Few snack foods can surpass the cookie. It’s not as divisive as the world of chips (potato, vegetable, tortilla, banana, chicharron — nobody likes them all!), but just as diverse. Not as pricey as the world of booze, but just as indulgent and nearly as sophisticated (Jack Daniels is to Oreo as Glenfiddich is to Pepperidge Farm) and they appeal to everyone! Even people who don’t eat cookies will readily admit that cookies are the freaking best.
Just look how much joy a simple shortbread can bring!
But good as cookies are, they’re not all great. Some cookies are Nilla Wafers. Or Teddy Grahams! Some are overstuffed! Some are understuffed!
In an act of public service, we dove into the extensive world of grocery store cookies to weed out the delicious from the overprocessed, flavorless, bargain bin fodder. How did we arrive at these 25 brands? We asked friends and fellow food writers for their all-time favorites, hit r/Snacking for ideas, and did an inventory of what brands the grocery chains were currently carrying. Then we finally got around to the fun work: eating them all.
Here are the best store-bought cookies currently on the market, ranked.
25. Nabisco Nilla Wafers
Nilla Wafers aren’t bad, not at all. With some milk… very pleasant. They’re just so boring. You’ll hear people make excuses for them — “you just have to dip them in X!” or “Cumble them into a crust for Y recipe!”
That means they’re not good, friend. Of course, a Nilla Wafer is going to taste delicious if you dip it in Nutella or syrup or cocaine or whatever! But all it’s really doing is adding texture to that sweet/ cocaine element.
The Bottom Line
A cookie in its most basic form.
24. Teddy Grahams — All Of Them
Teddy Grahams are weird, they’re basically bite-sized graham crackers but they’re presented in cute bear form. Are graham crackers cookies? Graham crackers are for old people, but Teddy Grahams are clearly for kids, which are the opposite of old people. This is the world’s most dissonant cookie.
Whether you love the Honey, Chocolate chip, Cinnamon, or Chocolate flavor, they’re all better experienced by tossing them in a small bowl and pouring milk over them. Which means as stand-alone cookies, they’re just alright.
The Bottom Line
A better cookie than the Nilla Wafer, which is more of a testament to how bad the Nilla Wafer is, not how good the Teddy Graham is.
23. Oreo Golden
It must be tough to be Oreo. The OG Oreo is unbeatable by it’s younger siblings, which means no matter what the brand tries the end product is destined to live in the shadow of a greater cookie. That’s very much the case with the Golden Oreo, which is a pretty good cookie but pales in comparison with the OG.
Take note Nilla Wafers, this is how you make a vanilla cookie work! Golden Oreos are buttery and sweet, ideal for dipping in a tall glass of chocolate milk, or enjoyable completely on their own. The creme filling is an effective way to add some excitement to the bland taste of artificial vanilla, but it’s impossible to eat them without thinking about how you’d rather have a regular Oreo.
The Bottom Line
The Tiffany Trump of the Oreo Cookie family. Easy to forget it exists!
22. Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies
Animal crackers are somehow more boring than even Nilla Wafers but cover them in pink or white frosting and bedazzle them with sprinkles and you’ve got yourself a damn good cookie. It’s often debated whether or not the pink and white cookies are actually two different flavors.
To my palate they are, but could that be totally psychological? Definitely.
Something about the pink cookies just tastes better to me, they have a deeper flavor to them with a slightly bitter edge, whereas the whites taste sweeter??? This could all just be wild speculation induced by frosting. I’ve never thought to do a blind taste test because at the end of the day, who cares? The cookies are good, white or pink!
The Bottom Line
You feel like a glutton buying these, but if they’re in the house that bag doesn’t last two days.
21. Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love these dusty little cookies! Are they overly dry? Yes, do they make a mess of crumbs as soon as you open them? All the time! Do they always cut the roof of my mouth because they’re so hard — okay maybe these cookies aren’t so good. I don’t think there is a single occasion where I’ve actually purchased Famous Amos, I’ve only been offered bags in random places.
I eat them, of course, because they’re cookies and I’m not insane, but they really shouldn’t be anyone’s favorite chocolate chip cookie. Still, just being chocolate chip almost pushes them to the top 20.
