Review: Crumbl's World Cup Cookies Go For The Goal, But One Deserves A Red Card

This week the FIFA World Cup returns to North America after over 30 years — and Crumbl is ready to celebrate with soccer-themed treats. The box is decorated with a bright green soccer pitch and flaming soccer balls to kick off the month-long tournament. As with all Crumbl cookies, the desserts are massive, soft, and loaded with sugar — but this time, the flavors push the envelope of cookie creativity, giving us some new Crumbl favorites.

I headed out as soon as Crumbl opened this morning to try the lineup of World Cup flavors, featuring Dubai-Style Cheesecake, Tangy Mango ft. Tajín, Canadian Nanaimo Bar, Dot Cake, Ultimate Peanut Butter, Brownie Sundae, and Blue Raspberry Sports Drink. The cookies were still being prepared when I walked in, the busy bakers freshly frosting, sprinkling, and finishing the cookies on the large center table that filled the kitchen. Each one fresh and unimaginably soft, I brought the heavy box of giant cookies home to taste and review. Which one scored for me was a surprise — as was the one that fell a little short.

The World Cup box became available for order at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 8. I ordered one box, which required changing the auto-selected cookies from the everyday flavors to the weekly featured flavors, some of which required an up-charge.

Because there are seven featured flavors and the boxes only hold half a dozen, I ordered six of the flavors and one single cookie in a separate box. My location was still busy preparing the cookies as I walked in and picked them up. From there, I took the cookies home, photographed them, then sampled each of them, eating just a few bites of each.

The FIFA World Cup cookie box follows the same structure as Crumbl's other cookie boxes, which come in large or mini dessert sizes and in either half or full dozen. The half-dozen large cookie box, Crumbl's most popular option, starts at around $25, and includes a soccer pitch insert and decorative soccer cookie toppers. The Dubai-style cheesecake cookie is an additional $2.99. You can also order cookies individually or in packs of four, but only the Dubai-style cheesecake cookie will still come with a decorative topper. The flavors are set to be available this week, from June 8 to June 13.

One of the many complaints people often state with Crumbl's cookies is their number of calories, which occasionally surpasses 1,000 calories each. This nutritional information feels less shocking when you see the cookies, though. The cookies are large enough that they can easily be cut and enjoyed between a few people, if desired. 

The cookies in the World Cup box are slightly lower in calories, ranging from 650 to 860 each. The highest is the Canadian Nanaimo Bar at 860, and the lowest is the American Brownie Sundae at 650. Crumbl also offers mini-size cookies, so if you are looking for a smaller serving, you have that option to consider as well.

This is by far the best cookie in the lineup and one of the better cookies I've had at Crumbl overall. Composed of a rich chocolate base and a cream cheese frosting swirled with tangy blue raspberry flavor, the cookie tastes less like a blue Gatorade and more like a brownie with a sort of citrusy cotton candy topping. 

For Crumbl fans, this cookie may look very similar to the recent "Moonbeam Ice Cream" cookie made in collaboration with Benson Boone, but with more raspberry flavor in the frosting recipe. The base has a similar cookies and cream flavor, pairs surprisingly well with the tangy cream cheese frosting.

It's hard to describe exactly what blue raspberry tastes like — likely because the origins of this flavor have hardly anything to do with raspberry at all — but somehow, this cookie nails it. Sweet, electric, and vaguely raspberry-flavored, this cookie is one I found myself taking multiple bites of and still craving more.

Likely meant to symbolize a classic, all-American dessert as representation for the United States' involvement in hosting the World Cup, the Brownie Sundae Cookie features a fudegy chocolate cookie base, vanilla mousse, chocolate fudge, sprinkles, and a cherry on top. The vanilla mousse is essentially a standard buttercream and the chocolate fudge a thick ganache, so the dessert is more straightforward than its description. Rich and incredibly chocolatey, it's a cookie any chocolate lover would enjoy, though maybe only for a few bites at a time.

This cookie is essentially a small, round cake rather than a true cookie, which is where it may fall short with some Crumbl fans. Crumbl cookies are generally very soft, thick, chewy cookies, but this one goes far beyond the standard Crumbl sugar-cookie format. Instead, it's a crumbly, cake-like brownie base, which has a somewhat dry texture compared to the more buttery cookie bases. This cookie certainly replicates a brownie à la mode, and is a good chocolate fix if you know what to expect.

The Nanaimo Bar Cookie is an ode to another World Cup hosting country, Canada, which has a long list of iconic domestic desserts worth trying. Though known for its maple syrup, one of the country's most classic desserts is actually the Nanaimo bar, which features three layers of sweet, chocolatey filling stacked and chilled before being sliced into bars. The base, which is featured as the base of the Crumbl cookie, is made up of chocolate, coconut, and graham cracker, followed by a creamy middle layer and a topping of chocolate ganache. The Crumbl version follows this format pretty precisely, making for a deliciously pillowy version of the classic bar.

