Tagalongs vs. Peanut Butter Patties? The Answer May Surprise You *

(*The answer will probably not surprise you)

Girl Scout cookie season: one of the few good things about Winter. Everyone has their favorites. Personally, I hate both coconut and mint chocolate. But give me peanut butter and chocolate and I’m a very happy person. As a kid I adored Tagalongs.

At some point, I realized I was mostly only buying them out of nostalgia. I mean, they are still fantastic cookies, but they aren’t as earth-shattering as I remember. I figured I had just gotten older. Maybe the Girl Scout cookie taste bud had been replaced by the one that lets me enjoy broccoli.

I always wondered why they had changed the name from the iconic “Tagalong” to the boring, “Peanut Butter Patty.” Then, one winter in about 2007, we were up in West Virginia, skiing/snowboarding at Snowshoe Resort, when we happened to stop by a general store on our way out of town. There, on a display, as though they were nothing special, were boxes of Tagalongs.

I fell down a Google rabbit hole and discovered that Girl Scout cookies are actually made in one of two different bakeries, depending on where you live. There is ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. Some cookies are made exclusively at one or the other, some are made at both but with different names, and some keep their naming consistent. Here’s a handy chart. 

For my 2018 cookie season run down on all the cookies from both bakeries, head over here.

There does not appear to be any rhyme nor reason to the distribution of cookies.

A few weeks ago, Steven sent me a text telling me that I had to send him some Caramel DeLites in the mail to Portland. Samoas were just not the same – darker chocolate and less coconut. One is lighter and less dense.

I told him that I needed both a box of Tagalongs and a box of LBB S’mores.

We made the swap.

The S’mores cookies are totally different cookies. There is no point to do any sort of taste test and I honestly don’t know which I like better. One is a cookie with chocolate and a tiny bit of marshmallow, covered in chocolate. The other is a sandwich cookie filled with marshmallow and chocolate. Both are delicious. I think I may prefer the sandwich cookie version slightly, and I appreciate it’s attention to tradition. S’mores are made with graham crackers sandwiching chocolate and marshmallow.

Now it was time for the real test. Zach was not convinced there was a difference between Tagalongs and Peanut Butter Patties. But he was oh so wrong. The Tagalongs are on the right-hand side of each photo.

You can tell the Tagalongs are going to have more peanut butter just by looking at them.

The peanut butter patties have more cookie and more chocolate, but they skimped on the best part.

And most importantly, look at the quality of the peanut butter. The Tagalong is creamy, thicker, and has a better overall texture.

The winner, by a mile, is the Tagalong. Even Zach agreed they were different. I propose that next cookie season we set up cookie swaps. I’ve heard the Thin Mints are different. And when life gives you Lemonade you must be in ABC territory because those don’t exist in LBB land. Then again, we don’t have Savannah Smiles.