Best Selling Girl Scout Cookies Of All Time
There’s a feeling that comes with spotting that table outside the grocery store. A row of bright boxes, a kid with a clipboard, and suddenly you’re reaching for your wallet before you even remember what you came to buy.
Girl Scout cookie season does that to people. It’s been happening every year since 1917, and after more than a century of sales, some cookies have clearly risen above the rest.
These are the ones that keep flying off tables, season after season.
Thin Mints Have Been On Top For Decades
No cookie even comes close. Thin Mints are the number one best-selling Girl Scout cookie in the country, and they have held that spot for a long time.
Back in 2013 alone, about 50 million boxes were sold nationwide. That’s a whole lot of minty cookies.
The story of Thin Mints traces back to 1939, when Girl Scout troops started selling a flavor called “Cooky-Mints.” By the 1950s, the cookie had been renamed Chocolate Mints and was already becoming a staple.
Today, the recipe stays simple: a crispy cookie dipped in chocolate and made with natural peppermint oil. That simplicity is probably why they’ve lasted so long.
If you’ve ever frozen a box before eating them, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most popular ways to enjoy Thin Mints, and the frozen version has its own fiercely devoted fan base.
Either way, these cookies account for roughly 32 percent of all Girl Scout cookie sales nationally. That number has stayed remarkably consistent over the years.
Samoas Are Hard To Beat
Samoas — or Caramel deLites, depending on where you live — hold the number two spot, and they’ve earned it. About 38 million boxes sold in 2013, putting them firmly behind Thin Mints but well ahead of everything else.
They make up around 19 percent of national sales.
The cookie is a layered creation: a vanilla cookie base, topped with caramel, rolled in toasted coconut, and then dipped in chocolate with a stripe across the top. It sounds like a lot going on, but somehow it all works together.
Samoas were one of the original four cookies produced by Little Brownie Bakers back in 1974, so they’ve had decades to build a following. People have tried to copy them, but nobody quite nails it.
Tagalongs: Where Chocolate Meets Peanut Butter
Third place goes to Tagalongs, also known as Peanut Butter Patties. They bring in about 16 percent of sales nationally, and for good reason.
The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is hard to argue with.
The cookie is straightforward: a crunchy shortbread base topped with a thick layer of peanut butter, then dipped in milk chocolate. Nothing complicated about it, and that’s exactly why it works.
People who love Tagalongs tend to be loyal about it. You’re not going to find many households that list them as a second choice.
Do-Si-Dos Keep Coming Back
Do-si-dos, or Peanut Butter Sandwiches depending on your baker, have been a staple since the 1970s. They’re oatmeal sandwich cookies with a creamy peanut butter filling in the middle, and they’ve held a consistent spot in the top five sellers for years.
They account for about 12 percent of national sales. Not as flashy as Thin Mints or Samoas, but steady and reliable.
Do-si-dos are also one of the three cookies that Girl Scouts are required to include in every council’s lineup, which tells you something about their importance to the program.
Trefoils: The Original That Never Goes Away
Trefoils — or Shortbread, if your area uses that name — are the quiet veterans of the Girl Scout cookie lineup. They bring in roughly 11 percent of sales nationally, which puts them in the top five.
Not bad for a plain shortbread cookie with no filling, no coating, and no gimmick.
The recipe traces back to the 1950s, and the current version draws from that original. They carry the shape of the Girl Scout trefoil logo, which gives them an instantly recognizable look.
A lot of people underestimate Trefoils because they don’t have chocolate or caramel or any of the flashy stuff. But dip one in coffee or tea and you’ll understand why they’ve never disappeared.
They’re buttery, simple, and satisfying in a way that fancier cookies sometimes can’t pull off.
Adventurefuls Made An Instant Splash
When Adventurefuls first showed up in 2022, nobody expected them to become more than just another new addition to the lineup. Instead, they turned into a phenomenon.
The brownie-inspired cookie topped with caramel-flavored crème and a hint of sea salt was so popular that it actually caused supply shortages in some areas during its very first season.
Within a couple of years, Adventurefuls had already climbed into the top five best-selling cookies nationally. That’s a fast rise for any cookie.
The Girl Scouts clearly landed on something people had been wanting: something richer and more indulgent than the classics, with that sweet-and-salty balance that’s hard to resist once you try it.
Lemonades Own The Citrus Lane
If you want something bright and refreshing in the Girl Scout cookie lineup, Lemonades are the move. These shortbread cookies come topped with a tangy lemon-flavored icing, and they rank consistently among the top sellers nationally.
Lemonades are exclusive to ABC Bakers, which means you’ll only find them if your local Girl Scout council uses that bakery. If you live in a Little Brownie Bakers area, your citrus option is Lemon-Ups instead — a completely different cookie.
But for those who have access to Lemonades, they tend to grab multiple boxes. They’re the kind of cookie that doesn’t just taste good.