The Crumbl version of a Nanaimo bar is, of course, not exactly a Nanaimo bar, but Crumbl's soft and buttery version of it. That being said, it's one of Crumbl's better creations, the coconut and toasted graham cracker a necessary and helpful addition to the cookie's overall texture. Like a true Nanaimo bar, the cookie is extremely chocolatey, and Crumbl doesn't hold back on the rich and decadent sweetness of chocolate. If I had to change anything about this cookie, I'd add more coconut and more toasted graham to balance the rich chocolate flavor of the thick and chewy base.

While I don't think this cookie has as trong relation to the World Cup, it is definitely the ultimate peanut butter cookie. The peanut butter flavor is intense, in a good way — it tastes salty, nutty, and creamy, with just a touch of sweetness that makes it a delectable dessert. You have to be a peanut butter fanatic to like these, of course, being that it's largely just peanut butter and nothing else.

The best part of these cookies is the simplicity. Unlike a lot of Crumbl cookies, which are essentially miniature cakes with piles of frosting on top, the peanut butter cookie is just an extreme version of the classic bakery-style cookie we all know and love. It seems like something that would be on the everyday menu rather than a feature, which is what makes it a puzzling release — but sometimes things are just better in small amounts.

Dubai-style chocolate has become such a viral sensation that it seems as if there is nothing that can't be given the Dubai-style treatment. It's all for good reason, though: in Dubai-style treats, crispy Kataifi is mixed with sweet pistachio cream and covered in chocolate to produce a uniquely light, airy, and crispy texture, and perfectly sweet taste. It's a mixture of flavors perfectly suited for rich and creamy cheesecake, and Crumbl has aptly taken advantage by crafting its version on a chocolate cheesecake base.

I can't deny that Dubai-style chocolates are delicious, and Crumbl's version is exactly as good as you think it is. Of course, it comes with Crumbl's signature sweetness, meaning it's extremely rich and decadent in a way that is hard to eat all at once. Keeping in mind that you'd likely only need half of a cookie at a time, this flavor is near-perfect to me, and is exactly the type of novelty cookie I'd go to Crumbl for.

The Dot Cake Cookie really isn't related to the World Cup at all, but rather mimics a viral cake created by a Long Island bakery called The Dot Cakes and made popular by the recent sale of Dotcups in New York City's Butterfield Markets. With lines wrapping around city corners for the sprinkle-filled cups of fluffy cake and frosting, the trend has become popular to replicate at home, especially by those unable to visit the markets in person.

Crumbl's Dot Cake is the cookie version of the popular cake, made with a simple sugar cookie base, vanilla cream cheese frosting, and hundreds of colorful rainbow dot sprinkles across the top surface. It tastes exactly as you'd expect: A sugar cookie made massive, with extra sugar and incredible softness. These may not be soccer-related, but with it also being Pride month, the soft and sugary rainbow cookie is a great addition to June's menu and a good option for those who don't like chocolate.

So far in my tasting, I'd been pleasantly surprised by how delicious each of the creative cookies was, each tasting — yes, overly sugary — but not overly processed or artificial (a fine line). I was looking forward to this truly fruity option of the bunch. The mango sugar cookie base, rolled with Tajín and topped with mango and Tajín frosting as well as a pool of mango and Tajín sauce, is meant to replicate one of Mexico's most famous treats, mango sprinkled with Tajín. The tangy blend of ingredients that make up Tajín contrasts with mango's subtle sweetness, which is what normally makes it such a delicious snack. However, in cookie form, it just doesn't work for me.

I wish I could say that I simply don't like Tajín, but that's not the case. In fact, I love the seasoning and regularly enjoy it sprinkled on fresh mangoes. Where I think this cookie goes wrong is with adding too much Tajín, which turns the frosting sour. Tajín famously includes dehydrated lime juice, which adds a subtle tang to dishes like elotés or even French fries that have salt or cream to balance the flavor. Perhaps it's the composition of the glaze or simply an overuse of the seasoning, but this cookie was too sour to eat more than a few bites. But with a few tweaks, this one will make a reappearance as the deliciously sweet-and-spicy cookie it's meant to be.

Even as someone who isn't a Crumbl fanatic, I appreciate this menu for being imaginative with its flavors. The menu offers a good variety of flavors to satisfy a range of tastes, and also strongly represents the three host countries of the 2026 world cup. 

That being said, with even my favorite flavors, I have to admit that the rich, sugary, super-soft quality is something not everyone will like. However, it is meant to be excessive, which is what Crumbl is popular for. 

The lone flavor I can't recommend is the Tangy Mango Cookie ft. Tajin. This one was simply too sour for me to enjoy.