Crave Cookies Review #4: Better Than XXX, Cookie Monster, Biscoff Gingerbread and Red Velvet Oreo

Crave Cookies Review #4: Better Than XXX, The Cookie Monster, Biscoff Gingerbread and Red Velvet Oreo - visited December 4, 2024

I usually try to post a review of cookie shop cookies the week they're available in an attempt to provide more info for anyone considering a purchase. Alas, I think I'm only successful in posting same week less than half the time. In this case, I just can't eat enough or write it up in time to make the post.

Flavors the week of November 29 - December 5, 2024:

Better Than XXX: chocolate cake dough mingling with decadent Ghirardelli caramel, topped with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of crushed toffee

The Cookie Monster: blue vanilla dough loaded with chocolate chips and cookie dough bites with a gooey edible chocolate cookie dough center

Chai Eggnog: chai-spiced sugar dough with eggnog icing

Biscoff Gingerbread: spiced gingerbread dough with Biscoff filling, Christmas nonpareil sprinkles

December 2024 monthly flavor:

Red Velvet Oreo: red velvet dough loaded with crushed Oreos and white chocolate and a luxurious white chocolate drizzle

Better Than XXX

I normally only get 1 or 2 flavors max but decided to splurge and get a 4-pack this time. 

The Better Than XXX cookie had 3 points in its favor and 1 counterpoint. First I enjoyed the chocolate cookie itself. Normally I'm a little leery as Crumbl has taught me their chocolate cookies are mostly too rich for my liking. But this one from Crave had just the right level of chocolatey-ness and great texture, dense and fudgy. You're not on chocolate overload with the first bite. Second, you can't go wrong with caramel on anything. Third, I liked the toffee crunch as well to provide a texture contrast.

The only thing I didn't like was - you guessed it - that whipped cream topping. I just can't get into whipped cream. I don't like the airy texture and it doesn't taste like anything. As I always say, it's air with calories. So I took a bite of the cookie as it was meant to be, scraped off the whipped cream, broke the cookie into pieces, wrapped each piece in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer. 

The Cookie Monster

I had reservations about the Cookie Monster. I mean, it's blue. Blue is neither appetizing or appealing. I get they dyed it blue to fit the Cookie Monster theme but ugh. I just don't like blue food. 

However, if you close your eyes and ignore the color, this cookie was fantastic. As in, it might be the best of the bunch for that week. Edges were crisp, flavor was brown sugar caramel-y goodness and it was thick and chewy-moist. I loved it.

I took a bite when it was still somewhat lukewarm so the chips were melty. Did I mention it was fantastic? Because it was. Thankfully, the cookie dough center was a normal color and not dyed blue. So my only objection to this cookie was the blue dye. I almost wanted to eat more than a bite but I had two more cookies to try so I wrapped this one in pieces as well and stuck them in the freezer for another day.

Biscoff Gingerbread

The cookie I most wanted to try from this week's lineup was the Biscoff Gingerbread. Although I'm not a big fan of gingerbread anything, I am a cookie butter lover. Plus I thought the gingerbread would complement the cookie butter and it did. 

This was also another good cookie with crisp edges and that layer of cookie butter "stuffed" in the middle. If you like gingerbread, this one's for you. It didn't have a strong gingerbread or molasses flavor but was just right. 

By the time I got to this though, the cookie was no longer warm and the cookie butter lava wasn't melty lava so much as a soft interior of the cookie center. I could have warmed it up for the lava flow but I've learned I prefer Crave's cookie textures when they're more solid and not mushy-soft as they tend to be when they're warm. Still good but I like the lukewarm texture of their cookies as opposed to warm and mushy.

I didn't love the nonpareils but I understand they added it for that Christmas flare and it does make the cookie look pretty. It just didn't add anything for me. 

Red Velvet Oreo

The last of the 4 bites I took of cookies that day was this Red Velvet Oreo. Also amazingly good. I really enjoy Crave's texture and the thickness of their cookies. This too was not overwhelmingly chocolatey. It's a more typical cookie though and one I could probably make as a copycat. Still good though and rounded off the 4-pack I got.

Since even I cannot eat 4 cookies in one go, I had a bite of each cookie and then stuck them in the freezer to enjoy, one piece at a time, in the future. At this rate, I have enough cookie pieces to see me through the end of the year and beyond. Not a bad problem to have.

To sum up, my ranking for last week's cookies would be The Cookie Monster, the Red Velvet Oreo, the Biscoff Gingerbread and, bringing up the rear mostly because of that whipped cream frosting, the Better Than XXX cookie. So far I'm enjoying the Crave cookie offerings. As long as I stay away from the ones that have a lot of frosting or whipped cream, they offer more interesting flavors than Crumbl. Or else Crave is still new enough to me to be a novelty. We'll see how that holds up in the coming months.