Snack Review: Whole Foods 365 Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies

You may wonder why I keep buying cookies at Whole Foods, given my past experience. Which is at best indifferent (think Crummy Brothers Chocolate Chip Cookies) and at worst, infuriating (Late July, I’m looking at you).

The fact is that I live basically right across the street from a Whole Foods. Whereas the Safeway is five blocks away. And given the total lack of meal planning in my household I am in the Whole Foods most days of the week. And given that I crave a snack every day of the week… well, you see the inevitable result.

I am determined, therefore, to find something that will work to fulfill my chocolate-chip cravings without walking all the way to another supermarket. My chocolate-chip craving is usually looking for either a completely homemade cookie, or for Chips Ahoy, which is the brand I have been eating all my life. The in-store bakery has something that will do for the homemade thing. But what about that all-American craving for a cookie made in a huge factory by an enormous corporate conglomerate?

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Snack Review: Crummy Brothers Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Used to be, it was pretty safe to walk past the cookie section at a natural foods store. There was very little that was tempting – it all seemed to be designed as “treats” for the sad offspring of parents who were terrified to let little Madison and Joshua put anything in their mouths that might be remotely fun.

Well, I took a wrong turn down an aisle at Whole Foods recently and, boy, things have changed. A lot of this stuff is surely way too fancy (and expensive) to be meant for junk-deprived kiddies. And here’s the thing: these natural products ought to have a real fighting chance to be delicious. Because when I read the box, I see real ingredients that I would use to bake at home: butter, vanilla extract, sugar… rather than extra-high-test corn syrup and multisyllabic words that would be more at home on a Periodic Table of Industrial Foodstuffs.

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Snack Review: Pepperidge Farm Dark Chocolate Chunk 100 Calorie Cookie Pack

When you think “Pepperidge Farm” you probably don’t think “low calorie.” I have always been afraid to do the math, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the calories in a full package of Milano cookies would keep a family of four alive for a week. Which is not necessarily bad – what more cheerful thing to keep in your emergency stash for earthquakes and blackouts? – but it means that this is not likely to be your usual Pepperidge Farm product.

So, 100 calorie cookie packs. How do they do it? When I picked up the box, it was so surprisingly light that I thought the trick was that there were basically no cookies in the box. The packaging is definitely excessive – the box does not need to be that big to hold the five individual packets. Lots of air for your money, here.

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