Mmmm, Girl Scout Caramel deLites....

Wait, what did I just title this entry? Girl Scout Caramel deLites.....what are those? I only know of Girl Scout Samoas. At the end of January a few girlfriends and I were headed back to Ohio from North Carolina from a girls weekend and right before we crossed the NC/Virginia state line we stopped at a Walmart to look for souvenirs. With no such luck we stopped outside the store at a Girl Scout booth to grab some cookies for the drive home. When we walked up and I read the cookie box titles I asked if they were knock offs, I even glanced at the girls vests to make sure they were actual Girl Scout vests with badges, they were. The scout leader explained to me that the Girl Scouts use two different bakeries to make the cookies and depending on where the bakeries shipped to is what type of cookie you purchase.
There is some confusion based on where each bakery ships to and it's not necessarily geographically divided. Some states have both bakeries ship to them and others only one bakery covers the whole state. According to some of the articles I read, one of the bakeries has been around for decades and they do not necessarily need catchy names for individuals to remember. The other bakery is "new" and chose to have catchy names so individuals could remember and want to continue to purchase them. The only cookie both companies have named the same are the Thin Mint cookies and that is because the name "Thin Mint" is trademarked by the Girl Scouts.

Yellow= ABC Bakers & Purple= Little Brownie Bakers

I was floored reading about the bakeries and the cookies in general.  Each bakery sells the same cookies (except for the lemon flavored ones) but in reality they truly are different; not just the name but even the recipe! I couldn't wait to get home to compare the two, and there is a slight difference in appearance and taste. I added some pictures below to share the differences I found, I can say regardless, they both are still my favorite cookies. (PS if you live in an area where ABC Bakers ships to you must try the Lemonades! They are delicious and I am on the hunt for them!) To learn more you can read this article by the L.A. Times.