The 2018 Girl Scout Cookie season has begun, and this year’s flavors were recently confirmed by the Girl Scouts of The United States Of America. Although the highly-anticipated cookies are manufactured by two separate companies, fans will appreciate the return of all their favorite flavors.
As explained on the organization’s official website, Girl Scouts began selling cookies in 1917 — as a fundraiser for individual troops. The earliest batches of the famous cookies were actually baked by the Girl Scouts and were sold door to door.
In 1936, the term “Girl Scout Cookies” was coined by the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York. In addition to boxing the cookies, and adding the new label, the federation used a trefoil shaped die to make their shortbread cookies unique.
Over the next 20 years, numerous bakeries were authorized to manufacture the cookies — which were then sold by Girl Scout troops. In addition to the original shortbread, the factories began producing sandwich and crispy chocolate mint cookies.
Through the years, the Girl Scouts have introduced, and discontinued, a variety of new cookie flavors. However, the historical favorites, which include Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Thin Mints, and the classic Shortbread cookie, have stood the test of time.
In addition to the standards, the 2018 Girl Scouts Cookie flavors also include S’mores-inspired cookies, lemon cookies, toffee chip cookies, chocolate-dipped sugar cookies, and gluten-free peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate “Trios.”
As the Girl Scouts use two different licensed bakers, some of the newer flavors are only available in certain regions. The Girl Scouts official website provides users with a tool to identify which cookies are available in their region.
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Girl Scout Cookies https://t.co/n6uRQAMkIA
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 13, 2018
Although the Girl Scout Cookie season is determined by each region, a majority of troops begin selling the cookies in January and the sales generally end in April.
The Girl Scouts website offers several tools, which were designed to help everyone find their favorite cookies. In addition to the website tools, the Girl Scouts recently introduced an official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app, which helps users locate the closest cookie sale booths.
