What makes a good cookie?
I’m a cookie guy. I pride myself on being able to make some pretty good chocolate chip cookies. I also thoroughly enjoy trying new flavors to satisfy my sweet tooth.
For me, a good cookie has a crispy outside and a soft, chewy inside. There should be complementary flavors and some variety in texture. The very best cookies will make you want to eat them slowly, savoring each bite.
I’ve tried hundreds of different cookies in my life. With cookies from Levain, Dominique Ansel’s Bakery, and Insomnia under my belt, I’m lucky to have tasted some of the highest-rated cookies available.
Flash got me cookies from The Cookie Connect for my birthday, so I’ve got an honest review of eight tasty varieties!
Classic Chocolate Chunk
Visual: It had an excellent distribution of chocolate chunks, but the salt flakes were too concentrated in the middle of the cookie. There’s a great crackle on the crust and solid uniformity of chocolate chunk sizes.
Taste: It had the perfect sweetness from the chocolate chunks (likely milk chocolate). The salt accentuates the chocolate flavor nicely. Darker chocolate chips inside the cookie add a nice layer of complexity to the chocolate profile. It has a very nice chew to the cookie. Unfortunately, the patch of salt was too salty. Very solid chocolate chunk cookie that didn’t bring any tears of joy.
Overall rating: 4.2 / 5.0 | better distribution of salt flakes would have boosted the rating by at least 0.2.
Captain Crunch
Visual: Very enticing! The milk drizzle is an excellent accompaniment to the cereal.
Taste: This one was a very sweet cookie. You’d definitely eat this as a treat! The cereal was a little stale, but it still added a nice contrast to the soft chewiness of the cookie. The white chocolate chips throughout another welcomed texture.
Overall rating: 4.0 / 5.0 It kept me coming back for more!
Oreo Cream
Visual: The word “alluring” immediately came to mind. The chocolate drizzle is a bit messy, but I’m okay with the chaos on top of this cookie.
Taste: My first bite was confusing. The Oreo part of the cookie stuck to the back of my teeth, and the different texture of the two cookies was a bit strange. When I went in for the second bite, it was really tasty. The Oreo cookie hidden in the core was a pleasant surprise, and I liked that the middle was soft. This cookie was a bit messy to eat, with many crumbs falling off as I progressed. The cookie seemed to taste better the more I ate it, but I determined I preferred to separate the two cookie flavors.
Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 | a great idea that seems tough to execute
Birthday Cake
Visual: Also very enticing! Super colorful sprinkles and icing drizzle made it look festive. There were also sprinkles on the bottom around the edge which added a nice edge-to-edge sprinkle touch.
Taste: The sprinkles interestingly made it very chewy! Maybe it was the moisture of the sprinkles? This one was less sweet than the Captain Crunch variant, which I liked. Overall, good balance, and would like to eat it again.
Overall rating: 4.2 / 5.0 | a crowd pleasure with good execution
Peanut Butter Cup
Visual: A lot was going on with this cookie. The chocolate drizzle looked nice, but the components were almost overwhelming.
Taste: The small peanut butter clusters were my favorite part of this cookie. Strangely, it didn’t really taste like peanut butter and had a very non-peanut butter texture. It’s hard to put into words, but this cookie didn’t taste at all how it looked. Even the chocolate drizzle was barely noticeable, by somehow still managed to compliment the overall taste profile.
Overall rating: 4.2 / 5.0 | overall confusion, but somehow an enjoyable cookie.
Pretzel and Syrup
Visual: The pretzel pieces are a nice pop on top of this cookie, and the streaks of syrup are done well.
Taste: I bit into this cookie expecting to get plenty of pretzel flavor, but the pretzel-ness was surprisingly subtle. There wasn’t much saltiness to it, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you there were pretzels on top if this were a blind tasting. In fairness, I tried this cookie on Day 4 when it was not at its freshest. The cookie tasted great, and the slight sweetness from the syrup complemented the dough well. Chocolate was well distributed throughout the cookie, and the overall flavor was enjoyable, though I wish I got more pretzel.
Overall rating: 4.4 / 5.0 | likely biased due to the state of the pretzel pieces
Marshmallow Swirl
Visual: Probably the most visually appealing cookie in the box. Nice swirl marbling with an almost liquid appearance on top.
Taste: The marshmallow added a nice softness to the cookie, starkly contrasting to the parts that weren’t covered in marshmallow coating. Again, this was a day-4 cookie, so I’m not taking points off for the crunchy side. The marshmallow flavor was subtle and helped tame the chocolate burst from the chips in the center of the cookie. It was a good cookie, but nothing about it blew me away.
Overall rating: 4.2 / 5.0 | maybe the entire cookie should be dipped in the marshmallow coating
The Classic
Visual: Looks as expected, nice cracks, and looks are on par with other classic chocolate chip cookies.
Taste: There was a surprising layer of Nutella in the center of the cookie which added a nice contrast to the darker chocolate chips. This ‘bonus’ layer was delightful and up-leveled the standard chocolate chip cookie. It makes me want to adjust my recipe to incorporate new chocolate varieties into the dough. I saved this cookie for last, and it held up surprisingly well for 5 days in a box.
Overall rating: 4.3 / 5.0 | a great take on the classic chocolate chip cookie
Overall Cookie Connect Rating
For some reason, there was no branding on the Cookie Connect box, so I need to dock some points there. I like the ‘window top’ of the box, which allows the viewer to admire the cookies before opening the box.
Cookie Connect has great variety in its cookies and demonstrates a unique combination of flavors. The cookies were all good to very good, but none of them landed a perfect score.
Overall rating: 4.3 / 5.0 | good variety with solid execution
What other cookies have you tried from Cookie Connect? Which on this list do you think would be your favorite? Join the conversation in the comments section, below!
