This Is The Most Popular Girl Scout Cookie In The US
Girl Scout cookies have been part of the Girl Scouts program for almost as long as there have been Girl Scouts, according to the organization's website. In 1917 — just five years after the founding of Girl Scouts in the US — girls from a Muskogee, Oklahoma troop began baking cookies at home and selling them in the local high school cafeteria for the purpose of funding troop activities. It's not known what kind of cookies they were, but it is known that by 1922, Girl Scouts across the nation were baking and selling sugar cookies, using a recipe that appeared in The American Girl magazine, a publication of the Girl Scouts organization.
By 1934, some Girl Scout troops had begun selling sugar cookies that had been baked commercially, and within a year, the cookies were given a standard trefoil-shape and came packaged in a box labeled "Girl Scout Cookies," explains the organization. Some version of that cookie is what we now know as the Trefoil (and sometimes referred to as the Girl Scout Shortbread Cookie). While the Trefoil's image may be most synonymous with the group, the Trefoil is not even close to the most popular Girl Scout Cookie in America. But we're betting you can probably guess what is.
This Girl Scout cookie flavor beats out Trefoils by a long shot
If it weren't for the Trefoil, we might not even be here talking about Girl Scout cookies, according to the Girl Scouts website. In that sense, we owe a great debt to the young, green-clad, sugar cookie bakers of the 1920s. Sadly, however, the Trefoil has been relegated to "straggler" status in the Girl Scout cookies popularity contest.
In fact, according to the Girl Scouts organization's Girl Scout Cookies FAQ, Trefoils are the fifth best-selling Girl Scout cookie in the US, coming in behind the first three runners-up, Samoas (sometimes known as Caramel deLites, depending on which commercial bakery is supplying your local troop with cookies), Tagalongs (sometimes known as Peanut Butter Patties), and Do-si-dos (aka Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies).
As for the number one best-selling Girl Scout Cookie? It's none other than Thin Mints. Since Girl Scout cookies are sold only during certain months of the year (generally from September through April, depending upon choices made by local troops), you might want to make a note of which Girl Scout cookie copycats you can find in the grocery store.