Girl Scouts has announced their new cookie flavor for the 2026 cookie season, which will start in January and run until April. The new cookie is a rocky road-inspired cookie sandwich called Exploremores. It consists of two chocolaty cookies, filled with a rich marshmallow and toasted almond-flavored crème. The cookie got its name from the heart and spirit of every Girl Scout: curiosity. To discover and answer curiosities, Girl Scouts use exploration.
A survey was conducted to get CHS students’ opinions on the new flavor, but also their favorite flavors from the original lineup. The students were also asked for their opinion on whether the cookies are overrated and on the pricing.
In total, the survey received 289 responses. A thank you and shout out to Mr. DiGiulio, Mrs. Sanderlin, and Ms. Hartz for showing this survey to their classes and helping the survey get this many responses. The survey consisted of 9 questions. The questions that specifically matter to this article are:
- What is your favorite Girl Scout Cookie flavor?
- What do you think of their new flavor, Exploremores?
- Do you think Girl Scout Cookies are worth the price?
- Do you think Girl Scout Cookies are overrated?
For the data of the public opinion’s favorite flavor, Thin Mints won over the voters’ hearts with 173 votes. Thin Mints have been greatly popular since 1951 because of their crispy texture and chocolaty minty taste. In 1951, Thin Mints were originally called Chocolate Mints and were mostly sold at tables in shopping malls, along with a sandwich cookie and a shortbread cookie called Trefoils today. It was not until the 1970s that the name was changed to Thin Mints.
Taking home second place with 113 votes was Samoas, Girl Scouts’ flavorful cookie with crunchy coconut, sweet caramel, and chocolate stripes to give it a special design. Below is the completed data for all the cookie flavors.
- Thin Mints (173 votes)
- Samosas (113 votes)
- Carmel Chocolate Chip (58 votes)
- Peanut Butter Sandwich (44 votes)
- Adventurefuls (28 votes)
- Lemon-Ups (26 votes)
- Toffe Tastic (20 votes)
- Lemonades (18 votes)
- S’mores (18 votes)
- Trefoils (15 votes)
- Tagalongs (13 votes)
In the responses, 18 votes were still tallied for their discontinued flavor, S’mores. Girl Scouts announced their S’mores cookie in 2016 for their 2017 season. The cookie was a crunchy graham cracker cookie sandwich with delicious chocolate and marshmallow-flavored filling. Though there were only 18 votes in the survey, the S’mores cookie quickly became Girl Scouts’ most popular cookie they have launched in history. Even with the S’mores cookies’ great success, it was discontinued after the 2025 season, along with Girl Scouts’ other popular flavor, Toast-Yay! Both were discontinued because Girl Scout Cookies wanted to expand their flavor options, including the Exploremores, which will drop in January for the 2026 Girl Scout Cookie season.
Even though most of the respondents had a favorite flavor, many thought the cookies were not worth the price. Girl Scout Cookies are currently $6 to $7 per box, depending on what flavor you buy, due to inflation. Previously, they were $3 to $4, before climbing up to $5, and now $6 to $7. Due to inflation, it has cost the companies that make Girl Scout Cookies (ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers) more money to manufacture the cookies. When Girl Scout Cookies first debuted in 1917, they were 25-35 cents a dozen. This is a big change compared to the $6 to $7 cookies now.
34.3% of students polled said yes, the cookies are worth the price, 35.3% said no, they are not worth the price, and 30.4% said they have no opinion/do not care about the topic. Many did not think the cookies were overrated. 18% said yes, they are overrated; 51.9% thought no, they are not overrated; and 30.1% had no opinion/did not care about the topic. This data shows that, although many people think the cookies are not worth the price, they still believe the cookies taste good and are not overrated.
The second question to answer was what the public thought of Girl Scout Cookies’ new flavor, Exploremores. For this question, there were four ways respondents could answer. 18.7% said they are excited for the flavor to drop, 50.9 % (the majority vote) said it sounds like a good flavor, 8.7 % said it doesn’t sound like a good flavor, and 21.8 % said they had no opinion/do not care about the new flavor. The last piece of data for this experiment was to compare the difference in answers between a person who never buys them and a person who buys the cookies a lot.
There were two interviews. Both interviewers were asked the same 6 questions. The questions asked were
- How often do you buy their cookies?
- Do you think the cookies are good?
- Do you think the cookies are worth the price?
- Do you think the cookies are overrated?
- What do you think of their new flavor?
- Do you plan on buying the new flavor during Girl Scout season?
For the interviewer who never buys the cookies, Alisher Junisbai, an 11th grader at Claremont High School, answered that he thinks the cookies are alright, but he would not want to buy them. He has no opinion on the price of the cookies, he does not think the cookies are overrated, he has no opinion on the new flavor, and he does not plan on buying the new flavor. Now, compared to a person who buys the cookies frequently, Catherine Zhang, a 10th grader at Claremont High School, thinks the cookies are good, but they are not worth the price; they are overrated. She is excited for the new flavor to drop, and she plans on buying the new flavor.
It was very shocking to see that the person who buys the cookies thinks they are overrated, but the person who never buys them does not. These answers are very split, which really makes them stand out and makes this experiment more interesting.
To wrap up this experiment, many think the cookies are not worth $7, but they are not overrated. From this data, it sounds like Girl Scouts will have a good season with their new flavor and will make sales, as people are curious about the new flavor. In the end, this assumption will only be proven true during the 2026 season.
