Tasting Table Asks: What's The Absolute Best Cookie Brand? - Exclusive Survey
Cookies are big business in the U.S. — really big business. Mordor Intelligence reports that the cookie market in the U.S. had a value of more than $11 billion in 2021, and it's predicted to grow at a rate of more than 3% annually for the next five years. That's a lot of cookies. To put it in a more digestible perspective, The Cookie Elf says Americans eat more than two billion cookies yearly, which comes out to roughly 300 per person. Also, more than 95% of American households eat cookies, and over the course of a lifetime, the average American will eat a staggering 35,000 cookies.
While The Cookie Elf points out that the Oreo was the best-selling cookie of the 20th century and that the Girl Scouts peddle about 200 million boxes of their cookies every year, we wondered what Tasting Table readers think. We asked 588 readers about their favorite cookie brands among the following choices: Tate's Bake Shop, Pepperidge Farm, Nabisco, Archway, and Keebler. So let's dig in — which sweet treats are the best?
There's a clear favorite among cookie brands
The top vote-getter among our readers is Pepperidge Farm, which garnered 41% of votes. Started by home baker Margaret Rudkin in the 1930s, Pepperidge Farm bakes the cookies we know and love, from the elegant, crisp Milanos to the satisfying, chunk-filled chocolate chip varieties like Sausalito. Seasonal flavors, like this year's limited edition Hazelnut Hot Cocoa Milano, may cause some of us to exceed our annual cookie average.
Nabisco, a subsidiary of Mondelez International, and the purveyor of favorite brands like the ubiquitous Oreo, Nutter Butter, Chips Ahoy, and Nilla Wafers, came in second place, with 24% of votes. Tate's Bake Shop, baker of those thin, crisp chocolate chip cookies we can't get enough of, landed in third place, taking in roughly 17% of votes. Keebler's elves managed to pull in 13% of your votes, and Archway came in last, with about 5% of readers' votes. Whether you're stacking cookies on a platter for guests, hiding them from the kids, or simply savoring them as a well-deserved indulgence, Pepperidge Farm appears to be the go-to for our readers.