Thin Mints need no introduction. They’re the most popular Girl Scout cookie in America, and they’re an institution so large that all you need to do is say “Thin Mint” and people can practically taste them. With apologies to the many other excellent cookie options the girls sell, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the Girl Scout cookie program was built on Thin Mint sales.
We love supporting the Girl Scouts. The problem, though, is that cookie sales only cover part of the year. (Well, if you’re on a diet, this isn’t a problem, but you get the point.) What if you want Thin Mints out of season, say in June? What then?
Several stores have discovered that, if you stock them, they’ll sell. That’s why a handful of grocers and dollar stores now carry their own knockoff Thin Mints. Dollar General does, for example. So does Dollar Tree. (Aldi used to, but they inexplicably discontinued them.)
You can also find imitation Thin Mints at Dollar Tree’s subsidiary store, Family Dollar.
Eatz Fudge Covered Mint Cookies are a Family Dollar exclusive. They come in a 9-ounce box and currently cost $1.85. That comes out to about 21 cents an ounce. For comparison, Dollar Tree fudge mint cookies cost about 11 cents an ounce, Walmart Great Value cookies run about 14 cents an ounce, and Dollar General cookies price at about 17 cents an ounce. So the Family Dollar cookies are on the higher end of price as far as imitation Thin Mints go, although they’re still far less than the $5-$6 a box you’ll pay for the real thing.
No one expects these cookies to be healthy, and they’re not. Four of them are worth 150 calories, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and 23 grams of carbs. On the allergen front, they contain soy and wheat, and they may contain milk, peanuts, and coconut.
Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The real question is: how do they taste? Our testers unanimously agreed that they tasted similar to, but not identical to, Thin Mints. This has been the case with most other dollar store knockoffs we’ve tried, in large part because of the white cookie on the interior as opposed to the black mint cookie you see in the traditional Thin Mints we get in our area. These aren’t bad cookies — they’re crisp, sweet, and have a mint flavor — but we don’t think they’re an exact duplicate of the real thing, and they’re not as good as the real thing.
The Verdict:
Eatz Fudge Covered Mint Cookies from Family Dollar are clearly inspired by Thin Mints, but they’re not Thin Mints. They have a slightly different taste than what we’re used to, on account of what’s inside the cookie, and we don’t think they’re as good as the Girl Scout version. They are good on their own merits, though. They’re also more expensive than most other imitation Thin Mints from other stores. These aren’t our first choice to replace the real thing, but they’re okay as far as cookies go.
Personally, I think the Eatz fudge covered mint cookies are just as good as the scouts thin mints.