Wal-Mart's Chewy Chips Ahoy Knockoff: Is it Really a Great Value?

 It's Tasty But Should It Even Exist?

We're talking, of course, about the very concept of the chewy self-stable cookie.  The cookie in nature is not chewy at room temperature.  The warm chewiness that every cookie-eater craves is a function of extreme freshness and warmth approaching hotness as the cookie but-gradually sheds its oven heat.  It is in this precious, temporary, liminal space that the chewy cookie phenomenon properly resides.  We Americans, though, are a greedy and impatient bunch and are willing to press in to service whatever technological machinations will suffice.  And so for the better part of three decades we've been living with that which shouldn't be but for which we are nonetheless grateful.

You can't make these at home.  You can only make these oily, squishy, stale-soft, but addictive gems in a factory.

 
Remember Duncan-Hines Soft Cookies?

If I may be permitted a moment of nostalgia before continuing, it's worth lamenting that the soft-baked cookie market isn't what it used to be.  Time was that nearly a dozen brands and varieties competed for our attention.  Among the first brands was Soft Batch and Duncan-Hines, the latter which I especially loved for their mint chip variety.  These early attempts were more ambitious because they attempted to doubly mimic cookies fresh from the oven by having a crisp exterior and a chewy interior.  I don't know what dark arts were used to do this, but I can't find this variety anymore, so perhaps they used some dangerous ingredient now banned for our protection.  The newer varieties don't seem chewy by design so much as they seem dampened by ambient moisture.  And yet still we eat them.

What's In a Price?

The combatants in our smack-down.  How do they stack up?  Wow, I bet nobody's thought of that pun before

 They are directly adjacent on the Wal-Mart shelf.  It is no accident that their packages have identical red, white, and blue color schemes.  Wal-Mart's Great Value brand, with a big old chocolate chip on its shoulder is directly challenging hoary stalwart Chips Ahoy for cookie supremacy.  Nabisco clearly has the better graphic designer on staff and cheekily declares "look, someone actually wants to take a bit out of me!" whereas Great Value seems content to inflate their package size and imply that their cookies are bigger, the identical package weight notwithstanding.  But the strongest claim that Great Value cookies can make on our attention is the price.  A 13 oz box is only $1.39 compared to $2.74 for Chew Chips Ahoy.  That's just barely more than half-price.  If they're even close to as good, they will indeed be a Great Value.

They're Just....Different

The first and perhaps most important point to make is that Great Value doesn't embarrass itself here.  The chocolate chips are real, darkly flavorful and featuring actual cocoa butter than the cheaper replacement oils you might expect in a budget cookie.  The only off note was a bit of an uncooked flour taste, which perhaps point us to how Great Value achieves their chewiness, such as it is -- they're perhaps ever so slightly undercooked.  Markedly dry, they don't have a bendable, malleable, putty-like consistency of a Chewy Chips Ahoy.  Outside they're brittle, and snap rather than bend.  But they give under tooth pressure, yielding semi-gradually rather than snapping and dispersing into crumbs like a traditional cookie does.

There's no glisten in this cookie, no oily chew, just a normal cookie that breaks cleanly but neither crumbles not splinters.

Chewy Chips Ahoy: The Sensualists Choice

In a way that's startling considering its name, Chew Chips Ahoy cookies are cookie-forward with chips fewer and smaller.  This may owe to the fragility that their softer texture confers upon them.  Larger chips might break the cookie up structurally, causing it to fragment and lose cohesion.  Whereas Great Value is bright and solid, reflecting light, the Chips Ahoy cookie is almost absorbs light while emitting warmth.  It feels slightly oily to the touch and beckons the fingers to caress it.  In the mouth it melts, sending signals of molasses and milk and butteriness circulating to every corner.  It may not be twice as good, but it is the better cookie.  Its a bit tricky to figure out how it manages to taste so different when the ingredient lists read similarly.  For instance, it has the exact same amount of both fat and sugar.  However, Chips Ahoy does have a bit more saturated fat plus more of its sugar is in the form of corn syrup.  My guess is that these slight chemical alterations allow the sugar and fat to bind moisture and lock it up in the matrix of the cookie, creating a greasier crumb.  This may entail a more complex manufacturing process that partially explains the higher but still reasonable cost.

In its amber dampness, its golden sweetness, its unctuous pliability, Chew Chips Ahoy wound up atop the heap.

Ho Agrees

We do not labor alone here at The Food Kingdom.  Indeed we don't labor at all, but neither do we enjoy solitary pleasures, but are helped along in our relections on our leisure. Fellow taster Ho agreed that Great Value cookies earned their name, but his discerning palate, much like his discerning eye below, judged Chips Ahoy the winner.  If your budget dictates that you choose the less expensive option, however, you have no cause to regret.  Both cookies satisfied and both were fairly addictive.

Great Value, in its Balboaesque way, earned our respect.  But the champion, Chips Ahoy, held aloft here, stands alone.