There are times when I go to the grocery store in a state of mind I can only describe as "weakened." Whether it's tired, hungry, strung out from a difficult day, or all three. Such was the case last night, when I ended up buying a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies called "Maui." The kicker? I don't really like coconut. It's just that the name "Maui" sounded so pleasant, I figured the cookies had to be good. I didn't even look at the ingredients list.

 

Like I said: weakened.

 

These cookies are part of the Pepperidge Farms "Chunk" line of cookies. A crispy cookie with generously sized chocolate chips. One thing I have to give Pepperidge Farms credit for: they have really perfected the art of the chocolate chip. 

 

You don't want your chips to be too big, or the cookie doesn't hang together. The same happens if you have medium sized chips, but you put in too many of them. Pepperidge Farms has no doubt performed millions of dollars of laboratory testing in order to develop the formula for optimum size and distribution of chocolate chips, and I applaud them for it.

 

This is a crunchy cookie (I don't care for the soft ones). The coconut flavor is very evident, which is good if you like coconut, because coconut could easily be overwhelmed by the other cookie flavors and smells. The coconut is also prevalent at the end, as a residual mouthful of little shreds of stuff. This is precisely why I hate coconut, but if you like coconut, then you're in luck.

 

Better news, perhaps, is that the coconut and the almond bits collaborate to make a cookie with a really great texture. I had assumed that a cookie named "Maui" would have macadamia nuts in it, and I was pretty annoyed when I discovered that this was not the case. But the crunchy texture is done just right. It has just the right amount of crumble, not so crunchy that it snaps or is difficult to chew.

 

Maybe it's the coconut or maybe it's the almonds, or maybe it's the generous size, but I was a little shocked at the calories. These clock in at 130 calories per cookie. Yowza! 

 

You get eight cookies per pack, as is the norm with Pepperidge Farms. And since the bag doesn't really lend itself to closing tightly, you pretty much have to eat them all in one day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.