KinniTOOS Vanilla Cream Sandwich Cookies

When I was a kid, vanilla sandwich cookies were one of my favorite treats. I was never a big fan of chocolate sandwich cookies, but I could easily polish off an entire package of crunchy vanilla cream sammies—the one’s that could reliably be found in almost any type of store that sells food, be it gas station or upscale grocery.

When I spotted Kinnikinnick’s KinniTOOS in the gluten free specialty section of the grocery store, I thought that my xgfx pre-packaged cookie dreams had come true. I hesitated at the $6 pricetag only for a moment, and plopped them straight into my shopping cart. I then promptly took them out again. Come on, they were six dollars!

And then I put them back in my cart, convinced that despite the high pricetag, they were just like the cookies my childhood dreams were made of.

When I got them home I hastily tore into the mylar packaging and found 24 cookies… identical in appearance to a typical vanilla sandwich cream, but strikingly lighter in color. They were almost white! After the first bite, I noticed that they weren’t just lighter in color, but also in flavor, with a slight soda-ey aftertaste and a somewhat grainy texture. The cream center seemed to have that artificial slickness I was looking for… win! The cookie part just seemed a little peculiar…

At first I was disappointed with these guys… I ate just one and decided I didn’t want any more. I wrapped up the remaining cookies and put them away until the next day.

The second time I reached for the cookies, I enjoyed them a great deal more. I’m not sure if it was because my initial expectations were obliterated, and I was over it: ready to move on. Or if it’s because both of us just needed a little bit of breathing room — you know, a “distance makes the heart grow fonder” type of thing.

They may not be the sandwich cookies in shining armor that I have been waiting for, but they made for nice company. When it comes to xgfx cookies that I don’t have to bake myself, I’m really not that picky. And, I’ll admit, these vanilla sandwich creams are pretty tasty… in their own unique way.

I pretty much finished these things off by myself, so that shows my honest opinion of the cookies. But, I’m not sure if I’d give these bad boys another chance unless I was looking to make a fast cookie crust or use them in ice cream or something. But, I can speak fondly of the memories we shared for that brief moment.

All in all, they are not an xgfx replacement for Golden Oreos… but they are an okay sandwich cookie in and of themselves.

Pros:

I have seen them even at my small-town grocery store—so they seem to be easy to locate in stores.
Convenient.
Vanilla!

Cons:

They are a bit pricey for the amount of cookies in the package.
The packaging is pretty much useless once you open them. There’s really no good way to reseal it, and the trays that the cookies are in breaks very easily.