Nashville's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

Who has the best chocolate chip cookie in Nashville? Last week, my friend Cal and I set out to find the answer to this question. We take our cookies very seriously.

After driving all over town to find the best options we ended up with 10 different cookies to take home and test. In alphabetical order:
1. Bread & Company
2. Cafe Coco
3. Christie Cookie
4. Dulce Desserts
5. Fido
6. Noshville
7. Portland Brew
8. Provence
9. The Wild Muffin
10. Whole Foods

There were a few places we would have liked to sample a cookie from but they were out of chocolate chip cookies. Rule #1 of owning any sort of food store: NEVER run out of chocolate chip cookies. They should be ashamed of themselves. We were distraught... but we persevered.

All but three of the places we stopped are locally owned. Every one of them bakes their cookies on the premise and most of them also make their own dough from scratch. I should also mention that the Wild Muffin is not an actual shop, but at least 3 coffee shops in town sell their baked goods so we thought they should be considered their own entity.

After gathering all 10 cookies we headed home to sample them. We scored the cookies based on 4 different categories: appearance, smell, taste, and texture.

Now, I feel like our results are pretty conclusive, but you have to consider a few factors.

1.Beverage choice. Both Cal and I chose alternatives to the traditional cows milk. I drink goats milk and she drinks almond milk. We're strange. We are aware that this could effect the taste of the cookies.
2. Preference. We both like different things in a cookie. Cal looks for a chewy goodness factor, while I tend to appreciate a crunchy exterior with a soft middle.
3. Freshness. We could tell that some of the cookies were fresher than others, but we tried not to let that deter our opinions. You can tell if a cookie was probably better the day before, or if it never really had any hope.

Overall, we tried to be objective and take all factors into account.
Here is our lineup:


By the end we were so full that we vowed not to eat another chocolate chip cookie for at least.... a few hours. :) After intense discussion... even Oso got in on it....

we decided that our winners were..... drumroll please.....




Gold All Around Winner
Provence

This cookie looked delicious and tasted pretty great too. We could tell the chocolate was good quality and although it was slightly dry, we knew that right out of the oven it would have been a heart melter. All things considered, it was a clear winner.

Silver Blindfolded award
Portland Brew
This may be the ugliest cookie in town, but it has the most wonderfully unique flavor! After eating all of the cookies this was the one I wanted to come back to and finish eating. Even Cal enjoyed the crunchy perimeter. And the fact that we love their coffee might have helped a little too.





Bronze Home baked award
Whole Foods
We agreed that this one stirred up a mental picture’s of mom’s and grandma’s. It was a great texture and the flavors all blended well. Eat this one if you’re feeling homesick!


Bronzette Photo Op award
Bread & Company

This cookie looked the most appetizing and we couldn't wait to eat it. Unfortunately it wasn’t as fantastic as we’d hoped, but it still looks pretty dang good and we thought it deserved recognition.








Honorable mentions: Cafe Coco for capturing Cal’s heart, and The Wild Muffin for best healthy cookie.

Congratulations to all of the winners! You’ll receive your free copy of “Cal and Al's Cookie Review” in the mail shortly. Just kidding. But at least you’ll see more of us the next time we want a good cookie. :)


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