Girl Scout cookie booths are popping up everywhere this time of year, but which version of the cookies are you getting?
There are two different bakeries responsible for making Girl Scout cookies; ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. Each has its own cookie names, box designs, and yes... even recipes. That means your Thin Mint might be different than your neighbors.
Girl Scout cookies sales were first started with homemade cookies by an individual troop in Muskogee OK in 1917. The Girl Scout magazine, The American Girl, suggested cookie sales as a fundraiser idea and provided a sugar cookie recipe from the Girl Scouts of Chicago in 1922. Troops embraced the idea and in 1936 the Girls Scouts of the USA began to license commercial bakers for cookie production, staring with Keebler Weyl Bakery and later the Southern Biscuit Company and Burry Biscuit (both acquired by Interbake Foods).
In the 1990’s, the National Council limited the bakeries to just ABC Bakers (a division of Interbake Foods) and Little Brownie Bakers (a division of Keebler Company). Each Girl Scout Council decides which bakery to place their orders, which means some states have different bakeries in different parts of their state.
