Best Cookies of 2025: Our 2 Surprising Favorites

In years past, we granted a Sporked Award to the “Best Snack” we tried all year. Yep, any snack, meaning a really good cookie would be pitted against a really good potato chip or a new Doritos or Funyuns flavor, what have you. This year, we broke up the categories so the sweets and the savories each get their flowers. And if you read this and you’re like, “Hey, what gives? There aren’t any Oreos on this list,” yeah, we know. The best Oreos we tasted also get their very own Sporked Award this year…but you’ll have to check back on December 29 to find out which ones we picked. In the meantime, here are the best cookies we tasted in 2025.

Runner-Up

Girl Scout Exploremores

Girl Scouts

Yep, some of the best cookies we tried in 2025 are from the future. Exploremores, the newest additions to the Girl Scouts’ lineup of cookies, don’t drop until 2026, but we got an early taste. We’re pleased to report that they’re really good, especially if you’re a chocolate lover. They look like chocolate sandwich cookies filled with chocolate creme, but there’s more going on—they’re inspired by rocky road ice cream, and you absolutely can taste hints of sweet, creamy marshmallow and nutty, rich almond in the mix. There’s a generous amount of creme between the cookies, which we appreciate, too. Girl Scout cookie season kicks off soon—make sure you have a daughter, niece, or friend who can help you get your fix.

Credit: Liv Averett / Girl Scouts

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Winner

Pepperidge Farm White Chocolate Milanos

Instacart

Listen. We know that people who really love chocolate can tend to have an extreme aversion to white chocolate. If you’re personally offended that white chocolate is even considered chocolate, then scroll up a tad and read about the Exploremores. But if you’re down with the creamy goodness of white chocolate, delicate butter cookies, and compelling fruit flavors, you have to seek out Pepperidge Farm’s line of white chocolate Milanos. They come in three flavors: Lemon, Strawberry, and Coconut. When we first taste tested these, the Coconut version was our favorite, but we recently sat down to taste them again and, honestly, I couldn’t pick a winner. They’re all good in their own way. Lemon is bright and tangy. Coconut is rich and tropical. And Strawberry tastes like a dang milkshake.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.