Chocolate Chip Cookie

The journey begins...

What is a chocolate chip cookie? What do we love about it?

Let us set the scene: March 2nd — the start of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Week. As many of you may know, we both love celebrating national holidays, and we both love a good sweet treat. There was only one thing to do this week: eat a cookie (or more!) a day and rate each one. Thus arose our idea to start this Substack.

In order to give structure to our reviews, we considered arguably too many categories. After being burned by Bakey (more on that later), we decided that important factors to consider were what we deemed availability and reliability. We kept forgetting which was which, but availability is how likely we think the place is to have cookies when we go intending to get them (i.e., how available are their cookies?), and reliability is how good their hours are, specifically geared towards cookie eating (i.e., can we rely on this place to be open when we want a cookie?). We also wanted to judge a factor we called neighborhood, which really was based on how convenient a location it is, usually based on coming from the MIT Econ Department. That being said, we care about the cuteness of the area, too, even if it’s a little far from us. Of course, we need to consider price as well, with lowest price being most desirable. We aren’t cookie status seekers, after all.

When it comes to the cookie itself, we consider the presentation. After all, you eat with your eyes! Thus, pictures of various quality are attached for each review. Another thing that matters is the size of the cookie. We tried to evaluate the area and the thickness, but we don’t have a formal measuring system, so it’s going off of our estimating capabilities and our memory. It’s worth noting that this isn’t monotonic for us, although in our summary table at the bottom it will appear that way.

An important C in the CCC is chocolate, and we personally like a high chocolate-to-cookie ratio. It’s theoretically possible to have a ratio too high, but we haven’t encountered it. Somewhat confusingly, we also have a chocolate quantity category, which is mostly the same as the ratio, but there’s still a distinction to make. A super big cookie might have a high quantity of chocolate, but a lower chocolate:cookie ratio, because it also has a lot of cookie. We’re not sure truly; we’re just trying to justify in hindsight.

Another potentially controversial category is warmth. We wanted to reward places that gave a piping hot cookie, because that’s what we love, and also places that could accommodate us and warm it for us. This was so hard to ask for, especially for two people who tend to feel bad asking for things. We did it once for Vester, and tried to for Bakey, but at a certain point, we sort of stopped doing it. However, some cookies we got were from free lunches or take-out style, so in order to try and level the playing field we warmed them in the microwave. This possibly led to even more inequality, because we weren’t exactly consistent, and sometimes our sense of timing wasn’t the best.

One of the most important categories is texture. We have pretty aligned tastes, which we think are pretty standard: a gooey cookie with a crisp outer edge is somewhat the ideal. But there can be wild cards and surprises. Also Meg wanted to note if there was salt on top because she loves it (Ragini is a little more indifferent here). There were some extra features as well that we tried to keep track of. As you read on, you’ll explore some of these with us, like oats and halvah. But ultimately despite our detailed categories, we sort of ignored all of that and just ranked what we liked the best. It all really boils down to one question: when I want a chocolate chip cookie, where will I go?

Bakey:

Valentine’s Day 2025 was one of the best days of our lives. Not for any of the reasons usually associated with that holiday—no, something far better happened. That was the day Bakey Babka opened right next to the MIT Econ Department. While known mostly for their namesake, Bakey Babka happens to have excellent chocolate chip cookies (not to spoil it). This proximity puts their neighborhood score at the top automatically, since there’s nothing like racing to get a cookie during MIT time. What else would we even use it for? As this Bakey is a new establishment, they are still getting their footing. This unfortunately led to our first attempt to get Bakey cookies to review to be unsuccessful. No cookies were left, which puts them at the bottom for availability. This put us off, admittedly. Then we went, happily accompanied by VBP, and they did have cookies, but they had put them out on a tray and apparently people thought they were samples and starting leaving half eaten cookies out? The lady in front in line was not interested in eating them—although contact with many hands might not outweigh cookie desire for us personally, the tray were taken away before any purchase was possible. But when we finally got the cookie, it almost was enough to forget previous struggles. The cookie itself looks appealing. It’s crinkly and has three different types of chocolate (dark, milk, and white) peeking out for a special treat. It’s also a decent size, not very thick which is ideal for such a rich cookie. The chocolate to cookie ratio is significant, and as we judged it second only to Insomnia. Due to the fact that it’s not one of the larger cookies, the chocolate quantity is in a middling range. Unfortunately, after the mistaken sample incident, the cookies now come pre wrapped and as such are not warm. However, they still maintain the all important (to us) gooey texture, which was highly appreciated, especially since the edge has that slight crisp that makes the perfect contrast. What’s worth noting is that this cookie doesn’t exactly taste like a standard C3. Maybe with the white chocolate, or maybe how the recipe is formulated, it certainly isn’t what we would pick to represent the noble food group. Like if we were trying to teach someone who’d never partaken in a C3 what it was, this is not the way we’d go. However, this cookie ranked number 1 for Meg and number 2 for Ragini. It is super delicious and, from Meg’s perspective, if she wants a delicious C3, she would make it. Probably cheaper, definitely warmer, and infinitely personalizable. So putting a special cookie in the top is not Meg’s admission that she doesn’t like the cookie in its natural state, to be clear! Also if we are going to get a C3, it’s the place to go, delicious and incredibly convenient. However, worth noting is the price, which is $3.75–in the standard middle range of 3-4 dollars, but still on the upper half of the cookies.

