This Fan-Favorite Girl Scout Cookie Takes Alton Brown Back To His Childhood

If you could choose your last meal ever from start to finish, what would you want to have? Celebrity chef Alton Brown answered that question for the YouTube channel "Mythical Kitchen," where he and host Josh Scherer ate everything Brown requested. Even though Brown has said that fried chicken is his all-time favorite food, the Southern staple wasn't on his final-meal menu. Instead, he ate more expensive fare, including caviar, oysters, lamb, and blue cheese, over a four-course meal that was heavy on the booze. But things changed when it came to dessert, and Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies were brought out. As Brown upturned one of the sleeves and poured the treats onto his plate, he spoke about how they transport him to childhood.

This isn't the first time Brown has shared how much he loves the iconic chocolate-mint cookies. He posted about them on X in 2021, joking that it was a culinary truth that a "box of Girl Scout Thin Mints contains 2 servings," meaning each sleeve is a serving, something many of the cookies' fans would agree with. He has said that he likes to eat them frozen, which is also a popular opinion, although doing the opposite and air frying Girl Scout cookies is a delicious option, too.

Thin Mints have been around for a long time, but they weren't the first kind of cookie that Girl Scouts sold. The young members began making cookies at home with their mothers in the 1910s, soon after the organization itself was founded in 1912. As the effort grew in the following decade, some girls were making and selling sugar cookies from a recipe that was printed in a 1922 issue of the organization's magazine. By 1937, more than 125 Girl Scout councils were involved, and the effort continued to expand from there.

Thin Mints debuted in 1939 under a different name, Cooky-Mints, which was changed to Chocolate Mints in 1951. It wasn't until 1959 that they adopted the moniker we know today. Although you might think they're the same everywhere, they are made for the Girl Scouts by two separate baking companies whose recipes vary slightly and supply different parts of the country.

The Thin Mints that ABC Bakers in Virginia makes and those from Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky have the same name, but that isn't true for all of the cookies. Samoas are also called Caramel deLites, depending on which company makes them, Tagalongs may be called Peanut Butter Patties, and Do-si-dos can be called Peanut Butter Sandwiches.