Celebrating Taste Diversity with Girl Scout Cookies

This was my tenth year of hosting a Girl Scout Cookie wine tasting, an outrageously fun event where we figure out which wines pair best with which Girl Scout Cookies and which Girl Scout Cookies pair best with which wines. This year the focus was on taste diversity, something that hadn’t come up in the past. I hope you enjoy reading about our experience.

The Tasting Setup

We started with a traditional tasting of the wines with traditional wine foods like cheese and crackers. We followed the traditional tasting with the cookie tasting, where each of us tasted the first wine with each of the cookies and then followed up with the second wine and more.

For the cookie tasting, we used a spreadsheet where all the cookies were listed across the top and all the wines were listed in the first column. The participants used their own approach to identify their favorites and least favorites. Some used happy and sad faces. Some used Xs and Ös. Some used pluses and minuses. Some used strong words like NO!!!

The Results from the First Nine Years

In all my previous years, there was quite a bit of agreement on what cookies and wines worked best. For example, last year I confidently wrote that the cookie that went with the most wines was Samoa, followed by Do-Si-Do and Toffee-Tastic. I also confidently wrote that our Terroir Cellars Malbec went with the most cookies, followed by our Lumière de Vie Revelation and Le Cadeau Semi-Seco Sparkling.

This Year It Was All About Celebrating Taste Diversity

This year, we had to honor taste diversity – the fact that everybody’s taste buds are distinct. While there was some agreement – that the lighter cookies tended to go better with the whites, and the heavier cookies tended to go better with the reds – there was more disagreement.

I actually led three Girl Scout Cookie tastings this year. I’ll highlight the final tasting where we had seven tasters who were really into both wine and cookies. The main takeaway from the tasting, besides the incredible fun, was the realization of taste diversity – that we all have different taste buds and different tasting experiences. As an example, we had one taster who liked just about everything. She had only four combinations that rubbed her the wrong way. We had two tasters who agreed on just about everything, liking two thirds or so of the combos and disliking or hating the rest. The remaining four tasters were all over the place.

This experience reminded me of what I often tell tasters, that they need to honor what they like and not worry about what other people like. We need to celebrate taste diversity and respect each person’s unique tasting style.

Wrapping Up

I can’t tell you how much fun it is to do a Girl Scout Cookie wine tasting. Hopefully, many of you have tried it. If you haven’t, and would like to do this next year, please let me know.