Mary’s Organic Crackers – Love Cookies

Tested: Chocolate Chip

I have been a huge fan of Mary’s Organic Gluten-Free crackers since they were released. They are a great vehicle for hummus dipping, a picnic favourite, and I really love the Onion variety. Then came the Sticks and Twigs, mildly reminiscent of my former (not xgfx) love Twiglets, which I ate voraciously while living in England, and the curry flavor of Sticks and Twigs had my heart. Also, the Mary’s website address is MarysGoneCrackers.com. Charming! Witty! So I was pretty excited to find these cookies, which come in four varieties: Chocolate Chip, Ginger Snap, Double Chocolate Chip, and N’Oatmeal Raisin (aww, N’Oatmeal. Cute, right?!). All flavors are vegan, gluten- and wheat- free, kosher, organic, and non-GMO. And they are reputedly “Infused With Love/Imprégnés D’Amour” (as if you don’t love Canadian bilingual packaging).

We (my vegetarian boyfriend and my vegan self) decided to try the Chocolate Chip. I live on a small island in Canada, and we found them at both of our two grocery stores. They were priced at $6.99 CAD (!!!) at one store, but were on sale for $5.00 CAD at the other. Keep in mind, everything is a little bit more expensive when you live on an island, so they are probably cheaper elsewhere in Canada and in the US. The website says that a case of 6 boxes is priced at $25.50 US, though it’s unclear whether that’s wholesale or not.

The cookies come in two separate packages within the box, presumably to keep them fresh? Each package contains 5 or 6 regular-sized cookies. At best, that’s 12 cookies, and if you care about such things, one cookie is about 65 calories and 3 grams of fat. There isn’t a lot of protein or fiber going on here, but let’s face it, they’re cookies!

Pros:

• The cookies were pleasantly crispy, and the chocolate chips tasted like they were high-quality. They are a hard, crispy cookie, ideal for dunking in hot chocolate.
• Quality of ingredients/lack of crap grade = A+! The ingredients list is a bit long as it often is with gluten-free products, but almost everything is organic, and they include cool and unusual good-for-you things like organic yellow split pea flour and organic chia seeds. It’s pretty impressive for cookies.

Cons:

• I just couldn’t get into the flavor. It’s a hard bite into them, and a distinctly chemical feel takes over my taste buds. Upon chewing (watch out, sensitive-teeth people), it’s hard not to notice the feeling of oil spurting out with each chew. They definitely taste surprisingly oily. I tried to focus on the chocolate chips, which are yum, but the actual cookie was quite off-putting. My boyfriend and I both agreed that they taste pretty unhealthy, which is weird, since they are not bad at all nutritionally (again, for cookies).
• I think by default (ratio of flours used/the fact that they are packaged, etc) they are bound to taste a bit stale. Our package was definitely within its best-before date. I’ve had amazing gluten-free packaged cookies that are soft and don’t taste stale (I’m looking at you, Liz Lovely!), so I think there is room for improvement.

Reviewed by Gabrielle Pope