Ever since Girl Scouts began to sell them in 1917, they have become a staple of American culture. With seven variations available today, two flavors reign supreme: Thin Mints and Samoas.
These two kinds of Girl Scout cookies are the most popular and have sold the most boxes, establishing a rivalry between fans of the opposing flavors. Samoas may have strong fan support, but that does not impact the fact that Thin Mints are rightfully the number-one-selling Girl Scout cookie.
Thin Mints are comprised of a minty chocolate wafer surrounded by a hardened shell of chocolate. Samoas are comprised of a cookie dipped in caramel, coated in coconut shavings and drizzled with chocolate.
Before diving into the details of cookie architecture and flavor mechanics we must look at the big picture; cookies are a product. Why should one pay the same for two different products when one of them is half the size? Thin Mints and Samoas come in identically sized boxes, yet a box of Thin Mints has 32 tightly wrapped cookies while a box of Samoas has a measly 15.
Like a great movie or album, Thin Mints take time to enjoy. Samoas are over before you know it and have no lasting power. “Why do they even sell Girl Scout cookies other than Thin Mints?” sophomore Jacob Kravitz said. “Samoas are really bad.”
Cookies are not made to be healthy, and both Thin Mints and Samoas aren’t exceptions. However, Samoas are the most unhealthy Girl Scout cookie of all. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Chewy rings coated in caramel, coconut and dark chocolate pack 75 calories per cookie. Each one has four grams of fat, three of which are saturated.”
Thin Mints are enjoyable right out of the box, but their flavor capabilities can be expanded on, say, by dipping them in a glass of milk, instantly creating a new, exciting experience. Try that with Samoas, and you’ll have coconut shavings flake off and turn your beverage into coconut milk. Thin Mints are not only versatile, but useful as well. In a time crunch, a few Thin Mints can be consumed to freshen one’s breath rather than engaging in the laborious jawexercise that is chewing a piece of mint gum.
This brings us to the downfall of Samoas: coconut. Possibly the most controversial topping to ever find its way into chocolate, the lack of coconut in Thin Mints is what allows them to so easily slide into the number-one-selling spot. Coconut, the Achilles’ heel of Samoas, takes away from the taste of the chocolate, gets in the way of the crispiness of the inner cookie and downright ruins the smooth texture of the caramel that the entire rest of the cookie was engineered to complement. The composition of a Thin Mint is so simple because it works so well. Teachers, the experts here to instruct us, agree. “Samoas have coconut in them I don’t like those,” teacher Kevin O’Neill said.
Due to their solid flavor, versatility, exquisite texture and disregard for coconut, Thin Mints have deservedly earned America’s number-one choice for Girl Scout cookies.
