Savannah Smiles Taste Test: How Does The New Girl Scout Cookie Stack Up?

After hearing about the newest Girl Scout Cookie, Savannah Smiles, we were giddy to try the treat. The tasters all agreed -- these nibbles are fine, but they are no Samoas (or Tagalongs for that matter).

Size: The cookies may attempt at a "smile" shape, but in reality they look like bizarre bloated half-moons. They just wouldn't look that good on a plate.

Texture: This is a hard cookie, one that could go well with tea, one taster observed. There's a lot of powdered sugar on the cookie, which gets all over the place once you take a bite. Don't wear black while eating this cookie.

Taste: This cookie is perfectly fine, but not a game changer. The lemon is immediately evident and tastes a little fake. What this cookie suffers from is its lack of uniqueness. Many of the Girl Scout cookies have been copied by other companies, but the Girl Scouts version always edges out the competition. With Savannah Smiles, there are many more lemon cookie alternatives, and this one doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

Although this cookie is technically new, it tastes suspiciously similar to Lemon Coolers, another powdered sugar-lemon cookie that the Girl Scouts sold a few years ago. Lemon Coolers have been strongly missed by some. HuffPost Food called Girls Scouts HQ to ask about the issue and got the following statement:

Our bakers update the ingredients to all of their varieties frequently, so the Lemon Cooler and Savannah Smile are based on the same concept cookie and essentially taste the same, but one will have slightly different ingredients from the other, with the Savannah Smile being more in line with the modern ingredients used.

We're not quite sure what these modern ingredients are, but we did notice the inclusion of palm oil, an ingredient the Girl Scouts have received serious flack about. As reported by The Huffington Post, the Girl Scouts pledge to use the GreenPalm logo, with money going toward sustainable palm oil producers, starting in 2012. The boxes we received had no logo (though, admittedly, 2012 has just started).

See the two images below.

Lemon Coolers:

Savannah Smiles: