Editorial: Leaving a trail of Crumbls

Editorial%3A+Leaving+a+trail+of+Crumbls

If you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, then there’s a chance that the name, Crumbl Cookies, is familiar. And up until recently, Omaha didn’t have its own location of the viral dessert place. That changed this past weekend, when Crumbl had its opening March 31. Located in Lakeside Plaza, its an ideal location for Bulldogs to get their own taste at these sensational cookies.

Crumbl was founded by cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley back in 2017. Their quest was to make the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. After many tries and fails, they finally achieved that, but this was only the start of their cookie careers. Crumbl’s first store opened in Logan, Utah in the same year.

Originally, the store only sold the chocolate chip cookies, but now, new flavors are introduced each week. In 2018, Crumbl officially started the four flavor weekly rotation. But one thing stays constant: chocolate chip cookies and pink sugar cookies are always available.

An inside look of the Crumbl store on 168th and West Center. Taken on opening day, April 1, 2022.

Since opening, Crumbl has expanded to over 300 bakeries in 36 states, with Nebraska being the newest edition. With this expansion, it makes Crumbl the fastest-growing cookie company in the nation.

On Friday, April 1, four staff members headed out to Crumbl for their opening day. The day before, March 31, was the company’s soft opening and even then, there was three hour lines of people waiting to try the cookies for themselves. For the week in particular, the flavors were Peanut Butter Brownie, Honeycomb, Coconut White Chip, and Cookies & Cream.

We were in line for an hour and a half. During this time, we were also interviewed by a reporter from KETV, that was out getting coverage about the opening day. It was awesome that we, as student journalists ourselves, got to see a professional journalist do the same exact thing that we were doing.

When we got into the actual store and to our disappointment, the cookies and cream flavor was sold out. For Reporter Sammy, she had tried this cookie in Nashville and it’s said to be one of the best one cookies Crumbl has released. So, we had to had to change our orders.

Sammy’s Review: The first cookie I tried was the chocolate chip cookie, the classic flavor that got this business started. It was a pretty good cookie, but I’m not sure if it was worth the $4 it cost, as I’ve made this flavored cookie in my own kitchen that tasted better. I would give this cookie 3.5 stars out of five. Then I had the chilled sugar cookie, which was very tasty. I loved the sweet flavor, it reminded me a lot of the sugar cookies from Eileen’s, a local cookie shop. This was one of my favorite cookies from our order, and I gave it 4.6 stars out of 5. Next was the honeycomb cookie. The flavor of the cookie itself was yummy, but the crunchy toppings on the frosting threw me off. This cookie was okay, but it was not my favorite at all. I probably wouldn’t get this one again, and I gave it 2.5 stars out of 5. Then we had the vanilla coconut cookie, and this one was by far my least favorite. I’m not the biggest coconut fan, but the crunchy coconut flakes ruined the cookie, and the flavor wasn’t great. I gave this cookie 1.2 stars out of 5. Finally, we had the peanut butter brownie cookie, which was the big winner for me. The mix of peanut butter and chocolate flavor was perfection, and the taste was just delicious. The little peanut butter filling made the whole cookie ten times better, and this was a 5 star dessert. 

Cookies in photo, from top left to bottom right: Milk chocolate chip. Milk chocolate chip, Pink sugar cookie, Coconut white chip, Peanut butter brownie, Honeycomb.

Kayla’s Review: The first cookie that I tried was the chocolate chip cookie. For me, this cookie was mediocre at best. It tasted like your average Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie that just happened to be the size of two cookies. What kept this cookie decent-tasting was it being warm when I ate it. I would rank this cookie in fourth place. The next one I tried was the coconut white chip. I was nervous about this one because I don’t particularly like coconut, but this cookie went beyond my expectations. the shredded coconut flakes on top really made the cookie work and it really reminded me of the Girl Scout Samoas, minus the caramel and chocolate. I would place this cookie in third place. The cookie I tried after was the peanut butter brownie one and this one was absolutely amazing. This was a peanut butter lovers dream cookie. The frosting was peanut butter chocolate swirl, there was peanut butter in the middle, and the brownie base brought it all together. I place this cookie in first place and I can’t wait to get it again. The fourth cookie I tried was the honeycomb one. This cookie was underwhelming. The oat base was lacking flavor and the vanilla was overtaking the honey and the oat. The frosting was decent-tasting and was probably the best part of this cookie. The chocolate-covered honey toppings were not great and again, lacked flavor. This was my least favorite and it placed fifth in my list. The last cookie I had was the sugar cookie. This was actually really tasty and is a great flavor to have always. It reminded me of Eileen’s cookies, from the frosting to the base. I would place this cookie in second place.

Kaitlyn’s Review: The honeycomb cookie was definitely my favorite out of all of them. I really like the frosting to cookie ratio, and it wasn’t overly sweet like I expected it to be. For the coconut white chip, I found this cookie to be a little too greasy for my preference, but overall the flavor was good. I liked the white chocolate chips throughout, and I also liked how the outside was a little crunchy and the inside was really soft. For the peanut butter brownie, I’m not a huge fan of the dark chocolate flavor in this cookie. However, I really liked the peanut butter filling inside and the chocolate/peanut butter drizzle on top. Finally, for the chocolate chip cookie, I really liked the chocolate chip. I liked that they were milk chocolate instead of the typical semi-sweet. It was really gooey and soft.

Carly’s Review: Going into trying these cookies, I had pretty high hopes. Seeing multiple people on TikTok raving about them got me really excited. The first cookie I tried was their classic chocolate chip cookie. I’m very picky about my chocolate chip cookies so I wasn’t expecting much. It had a nice gooey inside, which was the main thing it had going for it because the flavor wasn’t anything super special. I would rank this cookie a 2.5/5. Next up was their chilled sugar cookie. I love a good Eileen’s sugar cookie, so I was excited to see how they compared. Having it chilled was a nice touch andI found that Crumbl’s and Eileen’s tasted about the same, the only difference was texture. I will still pick Eileen’s over Crumbl’s, but I would rank it a solid 4/5. The next cookie was the coconut white chip. Usually, I like a solid coconut cookie, but this one really threw me off. I am not a fan of white chocolate so the filling inside the cookie really ruined the flavor for me. If it didn’t have the filling, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I would rank the coconut cookie a 1.5/5. The honeycomb cookie was also not what I expected. The cookie itself was a kind of oatmeal cookie and the frosting worked well with that. It was a pretty solid cookie but I wanted more honey flavor and for me, I didn’t get much flavor from this cookie. Although I was let down a bit, I still rate this cookie a 3.5/5. My absolute favorite cookie from the ones I tried was the peanut butter brownie cookie. Served warm, with melty chocolate and PB on top of a chocolate cookie with a PB middle, it was to die for. It was the only cookie out of the bunch that really blew me away and I rate it a 5/5. Overall, these cookies were mediocre and a slight letdown but I’m glad I got the experience of trying their cookies. Hopefully I can go back and try some more of their weekly flavors and be more impressed.

Look out for the new weekly flavors from Crumbl. There could also be repeated flavors, as the recipes are always improving.