Bon Me:

Sorry to say, but Bon Me was at the very bottom of the list for both of us. We do feel bad, but being harsh critics is part of our job. To give them some credit, Bon Me is a Vietnamese place and not a bakery, so they’re probably not known for their chocolate chip cookies. (That being said, we have mixed feelings about their food too.)

We were a little disappointed about Bon Me’s hours; the one in Kendall Square isn’t even open on weekends! Weekends are the time for indulgence, so if we can’t get a proper CCC (or any other food) from Bon Me when we most desire it and have the time to get it, that seems like pretty low reliability. Their CCC was also just pretty small in size, and it didn’t have a lot of chocolate in it, so it ranked quite low on presentation, area/size, chocolate:cookie ratio, and chocolate quantity. That’s a lot of low rankings already…

But maybe we should give more context on the cookie. We didn’t go straight to the source, but shoutout to Russell for giving us this cookie from his labor economics lunch! The labor lunches put a chocolate chip cookie in the same container as some soybeans, which makes the CCC kind of soggy and not super warm. This definitely affected our warmth and texture ratings – which we know are biased, because for all we know, Bon Me’s CCC could be a million times better in person! But we don’t have really high hopes there…

Cava:

Bakey’s absence of cookie from earlier in the week unfortunately left us reeling (little did we know what would occur later that day). Luckily on a Cava lunch trip (with our fave VBP of Bakey sample incident fame) we noticed they had a C3– a salted chocolate oat cookie to be specific. Although this does break form, it still was recognizably a C3 and as such made the list. Cava has pretty good hours, 10:45am-10pm every day, which gives time for an afternoon or post dinner sweet treat. Since we don’t normally go to Cava for a C3, we don’t have much of an impression on how available they are, but given that, as just mentioned, Cava is not really a cookie place, we didn’t feel the rating in that area should be very high. The neighborhood is fine, and pretty convenient. But cookie presentation was not strong. The cookie was small and was low on both chocolate to cookie ratio and chocolate quantity (not a surprising fact). We did warm it in the microwave so maybe it was warm but honestly it was hard to save this cookie. And maybe it’s not its fault since it is an oat cookie but we were not impressed with the texture. We decided to rank it last in that area. Just not that good. But Meg loves salt so that was a saving grace. Ultimately Meg rated it as the second worst cookie and Ragini rated it as third worst. It’s also $3.35 which puts it in the middle range for price but compared to the quantity and quality you’re getting from the other places? Just don’t go to Cava for the cookie.

Chip City:

[edit: April 3, 2025] We forgot to review Chip City until now! Thank you to Ragini’s mom for generously gifting these cookies! This is Ragini writing this, and I’m going to switch to first-person because I have very strong feelings about Chip City.

In essence, I love it.

Let’s travel back to a couple months ago. One cold, bitter February evening, I was strolling through Back Bay after a dinner, and I stumbled upon one of the cutest little establishments I had ever seen. I was immediately enthralled and just knew I had to step inside. And when I did, I was transported to a whole new world. Chip City has the most adorable decor, featuring cookies flying on planes, driving cars, and parachuting through the sky across their little city. I wanted to be a part of this world!

So, I bought myself a nice, big, warm (yes, they warm up the cookies perfectly) cookie. With one cookie being 4 servings (like Crumbl), it was definitely big enough to last me a few days, but not in an overwhelming way like Crumbl. Additionally, it had the warmth of Insomnia — maybe just slightly less warm. The CCCCC (yes, 5 Cs!) wasn’t quite as chocolatey as either Crumbl or Insomnia; and normally I want my CCC to be chocolatey, but in this case, the cookie was so big that I wouldn’t have wanted any more chocolate. And as if the CCCCC couldn’t be any better, it came with a sticker that just melted my heart.

Fast forward to today, Meg and I tried the CCCCC again. It wasn’t as warm, since we weren’t having it fresh, but we did appreciate that the box gave us instructions on how long to warm it up for. (This would have been great for Flour, as you’ll soon find out!) And more generally, we were just obsessed with the box — so adorable!

