Cookies are fantastic little treats that many enjoy on various occasions. Sometimes, people eat cookies in the morning as a little breakfast dessert with some coffee. Others will eat cookies with a glass of milk before they go to bed. Whenever the moment, cookies are a comforting munch for almost all times of the day.
In this article, I am going to choose the best cookie for a late night desert setting. Using a Quality Function Deployment Table, or QFD, I am going to try out six different types of cookies: Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Animal Cookies, Fudge Stripes, Nilla Wafers, and Nutter Butters.
In my examinations, I will test a cookie’s taste, texture, scent, combination with milk, and appearance and rate each factor based on my preference. For taste, I generally prefer a more chocolatey cookie, but I also like really sweet ones as well. Texture and appearance are sort of related to each other, and the crunchier and more decorated the better. Scent is based on how pleasantly I find the cookies to smell. A cookie combination with milk is rated on how well the milk softens the cookie. It also depends on how well the cookie tastes slightly dissolved by milk, since cookies are popularly eaten with milk.
I have always liked sugar and deserts, but I was curious on which of multiple cookies I liked the most.
My Finalized QFD Chart
The table has columns that start with the base for each factor considered that determines how important I find it. For example, I considered taste to be the most important, earning its base at 6. On the bottom of the chart, I have labeled different multipliers. These are what are put into each column to show how well I feel that a cookie performs in the rated categories. For example, in the scent category of Animal Cookies, I put a one in the column, which, when multiplied by the base of 4, would get a score of 4 in the scent category.
Now that the conditions are set, I’ll describe each cookie before ranking them by their end score.
Oreos
Most people recognize Oreos, with their unique black and white color scheme that ends up being one of their greatest strengths in their tests. They earn a 5 in the appearance category because of their striking colors and elaborate design etched onto the tops of each cookie. They are probably in the middle for crunchiness out of all the cookies, with the cream in the middle making them softer, which earns them a 3. They get a 4 in the scent category due to their pleasant chocolate smell, and in regards of flavor, they were my favorite due to both the chocolate and light cream they have which got them a five in the taste category as well. I believe they went the best with milk,due to their soft nature and cream in the middle, meaning even as the cookie got softer, the cream in the middle still held strong in flavor. They got a 5 in the combo with milk category.
Chips Ahoy
Another fairly recognizable cookie, these are probably what most people think of when picturing cookies. They have a sort of common look with just a bed of light brown sprinkled in chocolate, earning only a 2 in the appearance category, but they have a fairly noticeable crunch when eating, earning them a 4 in the texture category, which is not the highest due to their more dusty nature. Since they are just crunchy and not hard, they still dissolve nicely (and quickly) in milk, with the beverage bringing out the chocolate more. They earn a 4 in the combo with milk category, lower than in the scent which earns a 5 due to their overpowering chocolate aroma that is even better than the more-chocolate oreo. Chips Ahoy garner a 4 in the flavor category because of their strong chocolate potential mixed with the bread and sugar of the cookie which the chips swim on top of.
Animal Cookies
Animal Cookies are definitely one of the more fun cookies to look at. They have a bright pink exterior and are shaped like adorable little animals. While Oreos earn a 5 for their clashing elegance, Animal Cookies earn it because of their eccentric sparkle of pink and sprinkles amongst the mostly brown backdrop of sugary bread that are other cookies. They are probably the hardest cookie to munch on, getting a 4 in the texture category, since they are almost too hard. Their supercookie endurance also means that they hardly dissolve, meaning that their compatibility with milk is almost nonexistent and thus labelled at a 1. They share this same rating in the scent compartment since they smell quite faintly compared to the rest of the cookies. However, they have a delightfully bright sugary taste that makes it taste like candy, and is prominent enough to earn it a 4 in the flavor category.
Fudge Stripes
Fudge Stripes are similar to Oreos in their presentation, distributing darker chocolate colors with a lighter, in this case brown, color. With the name being as telling as its design, Fudge stripes earn a 4 in the appearance category due to their neatness in design that looks nice. They are on the softer side of cookies, so not very crunchy and earning a 5 in texture, but their chocolate covering keeps them from ever dissolving in milk, meaning they get a 2 in the combo with milk category. They taste nicely chocolatey without milk however, earning 3 for taste and the same score for scent. This is because on top of the not very strong smell of cookies that bread tends to have, Fudge stripes just do not stand out.
Nilla Wafers
Nilla Wafers are probably the blandest cookie to look at, with almost no distinctiveness other than how simple and unnoticeable they look. While they earn a 1 in the appearance category, they do have a strong vanilla flavor that is distinctive and tasty that is further amplified in milk. Nilla Wafers get a 4 in taste and a 3 in the combo with milk category. They are satisfyingly crunchy and also have a very pleasant vanilla scent, so while they only get a 2 in the texture spot, they get the highest score of 5 in the smell one. These cookies have only a couple features that truly stand out.
Nutter Butters
While almost all of the other cookies I would only eat in a dessert-wanting setting, Nutter Butters are unique in that I would eat them just as a snack in the middle of the day more. They smell nicely of peanut butter, their most prominent feature, so their scent ranking is 4. Their flavor is not as strongly sweet as the other cookies, but is instead mostly a savory peanut butter snack that is then followed by the sweetness of the cookies it comes with. It earns a 2 in the taste category since I am rating cookies based on how much I would want them late at night, and these feel more something I would have with lunch. They are soft and built similarly like Oreos, with a unique peanut flair that gives them a 3 in the appearance category, a 4 in the texture one, and a 5 in the combo with milk one. The milk dissolves the soft cookies very well and leaves behind a strengthened peanut butter flavor, making its compatibility its strongest component.
So, after totaling up the scores of the cookies, they are ranked from least favorite to most favorite:
Animal Cookies (44), Fudge Stripes (49), Nutter Butters (55), Nilla Wafers (56), Chips Ahoy (65), and finally Oreos (73).
The winner is Oreo. The way I ranked cookies in the QFD chart might be a little inaccurate in how I would always place the cookies that did not win in status, but I would definitely say that Oreos would always place the highest. They have probably always been my favorite and I would say that will never change.
I had so much fun trying out these cookies again and I will always love all of them, but the math has spoken in my truest likings for Oreos.
