peanut butter filling, and make for a sort of dense cookie that you definitely need a beverage to wash down. 

Do-si-dos pack a huge amount of peanut butter flavor though, and the cookies are a delicately sweet balance to the more savory filling. A little jam on top and you'd have yourself a peanut butter and jelly cookie, which sounds like a pretty good after school snack (or a perfect late-night snack after the kids have gone to bed).

What better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Girl Scouting than with a cookie? Since shortbread is one of the most iconic Girl Scout cookie types, carrying the crest of the Girl Scouts from the very beginning, it certainly made for the most obvious choice of cookies to commemorate the occasion. The 50th anniversary edition of the shortbread cookie didn't stray too far from what many had come to love over the years. 

The Medallions cookies were embossed with the phrase "Girl Scout Cookies over 50 Years" and came in a set with two different flavored bottom coatings. Half of the cookies in the box had fudge bottoms while the other half had pecan praline bottoms. We definitely like the duo of chocolate and pecan praline better than the lemon and praline combination that the early Juliettes offered right after these were released. The medallions ran from 1984 to 1985, although the cookie styles have stayed in rotation ever since.

Over the last five decades there have been several chocolate chip cookie contenders, but none of them have lasted very long. The first chocolate chip cookie, the Chocolate Chunk, appeared from 1979 to 1981 and was a straight-forward chocolate chip cookie. Next came the Country Hearth Chocolate Chip which ran from 1988 to1990. This cookie was made with oatmeal and marketed as a low-fat cookie, with no cholesterol, less salt, and less sugar.

From 1996 to 1997 the Girl Scouts produced Le'Chip, which has probably been the most fondly remembered of all of the chocolate chip cookies produced, even though it had one of the shortest runs. With an artistically French-inspired name, this was a "[t]ender cookie with lots of chocolate chips and hazelnuts. Delicious fudge coated bottom" (via Little Brownie Bakers). With a description like that, we'd be delighted to see it return, even for just a limited time. Unfortunately, Le'Chip was immediately replaced by the Striped Chocolate Chip & Pecan cookie. This version was made with pecans, oatmeal, and chocolate stripes in addition to the chocolate bottom coating. It ran from 1997 to 1999, and wasn't replaced with a similar-style cookie until 2004 when the Girl Scouts went all-in on chocolate with the Double Dutch, a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie with both milk and dark chocolate chips. The final chocolate chip contender before the most recent gluten-free option came in 2009, with a sugar-free chocolate chip cookie that only lasted a year.

Over the years, the Girl Scouts released several sandwich cookies, from Van'chos that had both chocolate and vanilla cookies with vanilla filling, to the Chalet Cremes which were vanilla cookies stuffed with lemon or vanilla filling. But in the name of switching things up a bit, in 2013 ABC Bakers released the Mango Crèmes which got a little more creative with the classic sandwich cookie. The tropical package consisted of vanilla and coconut flavored cookies which sandwiched a mango cream filling.  Mango Crèmes also featured a new beautiful decorative design on the cookies themselves. 

The Mango Cremes were made with something called "Nutrifusion" which was described as "nutrients derived from fruits" (via Epicurious). While we thought these developments were a fun twist on an otherwise ubiquitous cookie, they must not have been especially profitable, because the cookies only lasted for one season and were gone by the following year.

Cinnamon-flavored cookies have been a Girl Scout staple over the years, from the low-calorie Cinna-Spins to one of the newest flavors, the Toast-Yay! cookies. The Apple Cinnamon Girl Scout cookies produced by Little Brownie Bakers went in a slightly different direction, incorporating apple flavor into the cookie itself, which was adorably and appropriately shaped like an apple. The top of the cookie was sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, which made it look a little brûléed. 

One of the selling points of the Apple Cinnamon cookie was that it was reduced fat, although it seems like the cookie made up for that sacrifice with the addition of the cinnamon sugar. (We understand, sometimes you've got to pick your battles.) The Apple Cinnamon cookie stayed in the Girl Scout cookie lineup from 1997 until 2001, which is a respectable time frame in the world of contemporary Girl Scout cookies.

