Classic Snack Review: Chips Ahoy!

I had to try these. I owed it to Science, see.

Because when I try any other chocolate chip cookie, this is what I am comparing them to. They are my baseline chocolate chip cookie. But, after writing the review of the Whole Foods cookies, I realized that I hadn’t had these since they changed to no trans fats.

The thing is, I just didn’t want to know. I had been traumatized by the no trans fat Oreos and decided to just live in my memories.

But now for you, gentle reader, I had to make the sacrifice.

Of course, there’s no longer such a thing as just Chips Ahoy. I had a choice of lower fat, chunky chocolate, and that yucky soft and mushy variety that gives less an impression of ‘fresh baked’ and more of ‘sitting on the counter for a week in really humid weather.’

There was also a kind with tiny M&Ms instead of chips and I don’t know what else because before I could pass out from sensory overload, I grabbed the plainest kind and ran from the cookie aisle.

These come in a fancy resealable package now, instead of the two separately wrapped rows of cookies inside the outer package that opens at the end. Fine. You can’t go home again. It’s not the package that matters.

But inside the package, it’s instantly obvious that these cookies are not the same as they used to be: they are darker, as well as thinner.

Steeling myself, I tried one.

The texture is different – more layered, with air pockets, verging on crispy, not like the plain solid texture I remembered. If I’d baked these I’d guess that I hadn’t used as much flour as usual or maybe too much leavening.

The taste is pretty good, actually. It is not shockingly unfamiliar. The chocolate is good but not too distractingly good, as is proper. Unlike the Whole Foods cookie there are no off flavors in the cookie and it doesn’t disintegrate on dunking.

Now I wish I had tried the reduced fat version – I wonder if with less fat to flour, they might be more like the old ones. But I am not going to be able to do this for quite a while because of what’s always been the biggest problem with these – they come in HUGE packages. Why do they think that only people with families of, like, ten, buy their product? They are certainly not thinking of snack reviewers who have a public duty to finish one snack and move on to another, that’s for sure.

But in sum: these have changed, but it’s not the end of the world. They can still fill the role of good supermarket chocolate-chip cookie. I can still complain that every other commercial cookie I try is not as good as a Chips Ahoy. What a relief that there are still a few things in this world that you can depend on.

• Chips Ahoy! Website

Buy Chips Ahoy! Online:

• at Amazon.com

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