14 Tate's Bake Shop Cookies, Ranked Worst To Best

Few cookie brands have the same shelf presence as Tate's Bake Shop. It has won the hearts of celebrities like Ina Garten and regular ol' shoppers, like myself, who have spent more time than they would like to admit taking in the impressive green-and-white wall of packaging, completely overwhelmed with decision paralysis. My mom is the one who actually turned me on to this brand, after I brought her a bag from a previous store-bought chocolate chip cookie tasting and listened to her wax poetic about their taste and texture for weeks to come. It made me wonder if there were any better Tate's Bake Shop flavors worth trying.

I put Tate's to the test by buying all the cookie flavors that I could find across several stores, including flavors from its classic, soft-baked, gluten-free, and seasonal lines. Then, I tasted each cookie, paying attention to their texture and taste, and ranked them from worst to best. 

I didn't know what to expect from Tate's salted caramel chocolate chip cookies. I've only had cookies with a caramel swirl and flaked sea salt on top. Tate's seems to take a cookie-cutter approach here and instead uses caramel chips in its product. When I first looked at these cookies, I couldn't help but laugh, as they kind of look like a toddler drew them from memory. The caramel chips are, as I expected, like plastic. They are so sweet and candy-like that they do very little for what is otherwise a beautiful cookie. The only thing they add is sweetness, which is not something that this recipe needs. I think that Tate's salted the base of the cookie itself, though the flavor isn't consistent, meaning some bites were overwhelmingly salty while others were too sweet. 

In order for this cookie to be a success, Tate's needs to go back to the drawing board entirely — nix the chips and find a way to add that caramel flavor to the base of the cookie itself (in lieu of a swirl, which would probably be more preferable). 

Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies. I tried Tate's offering close to the end of my ranking, and after trying so many of its other excellent offerings, I said to myself, "There's no way that Tate's can screw up a snickerdoodle," as it's one of many beginner-friendly cookies. But boy, was I wrong. 

The defining flavor in a snickerdoodle cookie, aside from the cinnamon, is the cream of tartar. It gives the cookie an almost sour flavor and clearly distinguishes it from a general "spice" cookie. Tate's cream of tartar was completely absent — a flew-the-coop, never-to-be-seen-again kind of gone. I was horrified that Tate's didn't just suppress this ingredient; it's like it forgot to add it entirely. For shame. 

As for the rest of the cookie, well, it's a spice cookie. We've already established that it's not a snickerdoodle, and there aren't any flavor elements that redeem it in any way. Sure, there's a little cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg, but I was too sad about this cookie to keep eating it. I'm just glad I didn't try it first in this ranking. Otherwise, I probably would have just quit while I was ahead and never bought another bag of Tate's ever again.

Let's talk about the good stuff first, shall we? Well, for one, Tate's does make a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie, which can't be said for other major cookie brands. However, is this the best gluten-free chocolate chip cookie I've ever had? Far from it. 

One of the major problems with gluten-free cookies is that they don't hold together well, as the flour doesn't hydrate the same way as a gluten-containing product. This gluten-free chocolate chip cookie did hold together well and even snapped when I took a piece off. The flavor was buttery, and the chocolate was sweet, though I was a little too distracted by its texture. If I didn't read the label, I could have guessed it was gluten-free just by the way the flour clung to my molars and turned almost dusty. All in all, it's a valiant effort, but I think that Tate's needs to rethink its flour choices. 

Tate's carries numerous gluten-free options, including a wheat-free version of its lemon cookie. In terms of flavor and punchiness, the regular lemon cookie and its gluten-free counterpart are very similar. However, the biggest deviation between the two is in texture. This gluten-free cookie is much softer upon the initial bite and, at least at first, tastes like a gluten-containing cookie. At around the 10-second mark, everything completely turns to mush. Everything leading up to that moment is pure lemony bliss. If I were gluten-free, I would seriously consider buying a bag of these cookies, which isn't something I often say for gluten-free baked goods. 

Normally, I would place a divisive flavor like lemon below a classic like chocolate chip, but I couldn't do that here. I was so entranced by the lemony flavor of the cookie that I forgot entirely that it was gluten-free until I absolutely couldn't avoid thinking about it.

If there was a cookie that I was worried about in this ranking, it was the lemon variety. Lemon cookies aren't popular for a reason; they can taste very artificial, plasticky, and just bad all around. Tate's Bake Shop's crispy lemon cookie was not that at all. It was one of the best lemon cookies I've ever had, and that's saying something. That lemon flavor felt very authentic, and there was just enough sweetness to carry the cookie without making it feel like the edible version of lemonade. The lemon lingered on my tongue afterward, and I found it to be a pleasant cookie.

