Wednesday, February 21, 2007

CHOMP!


Today is another post on "Things That Make You Go Mmmm"...

and CHOMP! cookies are on this list!

With all the cookie baking I do, I am not often satisfied by a store-bought cookie. I was able to sample one of each of the flavors of CHOMP! cookies, and I was very impressed by several of these flavors (and wished I had more)!!

These cookies have the coolest names, there are:

1. Toff-e-Licious Chip (pictured)
2. Trippin' Chip
3. Blitzin' Almond Butter
4. Nutty Oatmeal Rayzen
5. Almond Coco Nutz
6. Lemon CocoMon

My favorite cookies were the first three - Toff-e-Licious Chip, followed closely by Trippin' Chip and the Blitzin' Almond Butter. I favored these three because the taste and texture were spot on. The Toff-e-Licious Chip had bitty pieces of 'toffee' in the batter. Not hard, crunchy bits, but tender 'caramely' pieces. I LOVED this flavor, it was moist but a little crisp on the outside, held together nicely, and the chunks of chocolate combined with the caramel... well, it had my number!!

The Trippin' Chip was also delicious, with a classic chocolate chip cookie taste, and similar texture to the Toff-e-Licious but without the toffee bits. The Blitzin' Almond Butter had a lovely delicate buttery/nutty taste, and also a wonderful tender, soft texture that didn't crumble apart.

The Nutty Oatmeal Rayzen had a delightful flavor and our girls loved this one, but for me the texture wasn't quite as good as the first three, it was just a little more dry and crumbly. The Almond Coco Nutz and Lemon CocoMon were okay, but for me nowhere as good as the first three, and again a little more crumbly.

It's hard for any commercial cookie to stand up to home-baked. Nothing is quite as good. But, if you want to get reeeaal close - without the baking - pick yourself up a Toff-e-Licious Chip CHOMP! cookie (goodness, this one is yummy!!!!), and the Trippin' Chip and Blitzin' Almond Butter for another day.

What's also impressive about these cookies is that all are vegan, AND made with organic ingredients, AND have no wheat and no refined sugar. YES, all in one cookie.

One note: The ingredients on the website for each cookie appear to be slightly different than the ingredients on the packaging I received. The cookies I sampled do not list Earth Balance, for instance, though the fat component in the ingredient list I have looks similar to what is in the Earth Balance spread. I will have to check this out and let you know. Oh, and just so you know, I'm not receiving anything from CHOMP! other than the cookie samples I tried. I haven't seen these cookies in our area in Canada, but I imagine they are widely available in the US.

Be sure to check out the CHOMP! website, it's pretty cool with videos of different folks talking about the cookies on the information and product pages.

15 comments:

laura k said...

"all are vegan, AND made with organic ingredients, AND have no wheat and no refined sugar"

Did I read this correctly? No way! What a fun post--I'll have to try and get my hands on some of these!

bjorkedoff said...

Oh,Dreena,I'm soo jealous!I also got all excited because I thought these might be available here now.Shucks!

Twisted Cinderella said...

I can't wait until I can get those here!

KleoPatra said...

Dreena, thanks for the head's up! I am going to be on the lookout for them for sure! I am hoping my local co-op (O.B. People's in Ocean Beach) will have them. How wonderful these sound, tho i'd take one of YOUR homemade cookies over even the best store-bought ones...

Unknown said...

Good gracious, these cookies seem too good to be true! I'm going to have to try some of these soon.
-Alison of www.mables.com/blog

urban vegan said...

I never said no to any cookie--provided that they were vegan, that is.

Matt and Bobbie said...

My personal favorite store-bought cookie is Alternative Baking Company. They are so chewy and no one would ever guess they are vegan. I recently discovered they are sold at the coffee place at a local mall and at a movie theatre--vegan cookies in such unexpected places!

Anonymous said...

I'm not trying to sound mean or anything, but I just wanted to let you know that those new ads really look tacky on your blog. I know you didn't ask for my opinion, but I would like to know if I was you.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

I've never seen these before, but I'll be on the lookout since they're vegan & organic!! :o)

Dreena said...

