The 2022 Girl Scout Cookie Season Is Upon Us [Updated]

Update, January 11, 2022: While unofficial reports have been swirling for weeks, today marks the Girl Scouts–sanctioned kickoff of the 2022 cookie season. According to a press release sent to The Takeout, the Girl Scouts of the USA are committing to a "hybrid" sales model this year, one that "incorporates innovative methods of online ordering and the return of in-person selling."

"For the past two seasons, girl entrepreneurs hosted virtual cookie booths, drive-thru contact-less cookie stands, and learned the distribution process behind food delivery services through hands-on order fulfillment," reads the press release in part. "In real-time with the entrepreneurial community across the US, Girl Scouts practiced adaptability and resilience to innovate solutions to unprecedented challenges."

Here's some helpful info from the press release:

• Reach out to a Girl Scout you might know personally (or their parents) and get the scoop about how to order.
• Visit www.girlscoutcookies.org or use the official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app on iOS/Android to determine whether there are any cookie booths in your area.
• Text COOKIES to 59618 to receive updates about where to find Girl Scout cookies (note: you'll be sent other general Girl Scout news if you opt into this service).
• Starting in February, DoorDash will be delivering Girl Scout cookies on demand. The press release notes that the Girl Scouts themselves will be "partnering with DoorDash's technology and team" themselves in order to oversee the operation. Basically, it sounds like you won't be denying the kids any learning opportunities if you choose to order cookies via this service.

Try the new Adventurefuls and let us know what you think.

Original post, January 4, 2022: The Girl Scouts of the USA understand one thing, and that's marketing. Even as the quality of the organization's wildly overpriced cookies ebbs and flows depending on geography and your local bakery conglomerate, the American public still happily lines up for a taste of nostalgic annual tradition. Plus, it can't hurt that the Girl Scouts always kick off cookie season right at the moment we've all run out of the holiday dessert leftovers that sustained us through the end of the year. Girl Scout cookie season has arrived, with online sales happening now.

If you're looking to buy your cookies directly from a booth in the grocery store parking lot or from some intrepid door-to-door sales-scout, you might have to wait a bit longer; many troops aren't kicking off in-person sales until mid-January. But even if you order online, your purchase from a "virtual cookie booth" will support your local troop. And if you're a true diehard, you can download the Cookie Finder app to create an Uber-Eats-esque experience for yourself, complete with a map of sales happening near you.

This year's cookie season rollout is appearing mainly through local news outlets at this juncture; the Girl Scouts of the USA have yet to release an official announcement that the season is underway. But because different bakeries supply to different geographic areas, and different troops receive their inventory at different times, it's well worth checking the Cookie Finder for your ZIP code to see what's available. We'll keep checking with the Girl Scouts to determine more specific info.

Last cookie season's new announcements, Adventurefuls and Toast-Yay!, are remaining within the cookie lineup this year. Here's the full list of what's on offer, according to the Girl Scouts website:

• Adventurefuls
• Toast-Yay!
• Thin Mints
• Lemon-Ups
• Lemonades
• Shortbread/Trefoils
• Caramel deLites/Samoas
• Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs
• Do-si-dos/Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Toffee-tastic (gluten-free)
• Caramel Chocolate Chip (gluten-free)
• Girl Scout S'mores

We enjoyed Adventurefuls when we had the chance to taste them last summer. Dennis Lee called them "pretty crushable" and determined that they're "definitely something to look forward to early next year." Give them a try and let us know what you think.

Toast-Yay! continues to be a name that stymies us all here at The Takeout. For one thing, the exclamation point makes it a very hard cookie to pluralize. (Are we only excited about that cookie? Why no exclamation point for everyone's favorite, Thin Mints?) Additionally, the hyphen in the name suggests that it's some kind of wordplay, a pun that swaps in the word "yay" for... what? This question has haunted us throughout much of 2021, and I won't have it sullying our 2022. Please, if you have any information about the origin of the name "Toast-Yay!" we beg you to shed some light on this mysterious branding. Though we contacted the Girl Scouts to better understand the moniker, the answers we were given were unsatisfactory.

Girl Scout cookie sales typically run through March, so you have a bit of time to map out your purchase strategy and take stock of how much room you have in your freezer. The cookies do freeze and thaw quite well, so it's well worth it to splurge once at the beginning of the year and enjoy the taste of nostalgia year-round.

And for pro tips on how your child can become the best cookie-selling scout of them all, look no further than this essay from the two-time top cookie seller of Girl Scout Troop 984.