I’ve recently gotten very interested in chocolate-mint sandwich cookies.

I first discovered that there are Mint Oreos by accident several months ago in the grocery store. While I don’t like chocolate much, I generally like chocolate-mint combos if there’s enough mint and the chocolate isn’t too intense.

The Mint Oreos really taste a lot like Thin Mints, which I love. They have pretty much the typical Oreo profile, but with a little extra filling (technically DoubleStuf but they aren’t as stuffed as the standard Double Stuf). They’re a little artificial-tasting and the center is unnecessarily green. The cookie part is thick and a little soft for a crisp cookie.

Another chocolate-mint sandwich cookie is the seasonal Candy Cane Jo-Jo from Trader Joes. These things are crack in the form of little brown-and-pink wheels. The taste is much cleaner than the Oreos, I presume because they’re more ‘natural’. The mint is intense and the candy-cane bits are pleasantly crunchy. The outside chocolate wheels taste nicely but not overwhelmingly of chocolate, and are a bit crispier than the Oreo wheels. I love these and wish they were year-round.

The most recent one I tried is the Newman-O’s Hint o’ Mint version of their cookie. I was not impressed with these. The filling is thin and not very minty, although at least it’s white instead of green. The cookie wheels are hard and nearly tasteless, almost like chocolate cardboard. Very disappointing.

This is a weird interest for me, because usually I’m more into real food and doing my own cooking and baking, rather than comparing various types of manufactured sweet. But there’s something just a little special about chocolate mint. Thin Mints and York Peppermint Patties too. And what are those little ones with the green center you get in restaurants?