Crumbs! A review of delicious Cookie Time NZ cookies -- or -- Why I Love Cookie Times

Why I love Cookie Times, by Detective Chow

I remember my first visit to New Zealand fondly. We spent two weeks driving around the South Island, seeing the sights and enjoying life as newlyweds before heading home to tell our families we got married. And I also discovered Cookie Times.

The monsters at Cookie Time have the right approach to making cookies – only use ingredients that you'd have in the pantry. Cookie Time is the cookie you would make yourself, but without spilling flour all over your kitchen floor. It's your cookie away from cookie.

I received a package at FSI HQ, courtesy of our Wellington office. Needed an opinion. Knew I had the downlow on the Cookie history.

"Molly, clear my day and bring me a glass of milk."

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's Cookies time.

Meet The Cookies

Original Chocolate Chunk

Crunchy, delicious and buttery with a hint of vanilla. Tastes exactly like cookie.  Good sweet chocolate chunks to round out each mouthful (unless you line your bite up wrong).

Chocolate Fix (left) piggybacked on the popularity of its Original sibling (right)

The Chocolate Fix, aka Double Choc

Crunchier and more crumbly, with a drier, more airy feel. Not as buttery a taste, but the good quality dark chocolate makes for a rich mouthful. Rich veins of chocolate boulders transect the cookie, making it obvious where to bite to get your preferred chocolate-to-cookie ratio. This Cookie Time is noticeably smaller than its siblings, both in girth and weight (weighing in at only 55g compared to the 85g Original and Triple).

The Cookie Time Chocolate siblings (L to R)
Original, Chocolate Fix, and Triple Choc 

Triple Choc

A thick cookie with buttery crumbs – back to the Original's cookie flavour and texture. A mix of white, milk and dark chocolates makes for a bit of variety: sometimes the light sweetness of white chocolate, sometimes the smoothness of milk, and sometimes the richness of dark. It's harder to see the chocolate in this one, so it's pot luck how much chocolate you get in each bite.

Apricot Chunk "Cookie" Time pictured in the foreground.
Also pictured in the midground and a bit on the right.

Apricot Chunk

I hesitate to call this one "cookie". It's super crumbly and didn't even make the trip in one piece. The first-listed ingredient is butter, whereas for the cookies the first ingredient is wheat flour. It's chewy, not crunchy. I'd label this "slice", but the name Slice Time was probably already taken by intermission at the bingo hall. It's very sweet, as dried fruit chunks tend to be, and the chocolate chunks are scarcer and harder to target among the dark-coloured apricot chunks.

The package suggests microwaving the Apricot Chunk "cookie" to turn it into a warm apricot crumble. I think this is a good suggestion, and a fitting way to destroy the evidence that this fruity weirdo was ever a part of the Cookie Time family.

Their alibis were airtight.

The verdict

If I were asked to pick a favourite I would have to go with the Original. I love the buttery cookie flavour, and being able to see the chunks of chocolate put it just ahead of the triple chocolate.

Bonus fun facts!

• Cookie Time have Cookie Bars in Queenstown and Tokyo.
• Cookie Time have a factory shop in Christchurch where you can buy bags of broken cookie chunks and they serve you cookies. 
• Cookie Time has h8ers. "The fact that there is two strikes is strike three."
• Cookie Times will not track your internet viewing habits, no matter how many you eat!