eats wright around the corner

by Austin Wright, Reporter/Public Relations

Entertainment/Culture

Few businesses quite like the Crumbl Cookies brand have had such sweeping influence across the nation.

Hailing from Logan, Utah in 2017 as the dream of “two crazy cousins,” the single store has now transformed into a multi-state powerhouse of all things cookies. The franchise has expanded into relatively familiar territory by first reaching its Washington audience with stores in Puyallup, Bonney Lake, Federal Way, Gig Harbor, Covington, Marysville, and now, Lynnwood, Washington. The newest establishment opened its doors to the public on Nov. 14, 2021. The Marysville shop is especially successful as per word of mouth and social media.

Subsequently, from the moment rumors began circulating of corporate interest in setting up a Crumbl Cookies franchise for the city of Lynnwood, an inevitable and feverish charm made its rounds in town. If the other Washington Crumbl Cookies had a sizable spread up and down the Puget Sound, then opening up in Lynnwood would effectively split the difference. The current one I will be discussing is situated right in Marysville, in addition to its southern counterparts, that, for the most part, are clumped together towards the bottom of the Sound. It is not exactly in Mukilteo, yet close enough that the buzz never seems to subside within these borders—this is a bustling and relevant locale that is a no-brainer for making comfortable dollars.

When I sat down with resident Crumbl Cookies employee Gary Russell ‘22, he said that the sheer serving size is what makes the brand so special.

“They’re not only larger in diameter, but they’re thicker,'' said Russell. “It’s almost like you’re getting one of those mini cookie pies that you get at the store.”

Russell is a classic crew member at the Lynnwood branch, a title which nearly all employees have been bestowed. The only difference, however, is that they rotate on subclassed positions and responsibilities that run rampant across daily operations.

“Tonight I’m actually balling the cookies. Some other jobs that we have are ‘back-of-house’ which are dishes and folding boxes. We also have ‘ovens,’ which is baking the cookies. We also have ‘register,’ which is manning the register. Mixing—mixing all the cookie dough. And then dressing, which is putting the frosting on and serving the cookies.”

It is no surprise that such a substantial and collaborative undertaking needs time, and it seems as if everything within this operation has come together like Crumbl’s hefty dough itself. In Russell’s words, “like one of those mini cookie pies that you get at the store.”

This can be said for the very franchised nature of Crumbl Cookies. I, for one, had not heard of such buzz surrounding the recruiting process while just walking the Kamiak halls. Maybe it has to do with the simple diffusion of the store’s location just outside Mukilteo city limits. I try to use this column as means to discuss and critique all local food, but in times like these, when the hype accompanies a local business and the foundational pieces required in a business’s infancy— as we have seen with Tapped Mukilteo, MOD Pizza, or even Henry’s Donut—it is hard not to follow an empty stomach. So away to Crumbl Cookie we go.

There is no way the true secret of the store will be revealed in the form of a recipe, due to the closed-off nature that goes along with an establishment like Crumbl Cookies. For the employees, however, this element is just basic protection from the unforeseen by signing an additional piece of paperwork once brought on board.

Russell explains, “If you’re one of the mixers, you obviously would know what goes in the dough, so they have us sign a thing so we don’t divulge into that. You have to be 18 to be a mixer.” This might seem bizarre, but a deeper look proves that the business has every right to do so, in the name of profitable and no less popular: cookies.

Nestled in between adjacent strip mall lots and the intersection across from the Alderwood Mall, the shop emits a pungent blast of a sweet scent upon entry. There is a surprisingly spacious and modernized scene on the inside, and a jovial one at that. Night shift workers in the cover of an open kitchen behind the counter chataway while attending to their respective chores, while some tasks such as balling the cookie dough tend to require many hands all at once. It is all eerily reminiscent of something out of the North Pole with how the warm, bright interior is presented. Even the sight of a giant vertical digital board showing customer order priority is there to remind the unfamiliar: this is a well-oiled machine of a storefront, but not in the daunting sense for the customer.

But finally, through all the fuss, the cookies themselves. Consider most of these cookies on the menu to be limited edition. “So we rotate our cookies out every week,” says Russell. “Every week we have our classic chilled sugar cookies and our warm milk-chocolate cookies, and then weekly we rotate out four to five different cookies. I think we have over 150 different cookies that we rotate out because there’s a list when we’re ordering; we can select through all the different cookies we have. And I just scrolled up once and it just kept going.”

150 cookie selections at a glance perhaps could be enough to last what would seem to be a full calendar year, but what Russell clarified here was not the product of constant innovation in the kitchen. Ironically, the opposite: “It’s almost different variations of the same cookie. The s’mores one is just the chocolate chip cookie with graham cracker crust and marshmallows.”

The milk chocolate chip cookie is the only fixture on the ever-changing menu, and as a result, reviews of any other cookie are rendered obsolete because of the constant rotation. As it has been stated, there are likely over 150 unique items on the menu. I do not intend to go out of my way in pursuit of all these, rather consider the handful or so described as the ones I have tried all in due time.

