VALLEY FORGE, Pa. - If you smell the delicious fragrance of cookies wafting through the Lehigh Valley in coming days, don’t be alarmed. Girl Scout Cookies are on their way.
“So Girl Scouts, nationally, partners with two bakers,” said Kim Fraites-Dow, the chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, which includes Lehigh and Northampton Counties.
- Thousands of boxes of cookies are being dropped off at locations around the state
- You can expect your cookies starting Jan. 19
- Regional differences in cookies are due to the two national bakers competing
“One is called ABC. And the other one is called Little Brownie Bakers. And, depending on the council that you work with, we choose which baker we want to contract with. So we have been a partner with ABC Bakers for a really long time. And they are our suppliers.”
If you’ve ever wondered why in some places the caramel coconut cookies are called Samoas and in other places they’re called Caramel deLites, or why you can’t always get the same cookies from place to place, it's because of these different bakers.
After the cookies are baked and boxed, Fraites-Dow explains, they are delivered to a number of drop-offs in what are called “mega drops.” One such mega drop happened in Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday.
Tractor-trailers are bringing nearly 65,000 boxes of pre-ordered cookies to Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania’s service center at Valley Forge.
According to Fraites-Dow, some troops order so many cookies that they require their own drop-offs to a house rather than a central gathering place. The threshold for this is 500 cases or 6,000 boxes of cookies, and the number of troops requiring it is on the rise.
“Usually we have like, you know, a dozen or something like that. But it's significant this year. Last year, we had a lot of distribution issues, because you know, the country was dealing with distribution issues. We weren't immune to that, with movers and drivers and that kind of thing,” said Fraites Dow.
"Oreos are sold year round, and those Thin Mints are sold eight weeks a year by girls.”Kim Fraites-Dow, CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania
“There were times where people were waiting for cookies towards the end of the sale for much longer than they would like…So this year, a lot of folks were asking for the bulk of what they thought they would sell up front, so they didn't have to keep picking up.”
She also adds a fun fact about a classic cookie: “I don't know if you know this but the Thin Mints are the second highest selling cookie in the country. Second only to the Oreo. Oreos are sold year round, and those Thin Mints are sold eight weeks a year by girls.”
The new flavor is called a Raspberry Rally, and they’re made just like Thin Mints, but with pink raspberry centers, almost like how Oreo has experimented with pumpkin spice Oreos or Double Stuf. Raspberry Rallies are only available online.
On Saturday, Jan. 14, 72,000 boxes will make their way to Lehigh Valley Girl Scouts via a distribution event at Dorney Park. 57 troops are scheduled to attend to pick up their cookies to bring to their faithful customers.
The cookie season kicks off on Jan. 19.
