When put to the test, can people really tell the difference between regular girl scout cookies and their Wal-mart brand counterparts? The Arrow crew decided to see for themselves. We tagalongs, trefoils, samoas, do-si-dos, and thin mints, as well as the Wal-mart versions of each.

The journalism and newspaper staff members that decided to tag along the taste test all had to close their eyes. There was the Girl Scout brand cookie given in their left hand and the off brand cookie from Walmart in their right hand. At a count of three everyone tried the cookie that was in their right hand first. Many had a hard time deciding what the difference was between both brands of the samoas cookies.

Every cookie is uniquely different and that is what everyone loves about them. Thin mints have a crumply texture and are minty covered in chocolate, while samoas are round with a cookie cracker, topped with crispy coconut, caramel, and chocolate. Trefoils are a sugar cookie with a little less flavor then the rest of the cookies. Do-si-dos are two saltier cookies with peanut butter in the middle. Last but not least there are the tagalongs which have a thin cookie, peanut butter on top, and covered in chocolate.

The off brand cookies looked a little different then the Girl Scout cookies. The only exact replicas the crew had were the thin mints and samoas. The rest did not have exact replicas in the cookie section at Walmart. They are very differently priced, but the money for Girl Scout cookies is to fund their program.

Everyone had to close their eyes for the taste test, because some of the cookies had a very similar taste but very different looks. Many enjoyed the on brand cookies over the Wal-mart cookies.

“I thought the one in my left hand was the Girl Scout cookie,” senior Dom Lount said. “The one in my right hand was thinner then a regular thin mint cookie.”

The samoas were very hard to differentiate for everyone, since they looked and tasted the exact same. The whole group came to that census.

The do-si-dos looked a lot different then the ones bought from Wal-mart. For this one we made everyone close their eyes.  These were a very close call to flavor and no one knew which one was which. Among the group this cookie was not as well known as the other cookies.

Trefoils were everyone’s least favorite and these also had no competition. Everyone said it was very bland and boring compared to the other cookies.

The consensus for everyone was a favor to the Girl Scout cookies. Everyone said that the crackers in the Girl Scout cookies were a lot better then the Walmart version. The Walmart version had less freshness and less flavor.

The most favored cookie among the group were the samoas. The mixture of the cracker, caramel, coconut, and chocolate drizzle on top was a winner for the whole group. Thin mints were also a very close draw to the winner.