The Girl Scouts have now been around for a grand total of 103 years and what is it that this worldwide organization is most known for? Cookies.

The Girl Scouts began selling cookies in 1917 by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma in the hopes of raising money for troop activities. The girls baked cookies and sold them in the high school cafeteria as a service project. Now, nearly 98 years later, the annual sale of cookies is about 200 million boxes of cookies.

The girl scouts only sell a handful of different kinds of cookies including:

• Thin Mints
• Caramel deLites/ Samoas
• Peanut Butter Patties/ Tagalongs
• Shortbread / Trefoils
• Do-si-dos/ Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Cranberry Citrus Crisps
• Lemonades
• Savannah Smiles
• Thanks-A-Lot

This year the Girl Scouts have 3 new cookies that they will be selling, two of which are gluten free!
The Girl Scouts’ blog announced, “For the first time in Girl Scout history, gluten-free cookies will be available nationwide from most Girl Scout councils. The two new gluten-free offerings include Toffee-tastic, buttery cookies with toffee bits, and Trios, made with real peanut butter, chocolate chips, and whole grain oats. The third new cookie, Rah-Rah Raisins, is an oatmeal raisin cookie with whole grain oats, plump, juicy raisins, and Greek yogurt–flavored chunks. The newcomers will join legendary classics like Thin Mints and Samoas/Caramel deLites.”

New Cookies being introduced this year:

• Toffee-tastic (Gluten free)
• Trios
• Rah-Rah Raisins (Gluten free)

The cookie purchasing break down last year (2014):

1. Thin Mints — $175 million

2. Samoas (Caramel deLites) — $133 million

3. Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties) — $91 million

4. Do-si-dos/Savannahs (Peanut Butter Sandwiches) — $71 million

5. Trefoils (Shortbread) — $63 million

6. Other Varieties — $167 million

All funds raised from cookie sales stay in the girl scout organization, this leads to new projects being done in local communities all over the country.

However, this year the Girl Scouts are taking a giant leap forward in the world of cookie sales. The Girl Scouts have gone to the internet to sell their cookies, but don’t worry they’ll still be sitting outside your grocery store tempting you to buy every box on the table. Find out more about this on the Girl Scout website.

Who would have thought that one simple bake sale in a school cafeteria would have developed into a $700 million cookie empire that is still growing every year.

Visit http://www.girlscouts.org/ to find out more.