Chocolate Chip Cookie Taste Test

Find out who topped the list of GAYOT's blind taste test of five chocolate chip cookie brands

By Gayot Editors

GAYOT Rates 5 Chocolate Chip Cookie Brands

GAYOT’s blind taste test includes five brands of chocolate chip cookies listed in order from least appealing to best tasting. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but we sampled a solid selection of popular brands including organic options.

Shopping for chocolate chip cookies sounds sweet, but when you’re actually in front of the shelf in the store, it’s not that much fun as there is a plethora of choices. Chocolate chip cookies come in all sizes with so many different descriptions you can get a sugar rush just by reading the labels: soft baked, chunky, chewy, craft-baked, crunchy, thin, crispy, original, organic, not to mention the calorie count and dosage of saturated fat, sodium and sugar.

To guide you, we limited our blind tastze-test to five brands of chocolate chip cookies that you can easily find in stores nationwide. The results might surprise you, but hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

History of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are a classic, homespun American comfort food — it’s no wonder they are still America’s number one cookie. The original recipe came courtesy of chef and author Ruth Wakefield who put chocolate chips into her Butter Drop Do cookies and published the recipe in her Tried and True cookbook in 1938. The cookie was initially called the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie as a nod to the popular restaurant she ran with her husband in Whitman, Massachusetts from 1930 to 1967. She reportedly used a Nestlé chocolate bar when she concocted what would be her most famous creation. She later sold the recipe to Nestlé for a lifetime supply of chocolate and $1 though she allegedly never received that dollar. The cookie was a popular choice for care packages for soldiers during World War II and became a staple as a Christmas eve offering for Santa Claus, not to mention its appeal to both adults and children as a favorite sugary indulgence.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Fun Facts

• Chocolate chip cookies was invented sometimes around 1930.
• There are 7 billion chocolate chip cookies eaten in the United States every year, with about 50 percent of those homemade cookies.
• The world’s biggest chocolate chip cookie weighed 40,000 pounds and had a diameter of 101 feet. It was created in 2003 by The Immaculate Baking Company in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
• The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air radio program helped launch Wakefield’s cookie into fame.
• The chocolate chip cookie is the official cookie of Massachusetts after a third grade class proposed the idea and the legislature voted for the measure in 1997.
• The public’s love affair with the chocolate chip cookie shows no signs of slowing — the iconic treat is showing up on more dessert menus in restaurants nationwide.

1. Pepperidge Farm Montauk Milk Chocolate

This popular cookie is from the Old Fashioned line named after the village on Long Island.

The Pepperidge Farm bakery was founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin who discovered fancy chocolate cookies on a trip in Europe which she then brought to the U.S. We found the cookie too soft and bland with an unpleasant aroma.

Likes: None, despite the packaging that makes it look like an artisanal product and the high price that tends to make think they would be good

Dislikes: Bland, soft to the point of having a sickly chewiness

Notes: 1 cookie (31 grams) is 140 calories and contains 12 grams of sugar, and 6 grams total fat (9% daily value).

Price: $ 2.99 (purchased at Ralphs)

2. Kroger ChipMates

This store-brand chocolate chip cookie is not well-known, but it’s an affordable option.

Judging by the packaging alone, this generic Kroger-brand of chocolate chip cookies is trying to evoke the nostalgic appeal of Chips Ahoy! We found that the cookie has a good balance of dough and chocolate, but the artificial flavors come through in the aftertaste.

Likes: Good amount of chocolate chips

Dislikes: Artificial flavor, crumbly texture

Notes: 3 cookies (36g) are 150 calories and contains 11 grams of sugar, 7 grams total fat (11% daily value).

Price: $ 1.99 (purchased at Ralphs)

3. Whole Foods 365 Organic Cookies

If you’re looking for an indulgence with a little less guilt, there’s Whole Foods 365 organic cookies.

We wanted to include a “healthy” chocolate chip cookie option for our taste test, so we opted for this choice made with wheat flour and organic chocolate chips. We found the overall flavor to be decent, like a classic (store-bought) chocolate chip cookie, but the texture somewhat powdery.

Likes: Good amount of chocolate chips and chocolate flavor

Dislikes: Crumbly texture

Notes: 2 cookies (30 grams) are 150 calories and contains 9 grams of sugar, and 8 grams total fat (12% daily value).

Price: $3.79 (purchased at Whole Foods)

4. Nabisco Chips Ahoy!

Fact: Nabisco Chips Ahoy! is the second-best-selling cookie after Oreo.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous of chocolate chip brands, Chips Ahoy! (an obvious play on the nautical phrase “Ships Ahoy!”) launched in 1963 as the first factory-made chocolate chip cookie. Early on, the cookies were advertised as offering chocolate chips in every bite. And during our blind taste test of the Soft Chunky Original version, we found that to be true.

Likes: Great soft texture

Dislikes: Artificial flavoring

Notes: 1 cookie (20g) is 90 calories, and contains 7 grams of sugar and 3.5 grams total fat (5% daily value).

Price: $2.59 (purchased at Ralphs)

5. Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies

This Southampton, NY, bakery makes cookies with natural ingredients and no additives or preservatives.

This Southhampton-based bakery is known for their signature crisp chocolate chip cookie, so it’s no surprise that it came out on top of our taste test. With its rich flavor and use of natural ingredients, the Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookie tastes the way a cookie should.

Likes: Rich flavor, good amount of chocolate chips, artisanal taste

Dislikes: You won’t able to stop eating them; no wonder they’re the most expensive of the ones we tasted

Notes: 2 cookies (28 grams) are 140 calories, and contains 12 grams of sugar, 7 grams total fat (11% daily value).

Price: $3.79 (purchased at Whole Foods)

Price Comparaison