The Bottom Line
If you’ve had Famous Amos but never actually bought a box/bag that should tell you everything you need to know about whether or not this is a cookie worth your money. If you have bought Famous Amos, well… to each their own.
20. Nutter Butter
Nutter Butter gets a bad rap amongst peanut butter cookie fans because whatever the hell Nutter Butter’s peanut butter creme filling is made out of, it doesn’t taste anything like actual peanut butter. Sure, Nutter Butter touts themselves as being “made with real peanut butter” but they never really specify how much peanut butter is used.
Spoiler: It’s likely not much. Still, the slightly salty/ super sweet nutty goodness works here, ingredients be damned!
The Bottom Line:
They’re not peanut butter cookies, they’re Nutter Butters — but they’re still tasty!
19. Grandma’s Peanut Butter Cookies
Grandma’s makes a pretty addicting Peanut Butter cookie. Released in two-packs, this Peanut Butter cookie is very rich and buttery with a slight peanut butter bitterness that really sets it apart from pretenders like the Nutter Butter. They are a bit on the dry side, you’ll defnitely want milk nearby, but for a storebought and mass produced PB cookie — solid.
The Bottom Line
A delicious peanut butter cookie but one you should never eat without something to drink handy.
18. Milk Bar Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies
Now available at Whole Foods, people go nuts for Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar cookies and the best of the bunch is the Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow. The cookie has a fantstic (and unique to the storebought cookie world) texture and combines the flavors of toasted corn flakes with marshmallows and chocolate chips — something we never knew we needed but absolutely love.
You’ve got the crispy crunch of cornflakes, the soft sponginess of marshmallows, and the addicting flavor of decent quality baker’s chocolate — these are very solid.
The Bottom Line
High concept cookies with balaced flavors and multiple textures — if you’re into that bougie shit.
17. Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies
Lofthouse cookies, which aren’t so much a brand as they are a style, are usually found in the fresh-baked section of your grocery store — meaning they vary in quality from market chain to market chain. Who has the best? Who knows!
These are some seriously divisive cookies. Some people love them and others think they’re straight-up garbage — but how could you hate a sugar bomb topped with a dollop of thick and creamy frosting? [Because you can sense all the chemicals, that’s how!]
The Bottom Line
Imagine a Nilla Wafer, but loaded with saccharine, chemically, fake-colored frosting! Sounds… kinda good, right?
16. Bakery Section Oatmeal
A good oatmeal cookie is completely dependent on how fresh it is. No brand has really mastered how to make an oatmeal cookie with great shelf life, they’re usually too hard and way too dry. If you’ve only ever had an oatmeal cookie from one of the big brands, you probably hate these things. Grab a box from the bakery section instead, you’ll find an incredibly soft and fragrant cookie with heavy doses of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and chewy earthy oats.
I’m generally not a fan of soft cookies — unless they’re freshly baked — but with an oatmeal cookie, it’s exactly what you want. If you can find one with cranberries or golden raisins over the usual purple, grab a box and never look back!
The Bottom Line
Find out when they come in and grab these at their freshest!
15. Keebler Chips Deluxe Rainbow
Keebler’s Chips Deluxe Rainbow is who we have to blame for chocolate chip cookies with candy being a thing, which almost always tastes terrible… unless it’s this OG. While this pick seems like a cookie explicitly for kids, Keebler is using real M&M’s here, and that actually matters.
Do you think some stupid kids know the difference between M&Ms and off-brand candy-coated chocolates? No way, they need to the sophisticated palate of an adult.
The Bottom Line
Don’t ever eat cookies with candy-coated chocolate on them, unless it’s this one.
14. Keebler E.L. Fudge Elfwich
If you asked a 10-year old me to rank the best grocery store cookies the list would probably be topped by these babies. In my memories, this cookie is unbeatable but in reality — they just taste okay.
While the fudge inside is delicious and rich — like an airy, sugary Nutella with no hazelenut (so maybe not that much like Nutella) — the major drawback of this cookie is the sandwich ends. They’re actually somehow more bland than even the Nilla Wafer. They’re stale, hard, and barely taste like anything. Thank god each cookie is packed with fudge to hide that fact.