But the chocolate chip is straightforward and timeless. After all, in the company’s history, the milk chocolate chip has never once been rotated out. What is so remarkable and arguably the most important element of this piece is the prodigious dough. It is one thing to simply offer a milk chocolate chip cookie. But for the price of four dollars per cookie, the proposed value of it all is held in such great size.

This kind of dough applies to all available cookies, not just this specific chocolate chip. They all are extremely filling, to the point where two or three is positively enough for one person in a sitting. Skirting the bulbous outer edge here lies a crunch that blends into an airy texture of light chewiness that progresses from each bite. This subtle mix is key in allowing for the warm, glossy chips to settle while they provide a great gooey contrast amidst the malleable dough. The malleability, however, can often leave the milk chocolate chips behind, stuck to the back of your mouth. Not that this takes anything away from the overall opinion of it, but it is something that has yet to not cross my mind while chewing. But regardless, this is a neat addition and powerhouse of the vast menu array. Milk chocolate chip leaves no doubt, both in the manner of pure flavor and for simplicity’s sake. Who does not love a plain old cookie like this?

Crumbl’s take is a proven classic of its type yet it ultimately transcends the boundaries of traditional chocolate chip.

The quality of ingenuity surrounding the Crumbl Cookies menu is something that may slip the mind of the average customer when posed with a perennial cookie such as the milk chocolate chip I went over. The company website is astonishingly up-to-date by the week, and yet, the chocolate chip can often overtake the more obscure and abstract batches due to its downright popularity as a tried-and-true type.

There are quite a few unique ones boasted, and from experience, the gingersnap in particular fits the random aesthetic bill. While easy on the eye in all its sugary layer of glint, it is fancy up close. I dig it. What follows is an equally obscure kind of texture in the dough. My first instinct points to almost banana bread-esque, though ultimately, the gingersnap does not quite connect in the same way as the chocolate chip does in a sweet balance of flavor. There is simply an overload of ginger aftertaste succeeding multiple bites that is hard to erase. Of course this one is a “ginger” snap with copious amounts of the inevitable ginger baked in, but it seems as if the dough is prepared as unduly two-dimensional, and thus unable to really play off of the commanding taste of the gingersnap. Dry. In spite of this, the dough is not completely insufferable, with hints of embedded moisture that combine robustly with how pliable it really is in the shape of a mound. In addition with the rigidly massive portion size, it is hard not to reach for a glass of milk on this one.

Continuing on with the quasi-experimental batch of cookies on hand, we have a churro in cookie form. From afar the dough is tinged with a deeper shade than the standard chocolate chip while also visibly smoother, though the real selling piece of the churro cookie is the concentrated cinnamon filling that so makes up the “churro” name.

Think of it as the cream in between an Oreo. In most cases, frosting is often thought of as something not necessarily too predominant, but Crumbl Cookies is just different. The churro frosting is so thick it nearly stretches to the same height of the actual cookie below, which it rests atop. In fact, most, if not all the emphasis for the churro cookie goes toward the frosting. Not to poke holes at the dough itself, but it is incredibly average when pitted against such an intriguing element as this intense cinnamon sugar layer. It is good, but the intention, whether conscious or not, seems to serve only the frosting in the sense that there only is room for half a bite to one singular bite that comes frosting-free. But when that immense filling kicks in, a distinct blend between cookie and cream does as well. The lower half provides the crunch of the dough, while a pleasantly warm aftertaste of the cinnamon from above is given a license to permeate. This contrast of the two, frosting and dough, is unquestionably hard to distinguish. Where do they begin when the churro taste is resoundingly apparent in flavor across the board? With this comes a knowing and extreme amount of sugar that, in my guilt, is a massive reason why the churro cookie tastes so good. It is warm, it is comforting. Yet incredibly rich. Almost disconcerting just to look at it—this cookie epitomizes saturated fat. As it stands, two or three cookies on their own are more than enough for a person, but this one churro cookie might set its own limit.

It cannot be overstated just how vast the selection at Crumbl Cookies is. Because of this variability, we end up with items such as the Christmas cookie in this column for a Kamiak Gauntlet release well after Christmas. Crumbl’s Christmas cookie is an eclectically craggy mound of asymmetrical dough, topped with spherical sprinkles in the festive colors, which are then embedded into a pale, lumpy frosting. Initially, it is awkward with this dry wad of dough taking up so much space on the bottom, but after a few admittedly dry bites of my own on this thing, such a trivial matter of that is soon to be forgotten about when the vanilla filling hits. The cookie filling is mellow and cascades down upon the taste buds in a warm fashion. The best part? Neither cookie nor cream is overbearing in the sense that the gingersnap was. They individually build on each other. The dough gives a hearty structure, however susceptible it may be to crumbling apart. Whereas the filling is the final touch, the combining vanilla flavor is ultimately the strongest. I really enjoyed the Christmas cookie because while the concept is there and generic as part of the holiday season, the moving parts surrounding the actual fragile dough and sturdy frosting are bonded as one and united under a clear flavor of vanilla. A lot could go wrong with competing components, but this Christmas cookie and the subsequent constituents used by Crumbl did a tremendous job at coming together, not breaking it apart.

