Investigation: Girl Scout Cookies

For the last several Januarys, I have been telling anyone who would listen (and there aren't that many) that there was something different about Amarillo Girl Scout cookies. The Thin Mints are the same and delicious, as always. But the Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties) are soooo wrong. Nothing like the crunchy peanut buttery-ness I remember from my childhood. Most people just smile and nod at my weird cookie rantings and then make a mental note not to bring them up again. Ever.

A few weeks ago (in a moment of forgetfulness and hope) I purchased a box of Peanut Butter Patties from the sweet, bright-eyed brownie hawking cookies outside of Wal-Mart. I took them home, popped them in the fridge, and waited with anticipation until they were good and cold. I took my first bite and my cookie fantasies fell apart around my ears. It was bad. Bland. Old-tasting. Grody.

Then last weekend, my mom brought me a box of Tagalongs from Dallas. (Moms are the best EVER!) I was in cookie heaven! My 4 boxes of Thin Mints were almost gone and now I had real Tagalongs!

I had proof that I'm not as crazy as you might think!

Exhibit A: The box is different!

It's a subtle difference, but it's there. Besides the obvious name-change, the Tagalong box is a zoomed-in version of the Peanut Butter Pattie picture. Hmmm...

Even the back of the box is different.



Exhibit B: The cookie itself!

The cookie on the left is the Tagalong and it is obviously much thinner than the Peanut Butter Pattie. You might think that a fatter cookie would be better because it's bigger...but you'd be wrong. Tagalongs have an even layer of peanut butter across the whole cookie giving it a better peanut butter to crunch ratio. In the Peanut Butter Pattie, all the peanut butter is all piled up in the middle making it a fatter cookie. While unidentifiable by appearance, the chocolate is different, too. I almost always prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate...except in the case of Hershey kisses and Tagalongs. The chocolate in the Tagalong is creamier and smoother than the Peanut Butter Pattie whose chocolate has a funny "old" taste to it. Like it's been in the freezer too long.

Exhibit C: They come from different bakeries in different states!

I think this is real reason the Tagalongs are so much different than the Peanut Butter Patties. Tagalongs hail from the Little Brownie Bakeries in Louisville, Kentucky, while Peanut Butter Patties from the ABC Bakers/Interstate Foods from Richmond, Virginia. After doing a little "research" on the world wide web, both are the only licensed producers of Girl Scout cookies and other than "Thin Mints", they do not share any cookie names (in my personal opinion, the Little Brownie Bakers are way more creative in the "naming" department). Apparently they don't share recipes, either.

I think I'm beginning to understand why my aunt from Lubbock always ordered a case of Thin Mints from me when I was Brownie way-back-when. I couldn't figure out why she would order from me when there were just as many Girl Scouts in the Panhandle. It's all becoming so clear to me now and I'm sorry I ever doubted her.

Aunt Sharon, I'll split the cost of shipping a case of Tagalongs all the way from Dallas with you next year.


Is anyone still reading this post? If you are, then you're welcome to the mostly-full box of Peanut Butter Patties in my fridge. However, keep your mitts off my Tagalongs!