So, with all that positive praise, why did the lemon cookies earn a spot at the back of this list? Well, it's hard — literally. I know that Tate's cookies are supposed to be crunchy, but when I sank my front teeth into this cookie, I had to exert an inordinate amount of pressure to break off a piece. I have no clue why this cookie is so hard, as none of the others on this list have that same textural quality. 

I have to give Tate's Bake Shop some credit for experimenting with softer cookies while still staying true to its traditionally crispy, snappy varieties. It has to find some way to cater to folks with soft cookie preferences (read: bad cookie preferences), so it came up with two soft varieties, including this plain one with chocolate chips. 

Tate's took "soft" to a new level with this product. This cookie was not just soft; it was delicate. I had to very carefully remove it from the packaging so that it didn't break in half. It had the consistency of Play-Doh, which means that it can't really hold up to too much poking and prodding. It's probably the softest store-bought cookie I've ever had, which, on its own, isn't bad. However, I do think the softness limits the ability to eat them in the car or pack them in a lunch without them falling apart.

I did like that Tate's absolutely loaded its cookies with chocolate chips, arguably three times more than what was truly needed for a cookie of its size. Its flavor was inoffensive — so inoffensive that there wasn't really anything there worth tasting. 

I tried the soft-baked cookies back-to-back in this tasting so I could compare them. The second one I tried, the dark chocolate chunk variety, was definitely better than the first. There were massive pieces of chocolate studding the entire stack of cookies, and it made me excited to bite into them. The soft chocolate wasn't harsh and bitter like a standard dark chocolate bar. It was sweet, with just a little bit more of a cocoa flavor than the lower-ranked soft-baked chocolate chip cookie. It's this slight edge of flavor that earned it the upper hand. 

However, even with the excellent and plentiful pieces of chocolate studding this cookie, it was no match for the crispy, crunchy cookies that Tate's brand is known and loved for. The cookies stuck together in the tray, and because they were so fragile, I was hesitant to try to separate them. I shouldn't have to walk on eggshells around my cookies, which earned this product a spot near the bottom of the list. 

I initially wanted to exclude these pumpkin spice cookies from the list, seeing as they're a seasonal selection. But I wanted to get as broad a range of offerings as possible, so I opted to include them. And I'm glad I did because the pumpkin aroma that stemmed from them was tantalizing, especially for a fall lover like myself.

I don't think I've ever had a crunchy pumpkin cookie, never mind one studded with sweet white chocolate chips. I don't think white chocolate chips do much for a recipe besides add sweetness (it's barely even real chocolate), and Tate's cookies don't really need any more of that added to them. The aroma of this cookie was pumpkin pie-like, but the pumpkin flavor was lost on my tongue when I took a bite. Instead, it became a general amalgamation of spice, with some peppy notes of clove and cinnamon. As I suspected, the white chocolate didn't really do much for this cookie, though there weren't enough chips in it to really make a difference to its overall recipe in the first place. I also didn't think they were snappy enough, and I would have liked to see more brown butter flavor come through. 

Pumpkin and spice cookies, generally speaking, have broad consumer appeal. But this cookie was one of few that Tate's didn't execute well, earning it a lower spot on my list.

A gluten-free cookie did this well in a very competitive ranking? Who would have guessed? This is by far the best gluten-free cookie that Tate's offers. Based on appearance alone, it looks like a gluten-containing cookie. It's thin, snappy, and studded with pieces of actual ginger rather than just offering ground ginger in its base. While I did get the mealy gluten-free cookie texture toward the end of the bite, the majority of it was otherwise super pleasurable. The ginger required me to work my jaw a little bit, and I was in turn rewarded with spicy pieces of the fresh root that made my throat tickle. The sweetness was just enough to offset the fiery punch, but if you aren't a big ginger person, you may want to look elsewhere for your cookie needs. 

If Tate's wanted to make a product that appealed more to the masses, it should have added some dark chocolate pieces or something sweet to balance out the piquant ginger flavor. I am a ginger lover, so I appreciated the boldness of these cookies, though I understand why someone who grew up on chocolate chip cookies — and only chocolate chip cookies — wouldn't like them as much. 

Crispy coconut cookies can be really good — when they're well executed. And, for the most part, I think Tate's did pretty well by this tropical cookie flavor. The texture is not as snappy as its chocolate chip cookies, and it starts falling apart the second it hits your mouth. The coconut flavor is gentle in the beginning but eventually comes to a crashing crescendo of sweet, nutty, and buttery. I think that Tate's could have played more on the snappiness and the brown butter flavor that it's so good at because it would have better complemented the coconut flakes. 