The Bottom Line
Not as good as they seemed when you were a kid.
13. Oreo Thins Mint Flavored
Why do we think Mint Flavored Oreo Thins deserve a spot on this list but Mint Flavored Oreos or, god forbid, Mint Flavored Double-Stuffed Oreos, don’t? Because you can have too much of a good thing. Mint Flavored Oreos are just way too much, but their thin counterparts feature what looks like half the creme filling (but taste like the whole thing, baby) sandwiched between crisper and thinner Oreo cookies.
It’s the perfect balance of cookie and creme.
These also look slightly elegant, like they should be served on a pristine saucer with a cappuccino. If you’d rather go the classic milk route, we suggest chocolate milk for this one — it’ll pair nicer with the Oreo cookie and fresh and minty creme filling.
The Bottom Line:
Oreo’s classiest cookie. Hard to believe the people who made the abomination that is Double-Stuffed made this one too!
12. Walker’s Shortbread Cookies
Have you ever bit into a stick of butter? It’s a wild experience and one that I won’t descirbe in detail to spare your genteel sensibilities. Luckily for us butterheads, Walker’s Shortbread Cookies exist, which are just like biting into a stick of butter but with a more pleasing and palatable texture. These shortbread cookies are easily the butteriest cookies I’ve ever eaten — they’re thick but not hard or crunchy and they melt in your mouth in the most delicious way.
Walker keeps their ingredients list short — consisting of just flour, sugar, butter, and salt. What more do you need in a cookie?
The Bottom Line
If you have dreams of biting into a stick of butter but still want to be accepted in society, this is the cookie for you!
11. Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps
These babies are so addicting. Ginger isn’t an ingredient that gets a lot of love from the world of grocery store cookies which makes these Trader Joe’s Ginger Snaps a bit of an anomaly. Our favorite detail is that the cookies have real chunks of ginger, right in the cookie! They’re spicy, sweet, and bite-sized — meaning eating 8 of them doesn’t feel so crazy.
The Bottom Line
A delicious anomaly in the world of grocery store cookies. Peep the real chunks of ginger!
10. Chips A’hoy Original Chocolate Chip Cookies
Are these too high?
They’re probably too high. Vienna Fingers probably deserved this slot. We don’t care, Chips A’hoy are great!
I prefer the Original variety over the chewy, they strike a great balance between flavors of butter and brown sugar, and each bite provides the perfect ratio of cookie to chocolate. The chocolate chips are interwoven throughout the cookie here, not just sitting on top, the cookies also have a slightly greasy quality to them that lingers in your mouth in the best way.
The Bottom Line
Classic, nostalgic, and they hold up to your memories better than most entries in that category.
9. Keebler Fudge Stripes
The Fudge Stripe takes everything from with the Elfwich and improves it. The cookie here isn’t as dense as the Elfwich sandwich and it has a better distribution of fudge, which keeps each bite from being bland. In addition to the swirls that decorate this cookie, the entire bottom is submerged in fudge, and while it’s not as airy as the fudge on the Elfwich, it tastes just as good.
The Bottom Line
If you love the Elfwich, the Fudge Stripe is a definite step up. It’s also just one of the best cookies you can buy at the market.
8. Trader Joe’s Speculoos
And the award for worst cookie name ever goes to Trader Joe’s Speculoos! “Speculoo” sounds like the British word for a tool that doctors use to open up your a**. The name, plus the disgusting imagery I just mentioned, plus this stupid old-timey box may lead you to avoid Speculoos (even typing it is gross) at all costs.
Don’t, because they’re delicious! Caramelized cinnamon is what gives this cookie its distinct flavor, which is best enjoyed after being dunk in coffee as they’re a little too dry for their own good.
The Bottom Line
Disgustingly named delicious cinnamon cookies, ideal for dipping.
7. Keebler Pecan Sandies
It’s hard to beat the shortbread cookie yet somehow Keebler found a way to improve upon perfection with the Pecan Sandie. All the buttery melt-in-your-mouth goodness of shortbread cookies are here in the Pecan Sandies but the flavor is elevated by the inclusion of pecans, which add a bit of nuttiness and nice texture that combats the mush of saliva-hydrated shortbread.