They feel like a reset from all the chocolate options surrounding them.
S’mores Were Built For Cookie Season
When Girl Scout S’mores launched in 2016, they quickly became the most popular new cookie the organization had ever released. The timing made sense: a campfire-inspired cookie landing right in the middle of cookie season gave people something exciting and familiar at the same time.
The cookie came in two versions depending on which baker made it. One was a graham cracker cookie double-dipped in crème and chocolate.
The other was a graham sandwich cookie filled with chocolate and marshmallow. Both versions sold extremely well, and S’mores stayed in the lineup for years.
Girl Scouts eventually pulled them after the 2025 season, but their run as a top-selling newcomer is hard to beat.
Toast-Yay! Brought Breakfast To The Cookie Box
Toast-Yay! showed up in 2021 and immediately made people curious. A graham cracker-based cookie with a thick layer of cinnamon-flavored icing on the bottom — basically a cinnamon roll disguised as a cookie.
People compared the taste to Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and that comparison alone drove a lot of first-time buyers to grab a box.
The cookie didn’t stick around forever. Girl Scouts retired it after the 2025 season along with S’mores.
But during its time in the lineup, it earned a solid following, especially among people looking for something warm and comforting in a cookie.
Caramel Chocolate Chip Fills A Needed Gap
Not everyone can eat every cookie on this list. Caramel Chocolate Chip stands out because it’s one of the few Girl Scout cookies that’s gluten-free — and it actually tastes good.
A lot of gluten-free cookies sacrifice flavor to meet dietary needs, but this one doesn’t.
Girl Scouts started introducing gluten-free options in the early 2010s, and Caramel Chocolate Chip has become one of the most popular choices in that category.
If you can’t eat the traditional cookies, this one is a reliable pick every season. And if you can eat everything on the menu, it’s still worth trying on its own.
Toffee-Tastic Has Its Own Crowd
Toffee-tastic is another gluten-free option, and it’s built a dedicated following over the years. The cookie is a buttery shortbread base with crunchy toffee bits mixed throughout.
Simple on the surface, but the toffee adds a caramelized sweetness that separates it from the plain shortbread of Trefoils.
Some people find Toffee-tastic a bit hard to bite into straight out of the box. But drop one into a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and watch it soften up.
Once you figure out the best way to eat it, you’ll keep coming back.
Why Some Cookies Have Two Different Names
If you’ve ever been confused about why a cookie is called Samoas in one state and Caramel deLites in another, you’re not imagining things. Two separate licensed bakers — ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers — produce Girl Scout cookies.
Each Girl Scout council picks one of these two companies, and the baker they choose determines both the cookie names and, in some cases, the actual recipe.
That means the same-looking cookie can taste slightly different depending on where you buy it. ABC’s Thin Mints run crunchier and mintier, while Little Brownie’s version comes out richer and more chocolaty.
It’s a quirk that’s been part of the system for decades, and cookie fans have strong opinions about which baker does it better. If you’ve moved across the country and noticed your favorite cookie tasting a little off, now you know why.
The Ones That Didn’t Make It
Fifty-plus kinds of Girl Scout cookies have cycled through time. A few stuck around just long enough to be remembered by taste alone.
Golden Nut Clusters faded out like whispers; Le Chips vanished without much notice. Kookaburras once chirped on shelves, now gone too.
Savannah Smiles? They smiled briefly, then slipped away.
Some cookies fade out. Girl Scout versions included, if folks just aren’t interested.
Those that stick around – like Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs – stick because buyers return, again and again. Change still happens slowly.
A new one appeared near the end of 2025: Exploremores, shaped like tiny ice cream sandwiches, layered with chocolate, fluffy marshmallow, and bits tasting like roasted almonds. If it becomes legendary?
That part remains unclear.
More Than Just Cookies
Each year, over a million girls take part in selling around two hundred million cookie boxes. That effort brings in well over eight hundred million dollars total.
When you grab one of those packages, there’s a young person behind it – someone who rehearsed what to say, kept track of customer requests, and figured out firsthand how earning cash really goes.
Baking season rolls around, faces appear again. A few batches turn out better than expected.
Still, what pulls folks back each time has little to do with how they taste. What matters is the habit.
The yearly scramble kicks in once more. Only during this season do these cookies appear.
What makes them special is how rare they are. Year after year, people line up just the same.
Few treats in America carry this kind of tradition. The top choices here keep earning their place.
Time does not fade their appeal. Each bite brings back something familiar.
Not every snack can say that.
More from Go2Tutors!
- The Romanov Crown Jewels and Their Tragic Fate
- 13 Historical Mysteries That Science Still Can’t Solve
- Famous Hoaxes That Fooled the World for Years
- 15 Child Stars with Tragic Adult Lives
- 16 Famous Jewelry Pieces in History
Like Go2Tutors’s content? Follow us on MSN.