However, I have to give some credit where credit is due, as coconut sweets tend to taste very fake and plasticky. This one tasted like it had just come out of a bakery. The coconut was fresh, not at all stale, and resulted in a cookie that I think even folks who don't absolutely love coconut could appreciate. It just doesn't have the same universal appeal as some of the higher-ranked cookies on this list. 

Tate's chocolate chip cookie was the OG that inspired this ranking. I tried it for the first time for my review of store-bought chocolate chip cookies. It admittedly didn't score very high because, while I liked its brown butter-esque appeal, I felt that its flavor was a little too coconutty. When I tried it again for this ranking, I didn't find its flavor to be off-puttingly sweet or nutty in the slightest. There was a fair number of chocolate chips in this cookie, and when I bit into a particularly large one, compounded by the brown butter-ish cookie base surrounding it, it was heavenly.

But this cookie just wasn't all that compelling, especially in a race with some very fun and versatile cookie offerings. If you are just dipping your toe into the world of Tate's cookies, I would recommend buying it, but if you're already a pro, you're better off adventuring into more unique offerings. 

Raisin cookie haters need to grow up and get over themselves. Go ahead and send me hate mail for ranking such a divisive cookie so high on this list — but your efforts would be better suited trying this cookie for yourself and seeing how good it is. Tate's really put all of its energy into this paper-thin oatmeal raisin cookie. The base is studded with very small, finely ground pieces of oats, so there aren't any that get stuck in your molars or disrupt the bite in any way. The raisins are plump and flavorful, adding a bit of sweetness to every bite and driving the cookie home. This is a raisin cookie; there's no doubt about that, so if the thought of a dried fruit invading your cookie makes you cringe, you may want to look for a sweet treat elsewhere. 

The taste of the raisin really persists long after the bite finishes, which helps balance the richness of the cookie base and the plain flavor of the oats. It's far better than any store-bought oatmeal raisin cookie I've ever had, and if I ordered one of these cookies in a bakery and was handed a larger one of Tate's, I wouldn't be upset. 

I knew something magical was going on in this bag of cookies the second I opened the package and took a big whiff. These cookies almost looked like brownies, and they emulated the most beautiful, wildly complex chocolate aroma I've ever smelled — like it was wafting from an oven where brownies were baking away. I expected that the cookies would be as snappy as the chocolate chip variety, but when I went in for a bite, I found that they were much softer and more decadent. My first bite featured a sizable chocolate piece, which really took me by surprise and almost made my eyes roll back in my head. The chocolate never becomes bitter, as is the case with low-quality double-chocolate cookies. Instead, the chips and the chocolate base both play a hand in its success. 

If you don't like chocolate, you probably won't like this cookie as much as I did. But it offers a fun twist on Tate's classic recipe, and I didn't even miss out on that brown butter-esque flavor. 

Growing up, my mom always put walnuts in our homemade chocolate chip cookies. But prior to this taste test, it had been a while since I had a cookie studded with both chips and walnuts. There's no better time than the present, though, because this was a darn good cookie. Initially, I was worried there weren't going to be enough nuts. I couldn't really see any poking up from the outside of the cookie, but when I cracked open the package, my nose was hit with the punchy aroma of fresh walnuts. 

The scent foreshadowed the flavor of these cookies to a tee. While there aren't a lot of toothsome chunks of nuts, there is a walnut flavor throughout the cookie that is well-developed, fresh, and inviting. The spotlight is almost entirely on the walnuts, which is not something I've found to be the case with other cookies. It gives Levain's chocolate chip walnut cookie a run for its money, that's for sure, and it's one of the few cookies that I finished entirely in this taste test, which alone earned it the top spot. 

To ensure peak freshness, I sampled each of Tate's Bake Shop cookies on the day I bought them and opened the bags. As I snacked, I considered several factors, including taste, texture, and likability. The texture should match the claim on the label — snappy for most of the cookies, aside from the soft-baked series, which I expected to be plush but still sturdy. Taste was an equally important consideration. The cookies should have restrained sweetness with an ample amount of add-ins (where applicable) that enhance the overall eating experience rather than detract from it. In terms of taste, I not only compared the cookie to others in the Tate's lineup, but also to other store-bought cookies I've tried in the past. 

Likability and consumer appeal were secondary considerations to taste and texture, but still important ones. If you buy a bag of (albeit expensive) cookies to keep in your pantry, you want everyone in your house to like the flavor. Cookies that were too niche or abstract naturally ranked lower than those with universal appeal. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to buy any of these Tate's cookies (and would be even less surprised if you kept them locked away just for yourself), as they are all pretty high-quality and tasty staples for any pantry.