If you're familiar with Mexican wedding cookies, or their Southern American counterparts, moldy mice cookies, you've got a pretty good idea of what the Olé Olé cookies were like. (According to the Institute of Culinary Education, Italian wedding cookies are similar but made with star anise, and you'll find versions of other variations of the cookie sprinkled across many cultures.) Per Little Brownie Bakers, Olé Olé, available from 2001 to 2003, were described as, "Bite-sized vanilla cookies with pecan chips, coconut and covered in powdered sugar. These little cookies are a fiesta of taste and fun!"  

The addition of coconut to this cookie is what sets Olé Olé cookies apart from their traditional predecessors. While we think these were a really fun addition to the Girl Scout cookie lineup, it's also one of those cookies that we're fully capable of making at home, probably a little better. But we'll be taking a page from the Girl Scouts and adding a little bit of coconut into our next batch of homemade Mexican wedding cookies.

Kookaburras are a thing of legend, an '80s apparition in the collective Girl Scout cookie memory, per Phoenix New Times. It was a bar cookie that was almost a candy bar, made of rice wafers that were layered with caramel, then all dipped in chocolate. The cookie is sort of what we'd imagine it would be like to construct a Kit Kat bar but with the flavors of a Twix. And with that in mind, we understand why Kookaburras had such an appeal.

Digging a little deeper, we tried to make the connection between Kookaburras — the Tasmanian bird that is the cookie's namesake — and the Girl Scouts. Apparently a song called "Kookaburra" is a Girl Scouts favorite, and it's perfect for singing around a campfire or while taking a hike (via Girl Scout Guide). The Girl Scouts have named plenty of cookies after various people, places, and things that have connections to the organization, so it makes sense that they'd name a cookie after a classic camping song. But we were otherwise hard-pressed to find an Australian cookie that would have inspired this one. 

If you never knew the magic of the original Kookaburra cookies, hope remains. According to Aisle of Shame, Aldi sold a "dupe" of the cookie called Benton's Delight. While a Reddit thread indicates that the cookie has been discontinued as of 2021, one Redditor suggested that the chewy caramel version of the Australian Tim Tam cookie offers a similar flavor experience.  

Baked in the shape of the Girl Scouts logo, Trefoils (also known as Shortbread) are about as iconic as it gets. Another one of the original Little Brownie Bakers cookies produced in 1974, these have stood the test of time, in large part due to their timeless simplicity. Shortbread cookies are easy for just about anyone to love, even though they aren't especially complex. These cookies are buttery and sweet, with a nice crisp bite and a crumble that doesn't turn to sawdust in your mouth. Nutritionally-speaking, you've also got a little bit of wiggle room with these cookies, since five of them is considered one serving size and will only cost you 160 calories. 

True to traditional shortbread recipes, these cookies do not contain eggs, although for people with allergies the packaging does point out that the cookies are made in a facility that also handles eggs.

If you'll recall, the first cookies to be named Juliettes appeared in 1984 and included two shortbread cookies one dipped in lemon, the other in pecan praline. In 1993, another box of Juliettes cookies was introduced, and they were very different from the original cookies. The new Juliettes were round chocolate-covered cookies stuffed with a pecan caramel that stretched beautifully while you ate them. Described as, "A delightfully crunchy combination of caramel and pecan covered with a fudgy chocolaty coating," this version of the Juliettes was nearly irresistible. 

The cookies had a pretty decent run, staying in the Girl Scout cookie lineup through 1996. For fans of turtle cookies, this was a relatively close flavor profile. It's unclear why the cookies eventually came off the menu, but when you search for Juliettes these days, this is the cookie that appears most often over the shortbread cookies that came nearly a decade before.

Taking the place of the Echo sandwich cookies in 1989, Cabana Cremes offered two sandwich cookie flavors in each box. The vanilla cookies sandwiched either vanilla or lemon cream, which was a sweet and bright departure from the traditional chocolate sandwich cookies. But these cream-filled cookies were just a layover on the way to Chalet Cremes which ran from 1990 to 1995. The cookie components were the same — vanilla cookies sandwiching lemon or vanilla cream fillings. The Chalet Cremes were either round or rectangular depending on the producer, and stamped with images of the first Girl Scout International World Center based in Switzerland.

