We all know that Girl Scout cookies pair well with milk. But did you know they also pair well with wine? It’s true. At our second annual Girl Scout cookie wine tasting last week, we discovered for the second time how well this pairing works, and we had a great time in the process.
I highly recommend a Girl Scout cookie wine tasting for everybody, especially for people who tend to get very serious about wine. It’s hard to be serious when you’re eating Girl Scout cookies.
Before sharing the results, let me tell you about the wines and the cookies.
We tasted six wines, all made by WineShop At Home:
- Petit Cadeau Semi-Seco Sparkling (California)
- Lumiére De Vie 2009 Sauvignon Blanc (California)
- Talmage Cellars 2009 Chardonnay (Carneros)
- Milano 2010 Dolcetto (California)
- Lumiére De Vie 2009 Prism (Mendocino) – a Merlot/Cabernet blend, with a hint of Syrah
- Halcyon 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendocino)
We tasted eight Girl Scout cookies:
- Thank U Berry Munch – cranberries with white fudge chips
- Lemon Chalet Cremes – lemon cream sandwich cookies
- Samoas – toasted coconut, caramel and chocolate
- Do-Si-Dos – peanut butter sandwich cookies
- Tagalongs – cookies with a layer of peanut butter covered in chocolate
- Dulce de Leche – cookies with milk caramel chips
- Thin Mint – mint-flavored cookies covered with chocolate
- Shortbread – the traditional cookie
We started the evening with a tasting of the wines by themselves. We wanted to get a good sense of what each wine was about before embarking down the cookie path.
We then jumped into the pairings. Each of the six participants had a white wine glass and a red wine glass. Most of us did the first white with all the cookies followed by the first red with all the cookies followed by the second white and so on. We went back to the ones we had questions about and the ones we really liked.
We used this spreadsheet to take notes.
We drew happy faces and sad faces or used our own numbering system. We talked and laughed throughout the evening, making sure not to take anything too seriously.
The Results
BEST WINE |
SECOND BEST WINE |
|
| Thank U Berry Munch | Dolcetto | Sauvignon Blanc |
| Lemon Chalet Cremes | Sparkling | Dolcetto |
| Samoas | Sauvignon Blanc | Chardonnay |
| Do-Si-Dos | Chardonnay | Dolcetto |
| Tagalongs | Chardonnay | Prism |
| Dulce de Leche | Sparkling | Dolcetto |
| Thin Mint | Dolcetto | Sparkling |
| Shortbread | None of the wines paired well with the shortbread. | |
On the wine front, Dolcetto, a low tannin, fruity red wine that is served chilled, was the clear winner, showing up in first or second place five times. Sparkling and Chardonnay shared second place, having three first or second place showings each. Sauvignon Blanc came in third, with two first or second place showings.
The two dry reds, the Cabernet and the Prism blend, were challenging to pair with the cookies. The Prism worked well with the Tagalongs. But the guideline that says that a wine should be at least as sweet as the dessert you’re serving it with definitely came into play with our tasting.
On the cookie front, Thank U Berry Munch, Lemon Chalet Cremes and Dulce de Leche were the clear winners. These cookies paired well with the most wines.
Our favorite combination was Thank U Berry Munch with Dolcetto. YUM!
The takeaway here is that it is a lot of fun to spend time with friends pairing wines with a particular food group.
If you’ve done any special wine pairings, including cookie pairings, I would love to hear about your experiences.
As an independent wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I absolutely enjoy bringing a taste of the Napa wine country home to you one sip at a time. Whether you simply love to drink wine, seek a special personalized wine gift, or are in search of a new wine job opportunity, feel free to contact me for a truly unique wine tasting experience!
Cheers,
Betty Kaufman, WineShop At Home
30 comments
now that’s a hoot! Or maybe even thinking outside the box! love the fun and love girl scout cookies… ours are already gone.
