Spare Your Wallet And Your Taste Buds — These Keebler Cookies Are The Worst

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With Mintel's U.S. Cookies Market Report projecting an estimated $18.9 billion in sales in 2026, there seems to be no slackening in consumers' appetites when it comes to these sweet treats. Yet when your local grocery store is liable to confront you with such a dizzying variety of cookies on offer, some may be tempted to stick with a familiar brand. Unfortunately, not all cookies under that brand are created equal, which is why we would urge you to save your money and avoid a particular type of Keebler cookie — namely, the Fudge Sticks Original, which came dead-last in Tasting Table's recent ranking of 12 Keebler cookies.

Regrettably, no amount of childhood nostalgia for the Keebler elves who inhabited the brand's whimsical advertising campaigns can save this particular type of cookie, which Tasting Table's tester decided thoroughly deserved its place at the bottom of the heap. The first thing our correspondent noted was the overpowering sweetness. Some might ask what's wrong with that when it comes to cookies, but remember why you don't — we assume — sit around eating sugar straight out of the bag. There needs to be more to a product than sweetness, and in this case, the Fudge Sticks Original didn't really have it. "After dissecting the cookie to find the culprit," our tester wrote, "it turns out that it's the creme filling between the wafer layers; it's so cloying that I can't taste any other component of the treat."

The eponymous fudge, on the other hand, was difficult to discern — something our tester speculated could be because of the kind of artificial flavoring used, which detracted from the other parts of the cookie. Despite our tester professing a fondness for wafer cookies, the final judgment was that "this doesn't deliver whatsoever."

Our tester is not alone in being disappointed. While some Walmart customers are pleased by the cookie, others are unenthusiastic, variously describing it on Walmart's official website as "stale," "sickeningly sweet," and "not edible." Opinions are equally mixed on Instacart, with one customer saying the cookies "almost taste like pencil lead," though another wrote more positively: "We found the cream inside the wafers is a bit too sweet for our family, although many would likely enjoy the taste. Worth a try if you like wafers and fudge." 

Keebler cookies do have the ability to inspire strong reactions. As we recalled in our countdown of 14 discontinued cookies you totally forgot about, during the 1990s and 2000s, Keebler had a hit with its Magic Middles — shortbread stuffed with either fudge or peanut butter. When they were eventually discontinued, aggrieved Keebler fans mounted petitions to bring the cookie back, but so far have been unsuccessful. For a far superior cookie to the Fudge Sticks Original, our ranking of Keebler's offerings found that E.L. Fudge Elfwich Original Sandwich Cookies ranked much higher, with our tester describing them as "scrumptious."