Erin Elizabeth
Everyone has a favorite Girl Scout cookie, and for better or for worse, your favorite Girl Scout cookie tells the world a lot about you.
If you have a current favorite, you probably hold your breath each year when the Girl Scouts announce new flavors, hoping your guilty pleasure cookie hasn’t been discontinued.
Over the years, many terrific cookie flavors have come and gone and the discontinued list has grown.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at 16 discontinued Girl Scout cookie varieties we miss munching on.
Check out some discontinued Girl Scout cookies we wish would make a return.
Kookaburras
Kookaburras went the way of the dodo in the 1980s, and life is worse for it.
Some describe the Kookaburra as a cross between Twix and Kit-Kat, but I never got much Kit-Kat-iness from it and always associated it with Twix.
The cookie was more of a rice cake dipped in caramel and chocolate. It was a great sweet treat when you were looking for that extra crunch.
Ole Oles
Girl Scout cookies have, more than once, tried to go in a healthier direction, and Ole Oles fit into that category.
With pecan and coconut on a vanilla cookie, it was a lower-fat option.
They also had a dusting of powdered sugar for a sweet kick but were discontinued in 2003 after only two years of selling.
Lemon Chalet Cremes
In addition to being tasty, many Girl Scout cookies are also visually pleasing, as these were.
The two vanilla cookies had badges and images of the Girl Scout international World Center in Switzerland.
The “meat” of this cookie sandwich was lemon cream, and the cookies had a hint of cinnamon.
It was discontinued in the 1990s and again in 2011 when Savannah Smiles replaced them the following year.
Le Chips
Le Chips were odd cookies that didn’t last long. They weren’t bad, but the American public just didn’t seem ready for them.
They were essentially chocolate chip cookies with a hazelnut accent.
The prevailing theory for the short life of the Le Chip cookie is that chocolate chip cookies are good, and hazelnuts are good, but maybe not together.
Aloha Chips
When Le Chips went away, the Girl Scouts replaced them with Aloha Chips, which were, in a way, the next evolution of the Le Chip.
Aloha Chips offered a butter cookie with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
This proved a more popular combination than the Le Chips’ configuration— Le Chips lasted a year, whereas Aloha Chips made it almost a decade before retiring in 2004.
Mango Crèmes
Mango Crèmes constituted a special project cookie, so the fact that it only lasted one season was part of the plan and not an indication that no one liked the cookie.
The Girl Scouts partnered with NutriFusion to make a healthier (or at least more nutrient-rich) cookie.
These cookies contained bits of fruits and, of all things, mushrooms. The cookie promised a tropical treat with “mango” in its name. It delivered.
Golden Yangles
File these under “experimentation” because why would you want to buy Girl Scout cookies that weren’t cookies?
And we don’t mean that these, like the Kookaburras, were more candy than a cookie.
Instead, Golden Yangles were analogous to goldfish crackers.
Not bad. But also, not a cookie. Don’t expect these to make a triumphant return.
Cinna-Spins
After the turn of the 21st century, more and more food manufacturers leaned into the idea of making healthier foods.
The Cinna-Spin was a nod in that direction. It was a lower-calorie option than other Girl Scout cookies, but that might have been its problem: who buys Girl Scout cookies as health food?
Cinna-Spins were tasty, but maybe not “cookie” enough.
Upside-Downs
Upside-Downs were among the shortest-lived Girl Scout cookies, existing only within the calendar year of 1999.
They were the Girl Scout cookie version of an oatmeal cream pie.
Unlike the Little Debbie treat of the same name, the cookies sandwiching the cream filling were hard and crumbly.
Van’Chos
The name of these cookies told you all you needed to know if you took a second to think about it.
In the beginning, Girl Scout cookies came in four flavors, one of which was the first incarnation of the Thin Mint.
Van’Chos debuted in the 1970s to hearken back to those simpler days.
They were sandwich cookies— cream surrounded by two cookies.
Some of the Van’Chos had vanilla cookies, and some had chocolate, and you got both kinds in a box of Van(illa)’Cho(colate)s.
Golden Nut Clusters
These short-lived cookies were a study in deceptive appearances.
If you could eat the cookie without seeing it or knowing what its name, you’d taste caramel and pecans with a hint of maple syrup. Sounds interesting, right?
But they were, to be honest, ugly. They were formless blobs of neutral color and chewy enough to evoke a Payday candy bar. Those can be a lot of work to eat.
Juliettes
Juliettes were decadent fudge cookies named for Juliette Low, who founded the Girl Scouts.
They were a fitting tribute with pecans and caramel on top. Juliettes appeared in 1984 and were discontinued a year later.
They returned for three years in the mid-1990s before going extinct.
Snaps
These very basic cookies lasted three years in the 1990s.
They were oatmeal-raisin cookies with a hint of icing. If you’re honest, you’ll admit you eat oatmeal-raisin cookies for the icing.
There wasn’t much of that in this cookie, and what’s with that name?
Praline Royales
In circulation from 1991 to ’93, Praline Royales had a German chocolate cake vibe, though they were vanilla cookies with chocolate and coconut on top.
They replaced the Golden Yangle. Talk about going in another direction, right?
Double Dutch
One of the greatest mysteries in life includes: why would the Girl Scouts stop selling the Double Dutch cookie?
This chocolate cookie base resembled a brownie texture sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate chips.
This cookie was a favorite to many who still hope it will make a return.
Apple Cinnamons
From the Department of Deceptive Names came the Apple Cinnamon cookie.
It was a plain old sugar cookie. Sure, it had cinnamon sprinkled on it, and it was delicious, but there was no apple in it.
Why the name, you ask? It was a sugar cookie shaped like an apple.
My son thought he was eating dinosaurs when he got dino-shaped chicken nuggets, but he was three. We weren’t fooled by these.
Some think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Most of us know it’s actually Girl Scout cookie season.
Order your favorites and enjoy them because, as you can see, even the truly great cookies don’t always stick around forever, and you may soon find your favorite on the discontinued Girl Scout cookie list.
Learn about other popular types of cookies if it’s not Girl Scout season.
You forgot the Fiesta cookies. They were like the Knotts cookies with jam in the middle. Shortbread cookie. So good.
Those are the ones I was looking for, thank you! I have bee. Selling gs cookies all weekend with my little one, phew, there’s a lot learn! 🙂
What about what is the best Girl Scout cookies ever made, the Scott teas? They were a sugar cookie from the 70s.
A partial list of the discontinued cookies at best. Cookies were never the same after Burry exited the cookie supply train.
I grew up in a household with a mother who was a GS leader. Never a shortage of cookies in our home. : )
My favorite from the late ’60s-early 70’s were the Fudge Cremes. Shortbread sandwich cookie w/scalloped edges, fudge middle and a fudge-filled “hole” in the center. The original Keebler E.L. Fudge is the closest I’ve tasted.
I was a brownie when the thin mints first came into existence. Ip until then there was only a box of Vanilla Cream, Chocolate Cream, or a box with one row of Vanilla and one of Chocolate. They were the best wish they still had them. Maybe there will be a comeback.
Where can I buy the lemon girls out cookies?