Love it! Love the idea of thinking outside the box, although this in case we thought inside the box – of cookies 🙂
Betty I didn’t know wine could go with girls scout cookies? Very interesting
I know! It’s fun to try wine with foods that you wouldn’t normally associate with wine. You never know what you will discover.
Pure March Madness here! Please do this again so I can join the festivities. I think I could fast become an aficionado.
You are too funny. I know you could become a Girl Scout cookie/wine pairing aficionado in no time 🙂
Well look at that. I am a big fan of the Samoas and all of the Chardonnay’s from Wine Shop at Home. Looks like the two go well together! I am expecting my Wine Shop at Home Delivery today. Now gotta find some Samoas. Thanks for the idea. I will let you know if I get to pair them any time soon.
I have 2 Samoas left! Should I save them for you?!?
What a super fun idea Betty! Thin Mints are my all time favorite. I like to freeze them and eat them that way. I must admit it’s never occurred to me to pair the cookies with wine, so now I have something new to try. Dolcetto here I come! 🙂
I will need to try freezing my Thin Mints. What a great idea.
Never would think of pairing wine with cookies at all, but you make it sound delicious and so much fun, too. Very creative!
It’s fun to try wine with foods you would never think of having with wine 🙂
SUCH a great girlfriends night in hang out/party idea! I love it! I like tagalongs myself. This was so much fun to read and gave me such great ideas. thank you!!
I love tagalongs too. This is an amazingly fun thing to do. Too bad Girl Scout cookies only come out once a year.
This is such a cool idea for a tasting, you are so funny and creative, I love it! I am looking at a box of thin mints this morning and thinking it would be a great idea to pair them with some wine, too bad I have to work this afternoon!
You are so funny. Tomorrow night, your Thin Mints will be perfect – the green mint in honor of St. Patty’s Day. And of course St. Patty’s Day requires alcohol 🙂
Betty,
This is a very interesting study. I am surprised nothing went well with the shortbread, one of my favorites. I am not a big fan of Thin Mints, don’t get me wrong, I like them, but the Samosa kick butt.
I would have thought the Prism would have gone well with the Thin Mints. I do see how a light white would go well with the yummy Samosas.
The Lemon cookie results make sense to me.
This was a fun blog! Thanks for sharing!
The Samoas are my favorite too! I’m wondering if a really buttery Chardonnay might go better with the shortbread. The one we had wasn’t very buttery. But perhaps the butter-on-butter combo would be too much. I’m thinking that the shortbread might require something really heavy like port. If you come up with a good match for it, please let me know!
Great fun! I know next to nothing about wine, but I do OK at cookie-tasting 🙂
It’s important to be an expert cookie taster! 🙂
Love this Betty, hope to get one going here! Thanks for the idea!
You will have a ball! The only challenge – coming up with a wine that pairs well with Thin Mints. We’ve struggled with this for 2 years now. Hopefully we’ll have one that works well this year.
Love this – too bad my cookies are already gone!!
Oh no. Can you get some more?
Shoot! I was all ready to do this, and our region quit selling the Dulce, Thank yous and Lemon Chalet cremes – which were the top three….. bummer!
Boo hoo. How could they? 🙂
So, from last year, the Dolcetto, Chardonnay and Sparkling were the best – are you doing this again? Using the Reflexion or Illumintion? Grand Cadeau? Moonlight? Want to schedule this and trying to get an idea of what wines would be best! Thanks!! 🙂
I’ll choose the wine sampler that I think has the cookie-friendliest wines 🙂 I’ll probably have more white than red, and I’ll definitely go sweet. Hopefully we’ll have Dolcetto by the time I do my tastings. I’m thinking about doing them on 2/19 and 2/26.
Love this! I wonder how a lighter dessert wine, such as Moscato d’Asti, would fare with any of these cookies. Was the intention to try to pair with non-dessert wines?
This year I’m going to add a lighter dessert Moscato and a port to the lineup. I have a feeling the Moscato will work very well. I can’t wait to see.
Thanks for your comments!