The Chocolatey Girl Scout Cookie That's Inspired By A Popular Depression-Era Dessert

As soon as you see that gaggle of green vests outside of the grocery store or that familiar sign-up sheet being passed around the office, you know the best time of year is upon us: Girl Scout Cookie season. Even though they seem to get smaller and simultaneously more expensive with each passing year, we can't seem to get enough of those colorful boxes. From Thin Mints to Trefoils to Tagalongs, oh my! The classics will never go out of style. But as of the 2026 season, there's a new cookie to explore. Fittingly, they've been dubbed Exploremores, inspired by the spirit of exploration, but also by a familiar ice cream flavor that happens to date back to the Great Depression.

Exploremores are sandwich cookies, similar to another Girl Scout favorite, Do-Si-Dos. But instead of crunchy oatmeal and peanut butter, these offer flavors of chocolate, marshmallow, and toasted almond-flavored crème. If you're thinking that sounds a lot like the formula for rocky road, you'd be correct. They do, in fact, mimic the iconic taste that is said to have been invented in 1929. The story goes that at this time — at the start of the Depression — the confectionery masterminds behind Dreyer's ice cream, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy, concocted the new creation to "make folks smile." Little did they know the flavor would still be doing just that nearly 100 years later and spreading even more joy in the form of adventurous Girl Scout cookies.

With that kind of nostalgic backstory, Exploremores feel like an easy sell. They're also the shiny new cookie on the Girl Scout lineup that's bound to spark curiosity, whether you're a fan of rocky road or not. But so far, the reviews of the cookies have been fairly mixed, even within our own Tasting Table family.

After giving them a try pre-launch, one of our reviewers, Emily Hunt, labeled the Exploremores as a must-try, even though they had their faults. She noted that they didn't bear a strong resemblance to rocky road, and they could use more filling as well as stronger marshmallow and almond creme flavors. But, with light, crumbly cookie layers and a rich chocolate flavor similar to that of OREOs, they had a couldn't-put-them-down appeal. Meanwhile, in a separate ranking of all 2026 Girl Scout Cookies, reviewer Hunter Wren Miele placed Exploremores in the last-place spot and shared harsher criticism. The cookies were once again compared to OREOs, but to a dry, cream-less version of the iconic confection. She also asserted that comparing Exploremores to rocky road ice cream was like "comparing a Chevy to a Roll Royce."

Clearly, Exploremores have gotten off to a rocky start. But only time will tell if they impress chocolate lovers enough to become a permanent fixture, or conversely end up in the Girl Scout cookie graveyard.