Where did the holiday season go? It feels like it was only yesterday when I reviewed eight different cookies from the Pepperidge Farm holiday cookies, and now we’re closing in on the end of January. (I’ll fully admit that I just took our Christmas lights down this past week. Look, I was busy.) Thankfully you can eat cookies all year round. And thankfully Pepperidge Farm is ready with a few new cookies to make that happen.
The company rolled out Chessmen Cinnamon Sugar, Chessmen Salted Caramel and Milano White Chocolate Mango this past month, expanding the two lines of classic Pepperidge Farm cookies. (There’s also Chessmen Brown Butter Pecan, but that cookie is exclusive to Walmart.)
My holiday excursion into the land of Pepperidge Farm really gave me a new appreciation for these cookies (I miss you, Brussels Mint), so I was excited to put these new options through the Snackology taste test.
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Nothing like explaining to our four-year-old daughter that I’m opening up three new bags of cookies, so let’s dive into Pepperidge Farm’s latest wave ...
Chessmen Cinnamon Sugar
My batch of holiday cookies included both the classic Butter Chessmen cookies in addition to a limited edition Holiday Nog variety. I very much enjoyed both of them, so I was pretty sure the two new Chessmen cookies would also be a hit.
I started off with Chessmen Cinnamon Sugar. The cinnamon taste was subtle, building on the classic Chessmen foundation. This is a cookie that delivers a comforting warmth.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪 (3 out of 5 cookies)
Chessmen Salted Caramel
Salted caramel flavors can be hit or miss. It’s hard to replicate the “salted” part, especially when you don’t have the ability to actually, you know, salt whatever you’re trying to infuse with this flavor. Pepperidge Farm figured this out. Chessmen Salted Caramel cookies somehow deliver multiple stages of this specific flavor.
When you open the bag, there’s the welcoming caramel scent. The caramel flavor is there from the beginning, just the right level so that it’s not overpowering. The cookie isn’t overtly salty, but that element of “salted caramel” makes its presence known as you take a few additional bites.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪🍪 (4 out of 5 cookies)
Milano White Chocolate Mango
A Milano cookie without the classic chocolate center? Would that work? It turns out the answer is: Absolutely. Milano White Chocolate Mango is bright and fruity, which offers a nice counterbalance to the two flavors of Chessmen cookies. The white chocolate is light but still syncs up very well with the mango.
This isn’t a cookie combo that I would’ve expected — especially after previously trying Pepperidge Farm cookies with more classic fruit flavors like the Linzer Raspberry during the holidays — but it definitely works.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪🍪 (4 out of 5 cookies)
Chessmen Cinnamon Sugar, Chessmen Salted Caramel and Milano White Chocolate Mango were provided to Snackology for this independent review.
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Snackology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman. Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.
The Omnicosm founder. Popculturology, Deep SNL Thoughts and Snackology writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