Even though the original Chalet Cremes were discontinued in 1995, the Girl Scouts capitalized on their popularity and offered Reduced Fat Chalet Cremes from 1995 to 1997, and Sugar Free Chalet Cremes from 1997 to 1998. Removing Chalet Cremes from the menu proved to be more than cookie buyers could stand, and the lemon creme version of the Chalet Cremes were returned to order forms by popular demand in 2007 where they stayed until 2011. With over a decade of time spent in the Girl Scout cookie lineup, it's not a stretch to say that these were some of the most popular Girl Scout cookies ever produced.

The Little Brownie Baker Girl Scout S'mores cookies landed on order forms back in 2016 and are still going strong today, unlike their inferior ABC Bakers counterparts. The cookie is a layered sandwich cookie that is built exactly the way you think a traditional s'more would be built. The cookies themselves are graham-flavored cookies that sandwich both chocolate and marshmallow fillings. They've got a little less marshmallow than you'd find with a campfire s'more, but requires a lot less work. We're big fans of microwaving these s'mores cookies for a few seconds till they're warm and the filling is slightly melted. 

Unfortunately, if you aren't in the areas supplied by Little Brownie Bakers, these particular cookies won't be an option for you. And even if you are, Girl Scout S'mores cookies may be difficult to get a hold of. Due to supply chain issues, this popular cookie is facing shortages as of February 2022, and has been removed from many troops' online ordering pages (via The Wall Street Journal). If you can get a hold of a box, you're one of the lucky few. Of course, if you're really eager to lay your hands on a box, there's always third-party sellers like Amazon where you can still find a box or two.

Golden Nut Clusters spent a woefully short amount of time in the cookie lineup, in our humble opinion, but performed relatively well while they were available — even outselling some of the classics in some areas (via News & Record). Available from 1991 to 1993 and baked by Little Brownie Bakers, these cookies were mostly soft and chewy caramel, with pecan pieces folded in. The caramel enrobed a soft thin sugar cookie, and the whole thing smelled like maple syrup. Kids were likely to lose teeth eating them if one was especially loose, but that didn't stop us from eating them by the fistful. 

If you didn't have the pleasure of tasting one of these clusters in the short window that they were available, imagine having a caramel turtle cookie, just without the chocolate. Of the many cookies that have been discontinued over the years, this is one we'd definitely love to see make a comeback. Unfortunately, we haven't come across any copycat recipes for this particular cookie, which means we may really be out of luck this time.

These are the newest addition to the Girl Scout Cookie lineup, launching this cookie season. It's been over a decade since the Girl Scouts had a brownie-style offering, and this year the Adventurefuls are so popular that many troops are having trouble keeping them in stock, per NPR, even though they are being produced by both Girl Scout cookie baking companies. These are round brownie-inspired cookies with a shallow well in the center that have been filled with a delicately salty caramel, before being partially dipped and drizzled with more chocolate. How could you say no to something like that? 

According to a review on Buzzfeed, the chocolate drizzle seems more like that chocolate coating that's used on the Thin Mint cookies, but didn't see that as a negative at all. The cookies are also more crisp, like typical cookies rather than soft and chewy like brownies. Again, not a deal-breaker, just not what the reviewer was expecting. Overall, the cookie is impressively delicious, and a strong contender for the top spot depending on how you feel about the classics. Only time will tell if this one takes the throne eventually.

Thin Mints are the Girl Scout cookie that really need no introduction. They've officially been around since 1951 when they were known as Chocolate Mints, and then transitioned to Thin Mints as part of the original 1974 lineup of Little Brownie Bakers Girl Scout cookies. And anyone who loves them (which would seem like everyone considering it's the most-searched Girl Scout cookie), can tell you just how delicious they are. Once you tear open one of the silver foil sleeves, it's hard not to eat every Thin Mint in the wrapper. There's just something so perfect about those simple and crispy mint and chocolate wafer cookies dipped in more chocolate.

What you might not know is that Thin Mints are made with vegan ingredients. Little Brownie Bakers doesn't go so far as to market them as vegan cookies, because they're produced in the same facility that handles eggs and dairy, but ABC Bakers has intentionally labelled the cookies as "made with vegan ingredients." Of course, just about everyone loves Thin Mints, whether they follow a vegan diet or not. And even though people have very strong opinions about what the best Girl Scout cookie is, the numbers don't lie. The Girl Scouts website lists Thin Mints as the number one selling cookie, followed by Samoas/Caramel deLites. The only real question is do you prefer to eat them frozen or at room temperature?