Laura, YES! It's true! Cool, huh? Good luck on the hunt!

iloveoatmeal - I know, bummer, we miss out on a lot of veg products in Cananda that are in the US. I think you can buy them through the online vegan stores, though, if you ever go that route.

twisted cindrella, I just noticed you are in Newfoundland. I was born there, I think you are the first (other than my sister) to comment from Newfoundland. Welcome!

Awwww, Kleo, aren't you a darling, thank you. :)

Alison, if you like that caramel/choc combo, definitel try the Toff-e-licious one - was definitely my fave!

Urban Vegan, you and me both!

Hi Roxy - wow, nice! We *have* made some vegan inroads, huh? I think Alternative Baking has been around some time, too, so probably getting established in some of these spots like coffee shops. Neat. I tried some a few years back when in the US, but as with the CHOMP cookies, I've never seen them in Canada.

Hi anonymous. Sorry they are offensive to you. I know I cannot please everyone with things I put on my blog. Someone won't like a post. Or a recipe. Or a link I'm supporting. Or, in this case the ads. The Adopt a College Ad isn't really and ad. I offered to put their banner on my site to help them with their initiatives because they are a group that does great work and much to spread the word about the meat and dairy industries and eating vegan. The Google Ads are something I'm toying with, and I like that they are targeting natural or veg oriented products - unlike most ads we see as vegans every day - on tv, magazines, driving, everywhere else in our world. Thank you for your input.

Vicki, I think they are a fairly new company, so yeah, they may be 'trickling' into stores. Oh btw, I'm so jazzed you loved the polenta fried!!! I may have to partner up with you in the future for dipping sauces, though... yours looked/sounded amazing!

Linda said...

this is great. vegan cookies are always a good find! thanks for sharing. i've yet to come across this company!

bazu said...

toffee?? I must have some!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Those sound and look awesome! I mean, it's no dreena chocolate chipper..but still. I'm open minded to a storebought cookie, sometimes you just don't have time to bake - ie on a crazy day at work, or whatnot.

Christina said...

Wow! I'm so excited to see these being reviewed online by such a respected vegan blog.

I know the owners/operators of Chomp! (which is the reason I haven't given a review on my blog). Chomp! is a small Austin, Texas based company. It is mainly run by only two people, with some help from friends, so the cookies are baked in small batches. The owners are two of the nicest people you could meet, and I'm so glad been able to realize their dream.

As far as I know the cookies are available in-store in California and southwestern Whole Foods Markets. If you live in Austin, you can also find them at The Daily Juice, Casa de Luz, and The P&K among others. You can order directly from the website or via veganessentials.com as well.

I believe, but am not certain, that they do use Earth Balance, but that they had to list the actual ingredients it contained on the cookies(on the website it doesn't say what Earth Balance contains). They may also have listed the more generic "expeller-pressed natural oil blend" for some legal reason, ie. Earth Balance would let them reprint their name. Perhaps I can ask Brian and Janet to reply to you directly about this.

I totally agree that the Toff-E-Licious Chip is one of the best, but Almond Coco Nutz is my other favorite. My boyfriend (who isn't even vegan) loves the Trippin' Chip the best. The Oatmeal Rayzen' has the most amazing smell and a perfect texture, but I don't like raisin cookies, especially not when there are chocolate chip cookies around.

Anonymous said...

Greetings Everyone,
I am with CHOMP! cookies.
Our cookies are only available in US stores, but can be ordered on our website www.chompcookies.com, or through veganessentials.com
We are working on larger distribution, which will include Canada.
I would like to address the ingredients questions you have.
We are required by the US FDA to include all ingredients and sub-ingredients. Product names are not permitted. So we use a vegan egg substitute, un-refined sweeteners, vegan margarine (Earth Balance).
I hope you all can enjoy our products for years to come

Be Well
Love
Brian Kudler
CHOMP! cookies