Believe it or not, there are millions of people in countries worldwide who have never baked, bought, or eaten a chocolate chip cookie. It’s not that cookies are unpopular in those places, but that they are completely unheard of.
But in America, cookies are a ubiquitous and essential part of our lives. We eat an average of 300 cookies apiece every year, totaling over 2 billion cookies annually. And that’s just in America. There are even some organizations that teach business skills to school-aged children through annual cookie sales drives.
Cookie flavors are as varied as the people who love them. Flour free cookies, gluten free cookies, cookies with applesauce instead of eggs: the variety of cookie flavors available for sale seems endless. In fact, cookies are so popular that less than 5% of America households refrain from cookie purchases, either due to allergies or to dietary preference.
Cookies made with chocolate have been around for more than 70 years. The story goes that an innkeeper named Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies one night when she ran out of baker’s chocolate and, instead, substituted small bits of broken chocolate. She thought that the chips would blend into the cookie, but when she took them out of the oven, the chocolate chip cookie was born.
Nowadays, there are peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, and even minty chocolate chips available for baking cookies. There are also many people who order cookies online for delivery: the advent of the internet means that regional favorites can be shared with friends and family across the country and even around the world.
Popular cookie flavors include ones made with nuts, a wide variety of fruit, every kind of chocolate available, and even some plain ones with just a bit of sugar on top. Cookies have been around for many centuries — it’s said that they originated when bakers needed to test their oven temperatures — and considering their wide availability and continued popularity, it’s safe to say that they’ll be around for many more.