It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

It's cookie time! Yeap, that's girl scout cookie time, now through March 16. Young women knocking on doors, asking if you want to order cookies to help support their programming. Parent's trotting the order form into offices to help their daughters fulfill their ordering duties. Going high tech, you might get an email from your co-working letting you know they have an order form on their desk if you are interested. And in recent years, they have been showing up outside shopping malls or grocery stores with boxes in hand offering their goodies. How can you turn them down?

The three big all time sellers are Thin Mints, Samoas/Carmel DeLites, Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos and Shortbread/Trefoils. Thin Mints rank at the top of the biggest sellers, making up 25% of all cookie sales.

The licensed bakers are required to make only three brands of cookies each year with a total of up to eight different varieties. The three required are Thin Mints of course, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos and Shortbread/Trefoils. The Girls Scouts do approve all varieties being proposed for the year's sales. The optional five varieties can be changed each and every year. This years offerings are: Do-si-dos, Thin Mints, Trefoils, Chocolate Chip, Chalet Cremes, Tagalongs, Samoas, and All Abouts.

Lemon Chalet Cremes are new for 2008; they are a lemon sandwich cookie with a hint of cinnamon ginger spice. The cookie has an image of the Girl Scout World Center Chalet in Switzerland. I would be surprised if they didn't offer to bring these back again for 2009. Girl Scouts have offered lemon cookies in years past but no with staying power. These are the first lemon cookies I've tasted from the Girl Scouts with potential. In fact, I'd be sad if they didn't bring them back. I have already had to purchase another box or two or three!

Girl Scout cookie boxes range in price from 2.50 to 4.00 a box. Actually each council can set their own price based on their needs and knowledge of the local market. I paid 3.50 a box in the Midwest.

Participation in this program by any individual Girl Scout is voluntary and required a signed parent permission. The youngest members, Daisy Girl Scouts, who are five and six years old, are not allowed to participate in the program.

Girl Scout cookies are not sold online but they have dedicated a website to help find a local organization. You can visit http://www.girlscoutcookies.org/ for more information. You can fill out a form online to place an order and your local chapter will contact you directly. Do so at the following website: http://www.girlscoutsindiana.org/ordercookies.htm.