Reviews of Holiday Foodstuffs: Cheryl & Co. Cookies

December 17, 2008 • 11:52 am • POSTED BY brendan quinn

In this ongoing series, our agency’s two foremost gourmands* review the various holiday treats that arrive in our kitchen as gifts from friends, Romans, countrymen, vendors and clients. First up: Cheryl & Co. Cookies

Brendan: To my seasoned palate, these Cheryl & Co. cookies contain a scant two ingredients: sugar and awesome. Indeed, these are a one-note dish, where sweetness grabs the attention from the onset and hogs the limelight with each additional bite. Texture is a key component when the cookie quickly dissolves, as prog rockers Kansas eloquently sang, like dust in the wind–provided one substitutes “dust” for “cookies” and “wind” for “saliva” (obviously). They’re neither subtle nor complex; but these cookies do one thing and do it exceptionally well, a quality I admire in both people and confections.

In this topsy-turvy world of marketibrandesignvertising, few things are certain. But these cookies arrive every year as a generous gift from our CEO’s mother, and each December they nearly cause riots like a late 70s The Who concert, when even the most effete graphic designer will cross-check an AE in the neck for their first crack at their generously glazed goodness. The collateral damage is unfortunate; these cookies, however, are exceptional.

Dan: So basic in appearance, so pedestrian in their packaging, these cookies are stealth masterpieces of texture, structure and flavor.

Substantial and solid in the hand, they announce their intention to yield by shedding nearly all of their Sprinkles on route to mouth. The tumbling of the red and green pellets across your desk cause a distraction that leaves you completely unprepared for the astonishing event to follow.

As your teeth touch down on the crystal encrusted surface of the cookie, they don’t initiate a bite as much as trigger a cave-in. The cookie actually implodes in your mouth. As it disintegrates it leaves behind swirl of awesome flavor: grains of pure sugar suspended in pillows of flour. As this thick granular cloud of sweet bliss dissolves the cookie transcends the tangible to a realm of pure sensation. Delicious!

*Brendan C. Quinn grew up in the foothills of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, where his hometown’s main export helped shape a decidedly porcine-focused world view.

*Please note that Dan Shepelavy is Ukrainian.