Our only gripe is we wish the Sandies had bigger chunks of pecan.
The Bottom Line
Everything you love about shortbread cookies. Plus pecans!
6. Tate’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
I have complicated feelings about Tate’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. On one hand, I recognize that they’re easily the best grocery store chocolate chip cookies — they’re big, chewy on the inside, crispy on the out, and taste shockingly like fresh-baked homemade cookies. But they’re not. This means every time I eat one I can’t help but think about how I could be having a slightly better cookie if I just made them myself.
If you put a gun to my head though — chill out and put that thing down, this is just a ranking of cookies! — I can’t deny that these are better in every way to Chips A’hoy.
The Bottom Line
The best grocery store chocolate chip cookie your money can buy.
5. Keebler Coconut Dreams
This is Keebler’s masterpiece.
If Girl Scout cookies were sold at grocery stores, you’d better believe Samoas would be topping this list. Keebler’s version, the Coconut Dream, are almost as good. A sweet cookie covered in caramel, fudge, and crispy toasted coconut, this cookie will shred the roof of your mouth but they’re so delicious its worth it.
Each bite from your first to your last is a fudgey rich dream.
The Bottom Line
Keebler’s answer to the Girl Scout Samoa! Almost as good as the original.
4. Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Sandwiches
Why aren’t there more cookie butter cookies out there?
These bad boys consist of two thin shortbread cookies with some spicy caramelized cookie butter between each bite. They taste delicious dismantled and they’re equally when you bite into the whole thing at once. A cookie with no wrong way to eat it is a great cookie!
The Bottom Line
Trader Joe’s best cookie and one of the best grocery store cookies money can buy.
3. Pepperidge Farm Milanos (any flavor)
Milanos are synonymous with the Pepperidge Farm brand, probably because they’re insanely good and have been at the head of the class for decades. They’re crunchy but soften instantly in your mouth, delicate, which isn’t something you can say for every cookie, and feature the perfect cookie-to-chocolate ratio.
The chocolate is really the star of the show here, it tastes like real baker’s chocolate, setting itself apart from the competition in terms of quality. They’re also the only cookie we can eat one of and leave satisfied. Whether you dig on the milk chocolate, mint, or double chocolate variety — I love dark chocolate myself — every Pepperidge Farm Milano is delicious.
The Bottom Line
The fanciest cookie you can buy at the grocery store.
2. Pepperidge Farm Sausalito
Maybe it’s controversial to place the Sausalito above the Milano but I don’t care, this is my personal favorite grocery store cookie. Pepperidge Farm’s Sausalito features delicious high-quality chunks of dark chocolate chips with buttery and crunchy macadamia nuts peppered throughout.
They’re big cookies — which means one will do, but once the combination of butter, dark chocolate, and macadamia travel across your tastebuds you’ll want to try the brand’s other California-city-themed cookies. (Don’t bother, they all pale in comparison to the Sausalito.)
The Bottom Line
Pepperidge Farm’s best California-city-themed cookie. The perfect choice for someone who is looking for an elevated chocolate chip.
1. Oreo
Oreos are without a doubt the GOAT [sub in Newman O’s if you like fewer chemicals]. It might seem basic or predictable to give Oreo the number one spot but be completely honest with yourself, is there a better grocery store cookie out there? I’d argue that when one hears the phrase “grocery store cookie” they immediately envision a classic Oreo. Everything about this cookie just works. It has a distinct and original flavor that is often duplicated but never matched, it’s equally delicious dipped or eaten dry, and if you eat enough of them you’ll look like a legit pirate.
Because of the grainy black crumbs in your teeth, get it?
Anyyyyway, the Oreo is in every way the Nilla Wafer’s opposite.
The Bottom Line
Cookies and creme in cookie form! Grocery store cookies rarely get better than the Oreo. You can dip it, eat it dry, dismantle it or smash it into your favorite ice cream. It’s also the only cookie that belongs in a milkshake.
January 30, 2021 at 01:33AM
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