I was torn between rating either Insomnia or Chip City as my #1 choice. Warmth- and texture-wise, I’d weakly prefer Insomnia, I’ll admit. But in terms of locations, Chip City is strictly better: Insomnia is only in Harvard Square, while Chip City is in Harvard Square, Back Bay, and West End. And just like Insomnia, Chip City offers ice cream (at least at their Harvard and West End locations)! Even better, if I ever want a CCC that’s not so heavy, Chip City has thinner cookies that are crispy on the edge, and mini “lil chips”! What more could I ask for…

Ultimately, the looming question remains: if I want a CCC, will I go here? And all the evidence (N = 1 observation, I know) points towards one answer: YES.

Crumbl:

Crumbl is an interesting example of how everything can look great on paper, as if it’s heading towards a certain trend (as you can see, it had the second-highest rank, and by a margin of just 1 point!), but still not come together perfectly in the aggregate. Simpson’s paradox, one could say? Of course, Crumbl rates pretty high on the availability factor; it’s known for its cookies, so they’re always going to be available when you go there. And presentation was #1 hands-down: it has huge chocolate chunks (not just chips!), and the salted flakes are just beautiful. It’s located in Central, so not quite as convenient as Kendall Square, but Central is always fun.

Because of the huge chocolate chunks and the huge size in general, the Crumbl CCC (or rather, CCCC) was for sure #1 in terms of chocolate quantity. We ranked it slightly less in terms of chocolate:cookie ratio, because there was also a lot of cookie. In fact, that was honestly our main issue with it: it was just way too large. One serving is listed as ¼ of a cookie, and shoutout to Jack for splitting the CCCC with us!

Ultimately, while CCCC looked great on paper, our main ranking boils down to the answer to one question: if I wanted a chocolate chip cookie, would I go here? And largely because of how big Crumbl is, it’s hard to say yes there. We could never view Crumbl as a go-to place for CCC.

Elmendorf:

This isn’t just about a cookie. This is about a lifestyle. Meg has made her entire personality about liking this store. For the sake of transparency, Meg is writing this (I’ll now transition to first person sorry cowriting is a delicate balance). I love this place so much that all of my birthday presents people gave me are from there. It’s the cutest place in the world and has a bunch of supplies and fresh milled flour. The location gets points for that but otherwise it’s not very convenient, with no red line nearby and not close to much else that we go to regularly. The hours aren’t great, they close at four most days and 5 on Saturdays, and on Monday they are open at all. We also don’t remember if the cookies are always there or if it was just a lucky coincidence. I know I’m not really selling this—but the presentation was inviting and the ambience amazing. Thus when I ate this cookie it was hard to be unbiased. And by hard I mean it was impossible. I would have put this cookie at the top but I want to maintain some credibility. So I put it second to Bakey but still unsure about that. Ragini ranked it third but to be honest I don’t know if that rating would be different if she didn’t know I was going to see it. It wasn’t super spacious or thick, but the chocolate to cookie ratio was third highest, very solid. It didn’t come warm but the chocolate was melted and was very soft with a crisp outer edge, ideal cookie. Plus it’s definitely possible they used hand milled flour which basically makes it super wholesome. Also—despite my capacity to spend so much money at that place both because I want everything and also because it’s not cheap, the cookie was $3.00. For our list of cookies that puts it at third for low price, but since Insomnia is $2.99 it’s basically tied for second.

Flour:

This review really brings to light a potential problem with our rating category of warmth. This came from Meg’s environmental lunch, where it came cold, of course. Thus it came free, but if we wanted to purchase it ourselves it would be $3.50, exactly medium price range. As is our standard practice for cold cookies that we eat in the department, we microwaved it. However, it was probably the first time we did this, so we microwaved it for way too long and it was essentially boiling, which may not be what you look for in a cookie. Flours populate Cambridge and have pretty good hours, and they are a bakery and so are pretty likely to have these cookies. In past environmental lunches, these have proven a welcome way to finish up a free lunch with both sustenance but also some level of entertainment because it’s a new way to occupy oneself during presentations. It has two types of chocolate (actually apparently three but we could determine milk and dark so that’s what we’re going with) and an inviting sort of wide thin disk vibe going on. It is super big and flat with some exciting big chocolate pockets. Normally has a decent chew with a little crunchy edge, but post boiling it was somewhat unpleasantly tough. Would not recommend this eating strategy. It was warm though, it must be said.

