Thin Mints are complicated.
What I talk about when I talk about Girl Scout cookies, skeptical ingredients and whether our food can evolve.
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Moving on.
I don’t have kids. Without any preamble or meaning behind it, this has pros and cons. It means I miss out on some cultural phenomena like Girl Scout cookies, which mostly passed me by until a few weeks ago when a friend texted.
F: Hey, need any Girl Scout cookies?
Me: Oh no. Def do not need GS cookies.
F: I’ll push them on my coworkers. I don’t do hydrogenated fat.
Me: What do they use in their cookies? I haven’t looked at an ingredient label. Send it to me plz.
My past enjoyment of a frozen Thin Mint is not to be denied, but if I ever eyeballed a label apparently it failed to register. I’ll spare you the cookie back talk but we texted about serving size (2), palm oil, the environment and nutrition.
Girl Scout cookies are big business on the scale of Nabisco and General Mills. In 2023, they sold 200 million boxes, which may make them bigger than Oreo’s, the top selling cookie or Chips Ahoy, which is a close second according to Candy Retailer.
Originally, Girl Scout cookies were baked at home. Then and now, money raised by cookie sales goes straight to troops for programming, camps and scholarships. The data on who was once a scout is impressive by anyone’s standards. As of 2 years ago, 60% of congresswomen were Girl Scouts; 75% of our female senators; five of the nine current female governors; and every female secretary of state in U.S. history –- Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton.
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