As a girl scout alum, I nerd out a little bit when it's Girl Scout Cookie Season. The cookie offerings change a little bit from year to year, but the mainstays remain the same.



Since I was a kid, my favorites were Samoas. And Tagalongs. And I've added Thin Mints into the mix as I've gotten older.

But what I didn't realize until a few years ago is that there are two major bakeries who supply the Girl Scouts with their cookies - and they make slightly different versions of our favorite cookies.

There's ABC Bakery and Little Brownie Bakers, and the local troops decide which bakery they go with. Most of the ones in the tri-state area are Little Brownie Bakers.

So that means I've become familiar with Samoas, Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, and Trefoils. And, in recent years, they've added Savannah Smiles (crisp, lemony cookies dusted with powdered sugar) and S'mores (Sandwich-style with frosting and fudge; hints of maple).

Meanwhile, those who are used to ABC Bakery know Samoas as "Caramel deLites," Tagalongs as "Peanut Butter Patties," Do-Si-Dos as "Peanut Butter Sandwiches," and Trefoils as "Shortbread." And when they introduced their lemon cookie and their s'mores cookie, they were totally different.

Instead of a crisp, lemony cookie dusted with powdered sugar, ABC makes "Lemonades," which are shortbread cookies with a lemon icing. Instead of a sandwich-style cookie with frosting and fudge for "smores," they've made a chocolate-covered graham cracker with a layer of vanilla and marshmallow.

But, with my local girl scouts only using Little Brownie, there was no way for me to try the other kinds. That is, until I visited Kansas and saw Girl Scouts set up outside and stumbled upon the fact that they use ABC Bakery. So of course I had to at least try the s'mores and lemon cookies.











Here are the s'mores cookies and the lemon cookies compared.