Girl Scouts Think You’re Chubs
Going on the 81st year of cookie sales, the Girl Scouts and their rainbow-colored boxes don’t need much explainin’.
Except this year, when the pigtail-wearing munchkins—who started pre-orders last Thursday—decided you should ease up on the Thin Mints. Yes, you. Because, they don’t make you thin, it turns out. For the first time, girl scouts are selling 100-calorie packs in a flavor they've baptized Cinna-Spins.
Following the 100-cal prototype, they come in bags with 15-ish cracker-ish cookies. Not thick and chewy like a normal cookie (that has fat), they’re thin like paper. The way they want you to look.
Ed might be the best judge, given all his 100-cal pack experimenting already this year. As we're all figuring out, the snacks market is rapidly getting 100-cal-pack-ified, but we thought there was hope in the Girl Scout universe. Hawking buttery biscuits at you (as if obesity never existed) the rosy-cheeked girls in uniform make us feel warm and fuzzy. Chubby, too, but hey. Last year, they announced all flavors would contain zero trans-fat. Changes are clearly being made at their Fifth Avenue headquarters, but what's next? Cookies made of air?
Find your closest cookie source here.
About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
15 Comments:
If I want "diet" cookies it won't be Girl Scout cookies! They are a once a year treat so bring on the calories!
And yeah, I know: they want to teach the girls good eating habits, portion control yada, yada, yada - but c'mon! A once a year item is not going to change a body's size or make up.
SayWhat at 8:09PM on 01/12/08
Thin mints are tasty, no doubt, but I've always thought the cookie thing was kind of weird. I mean, Girl Scouts is supposed to all about empowerment and creative problem solving and actively doing stuff. With cookie sales, you end up with girls pimping a product that someone else made. Where's the self-esteem-building in that?
missginsu at 8:24PM on 01/12/08
Most of us pimp products that someone else made for a living.
srhcb at 10:17PM on 01/12/08
Those awful little girls.
cakespy at 1:14AM on 01/13/08
As long as they're tasty, I don't care how many calories they have. If they stop being so tasty though.... I don't know what I'd do with myself!
tonyleachsf at 4:42PM on 01/13/08
I love Girl Scout cookies...though I hate that they're delivered smack dap in the middle of Lent every year! Evillllll little girls.......
christianne at 5:22PM on 01/13/08
Our neighbor girls were here just this afternoon. The 100-calorie things aren't on our list. But not all area councils use the same provider. Thank goodness thin mints and trefoils and samoas are still there.
lemons at 8:14PM on 01/13/08
Our neighbors with the whole family ( except the Dad) dropped in . We ordeded 4 boxes of lemon cookies, we love those cookies & they were happy .
mira
mira at 12:03AM on 01/14/08
I have read that the cinna-crisps are not available in all areas. I'll be curious to see how well they sell.
Erin Zimmer at 12:14AM on 01/14/08
Samoas are worth their weight in gold to me. I'll buy one box, and eat two cookies a day (with a cup of tea) until they're gone. This seems to work for me. But god help the individual who thinks they can "share" my samoas.
Kerosena at 12:17PM on 01/14/08
I just put up a post on Silicon Valley Moms Blog about my daughter's troop and the compteti-mommies with cookie sales. Ugggh...
http://www.svmoms.com/2008/01/the-lamest-brow.html
Jill
svmom at 2:26PM on 01/15/08
Did you know that the $3.50 box of cookies you buy to help support the Girl Scouts only gives 25 cents to the Girl Scouts? (As of 3/1/2004)Hopefully, you are ordering the cookies for your own craving (as I do) and not for the notion that you are helping the local chapter. I personally order 1 box of trefoils and 1 box of thin mints then give the girls a $5 donation. They deserve to receive more of the profit for all the selling they do.
mommyme at 9:49AM on 01/16/08
What is the world coming to when Girl Scout cookies are no longer the evil delicacy they have always been? If I want a low-calorie snack I'll eat raw veggies, thank you very much!
RichardCrystal at 11:04AM on 01/16/08
Girl Scout Troops receive more than .25. The norm is .50 per box goes to the troop and they have opportunities for making more. Then another $2.00 or more goes to the Council and this money goes into creating great opportunities for the girls. There are camps and program and more depending on the area. Be assured when you purchase Girl Scout Cookies 80% goes toward Girl Scout activities. Of course a donation is always appreciated. My daughter has sold cookies for 8 years and she has learned so much from the activity. Of course SHE sold the cookies, Girls do not learn too much if parents sell and deliver them. Remember they are great from the freezer in the middle of Summer.
Byrdmomof2 at 6:24PM on 01/17/08
The peanut butter sandwich cookies (Do si do's) taste terrible now. I'm almost afraid to open the box of Caramel Delites ~ too much disappointment for one day.
cedarwater at 12:53PM on 01/26/08