Thin mints or Trefoils? Girl Scout cookie sales set to begin

Thin mints or Trefoils? Do-si-dos or Tagalongs?

It’s time to decide which Girl Scout cookies you’re buying this year — and how many boxes.

Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania will launch their 2021 Girl Scout Cookie Program on Friday, hoping to bring smiles to the faces of their customers during a challenging time, according to a release.

This year’s cookie selection includes:

•Do-si-dos — Crunchy oatmeal sandwich cookie with creamy peanut butter filling

• Girl Scout S’mores — Crunchy graham sandwich cookies with creamy chocolate and marshmallowy filling

• Lemon-Ups — Crispy lemon cookies baked with motivational messages

• Samoas — Crisp cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and striped with dark chocolaty coating

• Tagalongs — Crispy cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating

• Thin Mints — Crisp wafers covered in chocolaty coating, made with natural oil of peppermint

• Toffee-tastic — Rich, buttery, gluten-free cookies packed with golden toffee bits bursting with flavor

• Trefoils — Delicate-tasting shortbread that is delightfully simple and satisfying.

Girl Scouts will be selling in creative, socially distant and contact-free ways to keep themselves and their customers safe, the release said.

“It will be up to the individual girl and her family if they’re comfortable selling door-to-door,” said Stefanie Marshall, GSWPA public relations and marketing associate. “They’ll also have door hangers that they can slip on, and people can get back to them to order.”

We're looking for Girl Scouts to feature during our GSWPA Virtual Cookie Rally! Comment with a photo of your Girl Scout (in uniform, if you can!) and tell us in her words why the cookie program will be so important to her this year. ?? pic.twitter.com/i8jzhQX5gG

— GirlScoutsWesternPA (@GirlScoutsWPA) December 11, 2020

There’s also an online Digital Cookie platform, which Girl Scouts of the USA launched in 2014, which allows girls to personalize their own marketing sites to share their goals and progress and their plans for proceeds.

“When customers order through a Girl Scout’s Digital Cookie site, they can have their order shipped to their door or ask their Girl Scout to deliver it later,” the release said.

“We’re also encouraging girls to host Facebook events with friends and family, and to connect with grandparents through Zoom, like everyone has been doing,” Marshall said.

As in past years, there also will be booth sales outside of stores and other locations, as allowed by local safety guidelines, she added.

“Girls are rising to the challenge to creatively reach their goals and earn proceeds that fund their community projects, hiking excursions, badge workshops and so much more,” said Patricia A. Burkart, CEO of GSWPA.

What’s a ‘Toast-Yay’?

If you hear rumors of a new cookie called the Toast-Yay, you might have to do some hunting for it, Marshall said.

“Our region doesn’t have the new cookie this year, but some other regions do,” she said.

There are two bakers from which councils can order, and those bakers alternate each year in offering a new cookie. The Toast-Yay, a French toast-flavored shortbread cookie sandwich with a cream filling, is coming from the baker not used by GSWPA, Marshall said.

“The good thing is that, if you can find a girl somewhere who is selling them, you can have cookies shipped to anywhere in the country,” she said.

The cookie program is designed to teach Scouts about entrepreneurship and help them practice skills like marketing, public speaking and money management. Every purchase stays local to troops and GSWPA to fund experiences such as camps and other leadership opportunities.

“I had the opportunity to talk to some girls last week about what they were most looking forward to about this year’s sale,” Marshall said. “They said, ‘Girl Scout cookies make everybody happy, and we just want to make people smile.’”

Girl Scout cookies can only be purchased from a registered Girl Scout. To find a Girl Scout selling cookies near you, call 800-248-3355, email customercare@gswpa.org or visit gswpa.org.