Don’t let the pillowy-soft cookie with pretty pastel frosting fool you. These notorious grocery store sugar cookies have caused years of controversy over the question, are they even that good?
These sugar cookies are very well-known to many people, and those who have tried them seem to have either a strong positive or negative opinion.
“They’re the most disgusting, awful, revolting cookies I’ve ever had, they should not even be counted as food,” said junior Talia Bartelstone. “If you like these cookies, don’t talk to me.”
Often referred to as “those” cookies, they originate from the Lofthouse brand, but other grocery stores such as Target, Walmart, Safeway, and even Amazon have their spin-offs of the cookie. The cookies are unavoidable to shoppers; stores bring these sweet treats for every holiday and season.
“Those cookies that we make for the holidays are the most popular since they have decorations for Christmas,” said Gerardo Perez, a Safeway employee.
However, it turns out that not all shoppers are excited to reach for these cookies.
“Customers still want the other cookies like oatmeal and chocolate chip,” Perez said.
These cookies are known to create a storm of disagreement, and especially among Gen-Z, the quality and taste of these sweet treats are up for debate.
Several people that enjoy snacking on these cookies love the explosion of sugar and sweetness from the frosting.
“The frosting is good, the frosting-to-cookie ratio is what makes it the best,” said senior James Tofigh. “If somebody’s not a big frosting guy, I can see why people don’t like them.”
Other intense lovers of these cookies are not as forgiving when it comes to the other side of the argument.
I find myself failing to see the haters’ point of view and consider them unrefined in all culinary aspects of flavor.
— Paul Zhou
“The really over-the-top sweetness of the frosting is complimented perfectly by the soft and dry shortbread cookie that makes for a perfect overdose of sugar in your mouth,” said Paul Zhou, a junior who is a fanatic of frosted sugar cookies.
Those who dislike these cookies have many reasons behind their hatred towards these sweets.
“I hate the texture, flavor, everything,” Bartelstone said. They’re way too sweet, like pure sugar, and taste like plastic.”
Similar to the fanatics of these cookies, the avid dislikers of them have a stern stance in this debate.
“When I was a child, I used to make playdough… but I imagine that if you ate it, it would taste like those cookies,” said junior Ciana Jin.
Lofthouse started producing these cookies in 1994 and continues to stock bakery sections of just about every grocery store.
As a result of the soft sugar cookie phenomenon, many people who adore the cookies have taken action to recreate the cookies at home. There are endless recipes online that attempt to recreate the notorious Lofthouse Cookies.
The wrangling of opinions between these cookies has taken the internet by storm for years, and the argument continues today.
“Just eat ’em, just eat ’em. You’ll know what I mean,” said junior Jose Avina Rodriguez.
