Pepperidge Farm Milano - Mint Chocolate

The prodigal blogger returns! Things have been pretty fraught in my life so I took a wee hiatus, but, when it is time to seek comfort, we all may look to the cookie. Especially mint choco cookies! These are lovely. I thought I had them before, but that was just 8 million other milano flavors crossed with 5 million other peppermint chocolate cookies, I guess! Anyway, the milano formula is lit, and the peppermint choco is fairly subtle since it's just the innards. Andes-ish innards, which isn't as good as the big round peppermint cocoa cookies, but the milano shell is pretty hard to pass up. Basically these are a refreshing delight. The bag also says "Crafted by our bakers... for you." Me??? Maybe I should buy more of those snoopy goldfish since they seem less indulgent. But sometimes it's OK to indulge. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10 

Milano - Pumpkin Spice

Love to eat several near-identical tasting foods in quick succession... reminds me of wine. I expected these to be quite similar to the chai latte milano, since those tasted like pumpkin spice, but these are actually closer to the pumpkin pie pop tarts, even though they don't contain any pumpkin. I think that's because the milk choco here (instead of white choco) makes them less sweet and more complex, which is good, except the spice level (such as it is -- very subtle nutmeg/cinnamon notes) is way dialed down, making them not very different from the regular old milano. That said, a regular old milano is pretty great, so I'd happily eat these anytime. They are better than chai milano and pumpkin pop tart (obviously), but less autumnal. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10 

Milano Chai Latte

Makes sense that these are an autumn exclusive, since they smell exactly like a pumpkin spice flavored cookie. Apparently chai latte flavor is just cinnamon, clove, and cardamom, which is pretty darn similar to pumpkin pie spice. The choco inside is white choco, which makes sense for the pairing but is less delicious and kinda ruins the whole 'milano' flavor profile (as discussed in the previous series of white choco milano reviews). The taste is a little too sweet and a little too similar to a craft store (i.e. baskets, flowers, potpourri), but not terrible. It definitely does evoke autumn and have a pleasant light orange coloring. I've actually never had a chai latte, so this may be a solid dupe, but I suspect there are very few drink-flavored cookies in the upper echelons of desserts. Post your counterexamples in the comments! :D

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

Caramel Café au Lait Milano

People seem to like these, but people are dumb. This is another lower-tier white-choco milano. It tastes overwhelmingly like artificial caramel flavor. I know there are better coffee and caramel flavors out there than "janky caramel Dunkin k-cup" flavor. But this is not those. Still a cookie, though.

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5.70]
Taste: 6/10

Orange Chocolate Milano

As a creature of habit, having run out of white chocolate milanos to sample, I went for the original milk choco this week (or dark choco? I actually am not sure. Maybe dark choco). For now, no regrets. These are a top-tier cookie. They taste like a (now-may-contain-nuts) Terry's Chocolate Orange; that is to say: they taste like happiness. Like soft, unfettered innocence. Like a winter festival. Good.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10

Milano: Coconut White Chocolate

Milano historians know that this is not the first coconut milano, but it is the first white chocolate coconut milano. Blog historians know that the other two white chocolate flavors (lemon, strawberry) had some inadequacies, but I was compelled to get to this one eventually. But it's good that I did! This flavor has only adequacies. At minimum! The taste is overwhemingly coconut, but the white choco (which isn't perceptively funky) tempers it with mild sweetness, as does the cookie. All together it's like their coconut cake, but much smaller and therefore less one-note. It also reminds me of the Samoa girl scout cookies, or at least the Dunkin flavor swirl inspired by them. Strong coconut, but not strongly artificial, with some caramelly/choco backnotes (despite white choco only). Delightful for coconut likers, and for me. 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5$]
Taste: 7/10

Strawberry White Chocolate Milano

Uh oh! These smell like medicine. Too bad I didn't have these first so I'd think that medicine smells like cookies instead. Alas, I started down the medicine path well before I was ever allowed to have Sweets. Now I yearn for sweets and protest too much about meds; let that be a lesson to all the parents out there. Just kidding (sort of, I dunno). 

Anyway, it's a bad sign that the best part of these is by far the (tasty) cookies and not the (cloying, medicinal) choco-center. This is definitely worse than the lemon flavor. I can see more clearly here that the choco comes in two layers, one light pink "strawberry" and one normie. I can't disentangle them without some serious tools, though, which would be fine if I didn't suspect that at least one layer was kind of gross (but maybe both, jury's out). Sad. Sad cookie disappointment. I'm still aiming not to have choco-choco, but I don't know how long it will last since (a) I feel like crap anyway (b) the external world is also very bad and (c) all these white choco foods are inferior!! 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5.20$]
Taste: 5/10

Lemon White Chocolate Milano

You know I can't resist a new subtype of Milano™. Even though I'm kind of out on the whole brain diet enterprise, I'm still wary of the big 3 (alc ~ choco ~ agéd cheesers), so a white-choco (therefore non-choco) Milano line is coming at a good time for me to go hard. I also like white chocolate more anyway because I am a sicko (or a child at heart). I gotta say, these aren't as good as regular Milanos, though. All the rave reviews seem to be coming from people who've never had a lemon cookie before and are excited by the novelty (which, no shade to them, that's also happened to me before).  Here are my main complaints:

- Makes my mouth itchy (well, OK, may be a personal problem, but I dunno what's going on there and I sure don't care for it).

- The choco inside doesn't really stick to the cookie outside, so you get less of a cohesive whole than in other "sandwich" cookies.

- The overwhelming flavor note is sweet lemon, which is fine and good (sugar-lemon tastes nice), but because it's so one-note, that means the texture is more noticeable, and the texture is less delightful than their Ojai lemon cookies, which were already not a top-tier cookie.

- There's a weird, bad (metallic? not sure how to describe) undernote, probably in the white chocolate. May be a fluke, since I've had other white chocolates that I noticed a bad flavor in which later redeemed themselves in other batches, but this is all I have to go on. I guess I'll try the other flavors, but probably not this one again.

So there you have it. Not as good as it could be, but I like that it exists. There should be more white chocolate sweets available to me! More! 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5$!!]
Taste: 6/10

Pepperidge Farm Milano - Milk Chocolate

Which is the original Milano? Is it milk or dark choco? I have the feeling it's dark, but maybe that's just because my dad preferred it when I was a kiddo. [Update: it's dark!] Anyway, I usually like milk choco better on things, but for these, I'm not sure. Obviously they're delicious and I went through the bag in a record time, but the dark choco feel a little firmer somehow. Anyway, these are good, and I didn't realise they were milk choco til halfway through, so they can't be THAT different either way!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10