Today, we're going to talk about a very important subject: which Girl Scout Cookie tastes best when mashed up in milkshake form?
Seriously, this is no lightweight subject. The thing is, we all have our Girl Scout Cookie preferences. But ice cream adds in a whole new texture and taste sensation. How would your favorite react to smooth, dreamy ice cream? Would the flavor hold up? Be improved? Or would it be dulled by the rich, dreamy, creamy stuff?
Only one way to find out. Break out the mixer, baby.
That's right: it's time for a Girl Scout Cookie Milkshake Challenge. Armed with most (but not all) of the cookie flavors, I set out to see which treat would make for the sweetest shake:
To keep the playing field level, I made each shake in the same way: two large scoops of vanilla ice cream, four Girl Scout Cookies, and cream to thin.
After the batch was prepared, each was sipped and judged on texture, taste, and was assigned some overall thoughts. Here goes:
Lemon Chalet Milkshake:
Taste: Cool and creamy, and very refreshing. Lightly lemony, but more sweet than tart.
Texture: The cookies broke up fairly smoothly into this shake, and the cream filling was reduced to tiny sugarbombs of flavor. These little bombs of sugar were quite pleasant.
Overall thoughts: This cookie was definitely improved by being served in milkshake form.
Samoas Milkshake:
Taste: The shake took on a nice, chocolatey-caramel flavor from the cookies; the coconut didn't break up very well, though, so the coconut flavor wasn't very well diffused in the shake. All the same, this did not stop it from being gulped right up.
Texture: Alas, the texture was ever so slightly distracting on this shake. The coconut didn't break up very well at all, and was sort of clumpy in the shake.
Overall Thoughts: Good--solidly good. But the texture kept it from being great.
Tagalongs Milkshake:
Taste: The chocolate added a great flavor to this shake, and the peanut butter added not a shriek but a whisper of flavor, adding a nice, rich, rounded-out flavor to the creamy vanilla ice cream. It didn't have a chocolate peanut butter cup flavor per se, but came across more like a chocolate shake with a certain je ne sais quoi.
Texture: This cookie worked very nicely in shake form; it broke up evenly, with some little lumps remaining, but they were consistent in texture and were quite nice to chew on as they became saturated with ice cream.
Overall Thoughts: Definitely a top contender, and one that I'd make again.
Thank You Berry Munch Milkshake:
Taste: This one was so-so. The fruit flavor didn't translate very well, tasting less like fruit and more like Froot Loops left to steep in milk. Not a terrible thing, but it definitely tasted artificial.
Texture: Good texture. This cookie is one of the crisper varieties, so it gave the shake small crunchy bits.
Overall Thoughts: Very sweet, but not a very intriguing flavor.
Thin Mint Milkshake:
Taste: Very pleasant--like mint chocolate chip ice cream. The mint worked nicely with the vanilla; it was the more dominant taste, with the chocolate ably backing it up. The ice cream did tone down the flavor of the cookie a bit, but it was just a tone adjustment, not like hitting mute.
Texture: Small crunchy bits and little pockets of chocolate made this a supremely pleasant shake to enjoy; it was nice to spoon these bits to further the pleasure.
Overall Thoughts: A strong shake indeed, one that changed the flavor of the cookie, but in a nice way.
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But before a winner could be declared, I simply had to know what would happen if I put all of the cookies into one super-shake. How was that, you wonder?
What, are you surprised that the flavors of a lemon-shortbread-peanut butter-chocolate-coconut-berry cookie shake didn't exactly work harmoniously? I know, me too!
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The winner: All things considered, I'm going to assign top honors to the Tagalongs shake. Now, interestingly, the Tagalong is not my favorite Girl Scout Cookie, although it's definitely in my top three (Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs, if you must know. Just like the National average!). But in shake form, it definitely worked well--the texture and flavor worked nicely, and each flavor was heightened by the ice cream.
Runner-up: The Lemon Chalet! This is a cookie which I usually don't care for that much, but it became far more interesting in shake form, and the lemon-cream flavor was creamy, well-rounded, and delicious. This one surprised me!