The short month of February is marked by two holidays: Groundhog’s Day, solely relevant because of memes and Bill Murray; and Valentine’s Day, the day of commercialized love. As the opportunity presented itself, Cookie Munchers created their own Valentine’s Day-inspired product for its cookie of the month: the chocolate cherry cookie.
This flavor is right on the mark in terms of its spirit. “Romantic” foods often include chocolate with some sort of red or pink fruit, not only because of their aesthetics (which are pleasing) but also its heart healthiness. Personally, the romantically artificial fruit flavors can be either hit or miss, especially the cherry flavor. The flavor is very commercialized, ranging from being a Fun Dip flavor (don’t you miss those?) to the Maraschino cherries on the Shirley Temples. But when paired with chocolate, cherry flavor has an elevated sophistication, which seems to be what Cookie Munchers may be harnessing.
This February cookie of the month, the cherry chocolate cookie, is a chocolate cookie half-covered by cherry glaze drizzle. The formula is in no way similar to the double chocolate cookie that resides on their standard menu. The double chocolate cookie has a chocolate brownie/cake taste and consistency with chocolate chips, while the chocolate cherry cookie has a chocolate sugar cookie taste and consistency, with the cherry glaze. This cookie is smaller and a bit thicker than the classics, but I believe it’s the standard size for the cookie of the month.
I, for one, had never before tasted the cherry and chocolate combo. Therefore, I came into the tasting with more doubts on whether or not Cookie Munchers would come through on this very specialized flavor. With the typical association of artificially flavored cherry, I did not have high expectations. Specifically, I was confused about why the glaze only covered half of the cookie, only giving us half the flavor. But little did I know that this would save the cookie’s best taste.
The chocolate sugar cookie was a new taste venture for Cookie Munchers. It tasted like rich, fudgy, deep chocolate in every bite, which was not very repetitive. It had that slight aftertaste of sweetened cocoa: the slightly bittersweet flatness in denser chocolate flavors. It reminded me most of a chocolate lava cake, but achieved in cookie form without the oozing melted chocolate. The other half of the chocolate cherry cookie with the cherry glaze actually detracted from this robust flavor. The glaze reminded me of strawberry cream flavoring, generously sweet and artificial, with a slight tangy aftertaste resembling the namesake cherry taste.
Frankly, I felt like I was eating the strawberry covering on the Pocky Japanese Snack, except it was unwelcomed and uncomplimentary to its base. The overdone sweetness of the glaze actually undercut the full and mellow chocolate taste of the cookie, making it unlike “the icing on the cake.”
Overall, I was impressed with the unexpected virtue of this new chocolate sugar cookie formula. I hope this flavor doesn’t remain a temporary hidden gem; it has future star potential on the menu, maybe finding a home in future cookie of the month flavors. As for the cherry glaze topping, let’s just say that it “desserts” to be alone.
For questions/comments about this story, email arts@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.
