Almost Girl Scout Cookies

If you're like me, you love Girl Scout Cookies. You're also on a budget that may make it hard or impossible to stock up on them when they are on sale.

While there isn't any way to get the real thing, other than stocking up during cookie season or buying them online from others who have done so, I've found several options in stores year round that come close, many for half the price of the Girl Scout Variety.

For comparisons, here are the 3 most popular Girl Scout Cookie varieties - Thin Mints, Samoas or Caramel deLites, and Tagalongs or Peanut Butter Patties. They are made at 2 different bakeries, which is why some go by 2 different names.

The most common Girl Scout cookie knockoffs are made by Keebler and available at most grocery stores. They are the easiest to find, and the Samoas come closest to the Girl Scout variety, but they are also the most expensive of the 3 types I've tried.

The Grasshoppers taste a lot like Thin Mints and the Caramel Dreams are very, very close to Samoas. The Peanut Butter Filled cookies are a lot like Tagalongs, but use a chocolate cookie instead of vanilla, which is a trait they share with the other copycat versions I have found.

Cheaper options for "fake" Girl Scout cookies can be found at discount retailers like ALDI and Dollar General.

The boxes on the right show the Clover Valley brand cookies from Dollar General. These are usually around 1.85-1.90 a box, at least here in North Carolina. I have heard that these were made in the same factory as the Girl Scout cookies, but don't think that is true because there are differences in the cookies and because I don't believe the bakery would risk their contract with the Girl Scouts to produce cookies at such a low price.

The Mint Thin cookies are very close to the Girl Scout Thin mints and are good. The Fudge Caramel Cookies are meant to resemble Samoas, but are noticeably different because the whole cookie is covered in chocolate instead of just drizzled - they are good, but not a suitable replacement for Samoas or Caramel deLites. The Fudge Peanut Butter cookies are good, but not great. They are similar to the Keebler cookies in that they use a chocolate cookie base, but the chocolate covering the Peanut Butter layer seems thinner.

Another discount store option is the Benton's or Benton's Best brand cookies from ALDI. I did not see any Peanut Butter cookies or Tagalong knockoffs at my local store, but I would love to hear about them if any of my readers has seen or tried them.

Of those I tried, I really enjoyed both and found them to be very close to Girl Scout cookies in flavor, texture, and quality. The Fudge Mint cookies were soft and delicious and very much like the older Thin Mints, rather than the newer ones that can sometimes seem overly hard or waxy. The Caramel Coconut Fudge cookies are awesome and are the closest of all the copycat cookies to the taste and texture of Samoas. The only real difference I could see is that the chocolate drizzle seems to be milk chocolate, while real Samoa Girl Scout cookies use a dark chocolate drizzle.

I have heard that WalMart has, or previously had, their own version of these cookies s well, but I've never tried them. If there are any other copycat Girl Scout cookies that you've tried, I'd like to hear about them in the comments.