This morning I stopped by Starbucks to get my (full of gelatin :X) yogurt parfait, and asked for a cookie too. They didn’t have cookies out with their morning pastries, but they had it in a box waiting to be put out into the glass cases for lunch and later.

I was afraid that this cookie was going to be a tiny bit stale because I was keeping it in the bag during the day. The bag informed me that Starbucks had started using simpler recipes and has taken out their artificial trans fats, artificial flavors, artificial dyes and high fructose corn syrup. Going the more “natural” route. Well, let’s see how that was going to affect my ginormo cookie:

chocolate chip cookie -- Starbucks

I’ll confess that I was intimidated by this cookies (and all the calories it must have) so I broke it in half and gave half away. I mean, look at it! I couldn’t even hold it up correctly because it is so huge. Then I … wished I didn’t give half away. This cookie is delicious! You can’t really see any chocolate chips from the top, but trust me, there are big chunks of chocolate all around this cookie. I am so rarely satisfied by the cookie:chocolate chip ratio that I am absolutely elated when I’ve found a good one. The cookie was absolutely tastey, and would have been so even with fewer chips (not that I think they should change their recipe or anything). The middle was surprisingly soft and slightly chewy which was surrounded by a small amount of crunch on the circumference. The outside of the cookie was a bit dry but it was still soft enough to break into pieces. Not crumbly, but still a bit messy.

COOKIE SHOWDOWN!
If you remember my blog post from Starbucks’s main competitor The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, my first cookie from there was awful and then it was really good. Even so, I’ll have to stick with Starbucks on this one. Coffee Bean has good hot chocolate.. but at Starbucks, I’ll take my soy chai tea no water with a cookie to go.

Taste: 8
Center moistness: a bit dry on the outside, soft on the inside
Crust moistness: slight crunch, I wish it were crunchier to complement the center
Value: $1.50 for one of the biggest cookies I’ve ever eaten, and the cookie was even good — 8
Overall: Good value, great taste, but the cookies are too big. I’d definitely get it again if a friend (or two) and I wanted to share. 8

****RE-REVIEW****

I got a Coffee Bean cookie as a surprise today. I’m eating it to show my gratitude (if you missed it, see my harsh review below). But to my huge surprise, the cookie is actually very good!!! The first time I must have gotten a bad cookie or something, because this cookie is MUCH softer than I remember and smoother in flavor. Chocolate chunks still aplenty and still delicious. Re-grading this cookie to Overall: 7 (docked points for the price tag; portion control, people!!; inconsistency in the Coffee Bean Cookie Jar; and it was good, but not good enough to buy again unless I had a craving and it was close)

If you are interested in reading my Starbucks cookie review: http://chloescookieblog.com/2009/09/cookie-review-chocolate-chip-cookie-starbucks/

Old review

Convenient cookies are great. I don’t drink coffee, but hey, there’s Starbucks and Coffee Bean everywhere; one of each by my work. Coffee Bean’s a bit closer, so I grabbed a cookie to soothe one of my regular cookie cravings.

And here we have another bad camera phone picture:

It’s a fairly sizeable cookie. I have a love/hate relationship with big cookies. On the one hand, I kinda feel fat afterwards. On the other hand, if they’re smaller, I sometimes will eat 2. But I’d much prefer the option of eating one medium one or two medium ones than one big one. Anyway, I bit into this cookie and the first thing that came to mind was: bland. There must have not been enough butter or salt in this cookie because the dough was just blah. The texture was somewhat grainy and not as smooth as I’d like. The chocolate chunks, however, were aplenty and delicious. They weren’t enough to save this cookie though, and if I go back to Coffee Bean it’ll be for the hot chocolate, and definitely not the $1.50 huge bland cookies.

• Taste: 4
• Crust moistness: dry
• Center moistness: dry
• Value: awful. $1.50 for a bland cookie? No way.
• Overall: not doing that again. 3.

I decided to start a new segment: Cookie Showdown! In special Cookie Showdown episodes posts, I’ll compare two cookies that are in competition for marketshare (or at least, have something in common, like in this case) and declare the winner after a head-to-head match.

Today it’s Quizno’s vs Subway. Come on, $5 footlong? Subway has Jared and now Michael Phelps, while Quizno’s is…toasty. Two chocolate chip cookies from two different but similar huge sandwich fast-food chains. Let’s see which… well, as they say in Iron Chef America… whose cuisine reigns supreme!

Quizno’s cookie:

Very large, wrapped in plastic. After the process of trying to find out where the end of the plastic was (clear wrapping could really be a bitch sometimes) I took a small bite. It’s softer than it looks, chewy but…a rather interesting “tough” cookie. I feel like it takes longer to chew than it should (not in a good way). Rather than the typical chocolate chips, they have chocolate chunks, which pack in more chocolate per chunk which makes for tasty chocolate. The cookie part is very flavorful and the chocolate complements it very well. The taste lasts in your mouth for a while. It’s a bit thin for this kind of soft cookie.

Subway cookie:

MUCH cruchier. Hard, even. There is definitely room for more chocolate chips, but the buttery smoothness of the batter almost (almost) makes up for it. It’s sweeter than the Quizno’s cookie, perhaps due to the more sugary-ness of it. Ah, got to the center — it’s softer in the middle.

Winner:

At $1.40 for a cookie that’s barely larger than its competition, Quizno’s loses to its competitor on the price point alone. You could buy almost 3 Subway cookies with the same amount of money. In addition, the packaging makes a Quizno’s cookie feel sub-par: Quizno’s cookies are wrapped in plastic which make them seem like they were made a while ago and shipped to the stores whereas Subway’s “fresh baked” cookies look much better as they’re in a glass case and you can look at them and know that they were at unbaked dough at least that morning (and I don’t think that Subway would be able to sell those cookies on the shelf today tomorrow, whereas I feel like Quizno’s might). Quizno’s cookies, while being very flavorful, are a bit tough in contrast to Subway’s crunchier cookies with buttery taste and sugary taste and texture. However, Subway could take a hint from their sandwich cousin and pack some more toppings into their cookies just like how Quizno’s packs chocolate chunks into every bite. (Actually, this is in stark contrast to Subway’s white chocolate chip mac nut cookies, which are loaded with both big and small pieces of mac nuts). Overall, based on the price, size, taste and texture, I’d root for Subway’s cookies to accompany my sandwich. Now THAT is eating fresh.