Milk Bar at the Grocery Store

I like to think that I knew about Milk Bar "before it was cool".  Long before Christina Tosi was a well known face and name from judging cooking competitions.  Long before there were multiple Milk Bar outposts.  When it still carried the name "Momofuku", and wasn't a separate empire.  Yes, I've known Milk Bar since the very early days, and was a fan back then.  It has been amazing to watch the expansion and success of the brand.  I've reviewed it many times before, including the iconic soft serve and crack pie, the cookies, and even cross-country cake delivery.

But a few years ago, Milk bar expanded even further: into grocery stores nationwide.  Talk about mainstream.

"Our taste buds were formed in the aisles of the grocery store, and the simple staples on those shelves have been our inspiration from day one. We make treats to bring you little moments of joy - wherever, whenever."

In grocery stores, Milk Bar carries 3 product lines: cookies, ice cream, and truffle crumb cakes.  I haven't yet tried the ice cream, but I've had a chance to try a product from each other category.  While it isn't quite the same as getting more freshly baked items at one of their flagship stores, I'm still a fan.

Cookies

The first products I ever had from Milk Bar were the cookies.  My first bites of the corn cookie, the compost cookie, the blueberry cookie ... those first tastes remain fixed in my memory as fairly life changing.  I've seen the quality drop as they moved to mass production, so I was definitely curious to see how the grocery store versions fared.

"Inspired by signature Milk Bar cookie flavors, these smaller, soft-baked cookies come in convenient on-the-go two-packs tucked into a colorful milk carton-inspired box."

For the grocery store, Milk Bar has 8 cookie flavors, sadly, the corn and blueberry ones did not make the cut, but the signature compost, cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow, and confetti did, along with some new ones: sugar sugar, cocoa mint, pancake, chocolate confetti, and seasonal candy cane chocolate chip cornflake. 

If you read my blog regularly, you know that cookies aren't really my thing generally, mostly because they are just a bit boring, not "full desserts", but, the early part of the pandemic lead me to appreciate cookies in a new way.  Simplicity had its place, and I found myself sometimes just wanting things to be easy, amongst all the uncertainty of those times.  So, simple cookies and milk it was, regulars on my rotation.  But of course, generally I ended up jazzing my cookies up, dunking into whipped cream and sprinkles, at least, often warming them up, serving a la mode or with ice cream ...  ).  Anyway.  I learned to like cookies again.

Chocolate Confetti.

"Yes, chocolate! It’s a party in this cookie and everyone’s invited. Chocolate Confetti is choc full of rich cocoa, mini chocolate chips, and lots of rainbow sprinkles."

Chocolate Confetti isn't really the flavor I'd pick, but these were given to me in a gift bag, so, Chocolate Confetti it was.

My first thought when I opened the package was just how ordinary the cookies seemed.  They were much smaller than the regular Milk cookies, just slightly larger than any other generic grocery store packaged cookie, and very thin.  They were at least very soft.

The cookie was ... kinda as boring as it looked.  Yeah, it had a chocolate base, and it did have lots of sprinkles and a few mini chocolate chips, but the chocolate flavor wasn't particularly strong, and the sprinkles added a touch of crunch, but not much else.  It had a processed flavor, and lacked the buttery sweetness of the classic cookies.

It was a fine cookie for a packaged grocery store cookie, but, nothing like the "real" Milk cookies.  The softness was the only real strong point.

***.

Truffle Crumb Cakes

I moved on to a more exciting product: truffle crumb cakes.

"Get to know these crunchy-on-the-outside, fudgy-on-the-inside snack cakes, inspired by our signature Cake Truffles, and nostalgic supermarket desserts. Find them in the refrigerated section!"

The crumb cakes are available in 6 flavors, 5 of which are chocolate based - chocolate chip, chocolate birthday, birthday, cocoa mint, chocolate pretzel, and seasonal candy cane chocolate.  They are slightly high maintenance in that they require refrigeration, just like the truffles from the shops themselves.

Birthday.

"A rich update on classic Birthday Cake flavor in a super-convenient handheld package! Sprinkle-packed cake inside, crunchy B’Day crumbs outside."

I went for the single non-chocolate option, birthday cake.

Wow, what a unique (and totally delicious!) product.  I'll admit that I had no clue what to expect from a "truffle crumb cake", and sorta thought they would be like cookies, but, they really were something else entirely.  Sorta like a dense sugary cake meets thick rich sugar cookie all covered in sweet buttery crumbles.  Thick of the most sugary buttery sugar cookie you've ever had, but, instead of being really soft and thin like a cookie, make it a denser thicker hockey puck.  If that sounds rich and overwhelming, you aren't wrong.  And THEN coat it all in the delicious sweet buttery signature Milk Bar crumble bits.  And if THAT sounds even more rich and overwhelming and potentially cloying sweet, you aren't wrong, except that ... it works.  Really.  Assuming you are in the mood for sweet that is.

I understand why they say they are "inspired by" the cake truffles, as my description of these reads fairly similar to that of the cake truffles (which I've reviewed before), although these are slightly more cookie-cake like, and have an even more substantial crumb coating.  Truffle crumb cakes.  Aha.  It makes sense now.

Anyway.  Yes, these are crazy sweet.  Yes, they are crazy rich.  Yes, the birthday cake flavor is basically just sugary sprinkles with more butter and sugar, and isn't exactly a highly refined complicated taste, but, its delicious.  I enjoyed dunking one in whipped cream just to tamper the sweet a bit, and found they pair equally well with red wine and black coffee, pick your vice of choice.

Each package comes with two of the cakes, and the serving size is just one, which actually is more than appropriate.  I adored this, but couldn't imagine eating two in one sitting just due to the high sugar content.  

I'd gladly get these again, and would like to try other flavors too.  ****.