Insomnia:

This is Ragini here, and I’m going to try really hard to be as unbiased as possible, because I LOVE Insomnia. (I know this may ruffle some feathers…) I’m biased because (1) I’ve gotten a lot of free cookies from Insomnia over the past few years, and (2) I love ice cream, and cookies + ice cream will always be an elite combination. Nevertheless, there was one downside to the Insomnia in Harvard Square, which we went to: we went on the very first day of CCCC Week (March 2), at 11:24pm. Later on, we discovered that from March 3 onwards, Insomnia was offering free cookies in honor of the national week. One would have hoped that they would give us our cookies for free, but alas they didn’t…

Regardless, I will always view it in the highest regard. [Edit: second only to Chip City]

Insomnia is unique in terms of reliability: if I want a cookie late at night (as is the case for many sweet treat cravings!), Insomnia is the one place I can rely on to be open. It also ranks pretty high in terms of neighborhood; it’s not as convenient for us as, say, Bakey or Tatte in Kendall Square, but we always love a trip to Harvard.

In terms of the CCC itself, it’s not huge in terms of area, but it makes up for it with thickness. It has the highest chocolate:cookie ratio, in our opinion, but the best feature is the warmth. Yes, we’re aware that warmth is an easily manipulable factor, as long as one has a microwave, but there’s something special in going to a CCC establishment and knowing that it’s always going to be perfectly warm, with no effort required on my end to exert additional labor. We can always depend on Insomnia.

Levain:

Levain, while based in NYC, is still pretty iconic here in Boston, so we couldn't go through National CCC Week without giving it a try. Like Insomnia and Crumbl, it's known for its cookies, so it's up there when it comes to cookie availability. In terms of reliability, nothing will ever match Insomnia's being open until 1-3am, but Levain's hours are still pretty great. Its location is also beautiful; it's in Back Bay, so it’s not the easiest to get to from Cambridge/Kendall, but who doesn’t love a trip to Back Bay?

Because the Levain cookie is so thick, it has a lot of chocolate. And while it's large, it doesn't feel quite as overwhelming as, say, a Crumbl cookie. But what most stands out about Levain's cookie is its appearance. It's huge and SUPER thick, and it honestly looks more like a scone than a cookie. While unique, this was more of a negative than a positive for us. There’s something strange about taking a bite into what looks like a scone, then finding out that it tastes exactly like a warm CCC.

Ultimately, though, it’s hard to imagine Levain being a go-to place for a CCC…

Tatte:

Similarly to Flour, we might have given this Cambridge staple a bit of an unfair judging. We were watching Anora while eating it, post-dinner at Lanner (hence the movie theater lighting), and we were drawing near the end of our week. This meant we were feeling a little cookie exhaustion and not particularly enthusiastic or locked in during the judging process. It was special because it had a little piece of halvah in the middle, which honestly detracted, mostly from the appearance side. It was hard to split in a way where we got a solid piece, and honestly it just wasn’t our focus. I can’t even really remember if we finished it. We also in general can’t remember how common it is for Tatte to offer these cookies, since we usually go for other pastries. But it has many locations, and two conveniently close to the department. It’s $4.00, making it the most expensive besides Crumbl and Levain, but although Meg unfortunately neglected to bring her scale with her for cookie judging, it has to be most expensive per gram because Levain and Crumbl are huge, while this cookie was on the smaller end in both area and thickness. Also low on the chocolate to cookie ratio and chocolate quantity. The texture was also nothing to write home about. Wouldn’t specifically recommend Tatte for the C3, but would (somewhat) recommend Anora!

Vester:

Honestly, it’s going to be hard to write a review about Vester, because we don’t remember too much about it. But I think that speaks a lot about it.

It’s nicely located near Kendall Square, but not quite as convenient as Bakey or Tatte, and its hours aren’t the best (hence, low reliability). As for the cookie, it’s pretty thin and doesn’t have too much chocolate, but the taste itself isn’t bad. Our main issue was warmth: again, we know that this can be easily fixed by a microwave, but we still feel it matters. Initially, the cookie didn’t come warm, so we asked them if we could warm it up, and they gladly did. We did appreciate the hospitality on their end, but honestly, it didn’t taste that warm at all… Because of this, it’s hard to envision ever craving a Vester CCC.

If you got through all of that but want a short summary of the things you need to know, look no further than our handy spreadsheet table:

Thank you so much for reading all of our cookie thoughts! If it inspires you to share anything, please feel free to respond—agree or disagree, we’d love to hear! Some questions we’d love to get your opinions on: should we create more of a standard for warmth? Should we bring a measuring scale or ruler to our different establishments to most accurately capture size and price efficiency?

For a little sneak peek into April… here’s a GPT-generated riddle! Any thoughts on the answer?

I’m round but not a wheel,
I’m sliced but never feel.
I’m sometimes deep, sometimes thin,
With melted gold upon my skin.
I bring delight in every land,
Born of fire, shaped by hand.