With the exception of an otherwise ordinary lump white paste that adorns a generic, pale cookie dough, the cinnamon swirl is a simple one. However, at the end of the day, no singular batch of dough nor finished product will ever look like what the company website shows in pictures. In this case, a near symmetrical curl of frosting interlocks with a touch of cinnamon below; this cookie in actuality is a delicious heap. Once the crunch of the outer crust is ignored, it turns into something decent. Not incredible, but still something capable of stinging the taste buds in a sparkling sweet flavor. That is, with the frosting. The cookie itself is fairly forgettable. This is so because of the texture. Certain products like the chocolate chip can get away with the sample dough being dry, on the basis of having additional elements such as milk chocolate chip diluting the final result somewhat. For whatever reason on the cinnamon swirl, the inside is very diluted by itself, but this helps when it is considered that the cinnamon swirl is served warm unlike some others on this list.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the cinnamon and subsequent cream cheese filling are at their respective collaborative peaks in the middle area of the crust. However, it is a hulking set of cookie dough, and it is massive when sometimes we just want to bite our way toward the center. While not completely balanced out in portioning of cinnamon and the gooey frosting, the frosting serves a great purpose at giving the entire cookie a soft, almost melted tone of pure, warm cinnamon. Patience is certainly a virtue here to get to the good stuff in the oozing middle, but regardless, this cookie is nothing terribly breathtaking.

In the times I visited late last year, the chilled classic sugar cookie was inexplicably absent. Only recently it has returned after a handful of weeks. This is strange, given how the general feeling is akin to its milk chocolate chip cousin; it is one of the very few perennial items on the menu. Consider the sugar cookie to be a rung below the level below chocolate chip, if it is not completely invulnerable from occasionally having its place taken by the latest and greatest invention. Immediately, the texture is soft. This dough crumbles on contact, it seems.

That being said, the name “Crumbl Cookies” now has a meaning. Extremely messy! An official description reads, “A signature sugar cookie topped with a perfect pink swirl of almond-flavored frosting.” The almond flavor was curiously foreign, but now I can’t stop tasting that almond-y flavor! The sugar cookie has a springy kick to it that had no almond nor any additional flavoring been added, would have most likely ended up as an item of pure velleity like others at Crumbl that tend to literally run dry. The sugar cookie is piquant. It is tantalizingly sweet, albeit very easy to melt in your mouth. Just try the pink frosting.

The most filling, rich kind of cookie from the handful of trips out to Crumbl in my opinion is the frozen hot chocolate cookie. It is obviously served chilled and absolutely glutted with all things chocolate. It is topped with a few marshmallows lightly embedded into a glossy, abnormally smooth milk chocolate frosting layer. The dough is a darker shade of brown, and when coupled with this buttery smooth frosting, saturated fat… beware! The full flavor pops alongside being served chilled in a tumultuous detonation of chocolate dough, chips, and chunks. It may be great in a melted savor, but the frozen hot chocolate cookie is also incredibly flimsy. Just picking it up is a chore in and of itself with how it routinely threatened to break in half.

Nevertheless, who cares if it is messy? The most important things about this long-named cookie are as follows: 1.) that it takes chocolate to the next level, and 2.) that it must be cooled as well, not simply throwm it in the oven and just receive melted chocolate. This permits the different pieces of chocolate to hold their own: The filling stays firm, with the marshmallows on top to ever-so-gently eclipsing on top of this almost cake batter frosting. It is thick and substantial in food weight, but the flavor from the upper layers is what seals it for me. It is difficult to produce another cookie that incorporates multiple layers as well as it done here. Chocolate pervades throughout, but not like any other on the Crumbl Cookies menu that quite encumbers a single type of flavor for the consumer.

It seems as if Crumbl Cookies on the corporate whole realizes its undertaking. The site that operates from the shadows of the Alderwood Mall Parkway is just a cog in the overarching machine that now boasts 324 national locations across 42 different states. But each visit seems unique—partially because of the aforementioned menu that rotates each week, not to mention that absurd feeling of overwhelming indecisiveness upon walking through the doors. Rotating cookies of the week require a strong gut choice when ordering, often on a purely visual whim. The website is great for the prepared mind, but some days we all just want a cookie, man. Things are hectic in a good way on the inside, but the sensory overload of interesting scents and sounds from within the store are always shifting under the bright lights from above.

In the odd couple of weeks I frequented the strip mall that Crumbl is tucked away in, I discovered that there never seems to be an “off day” or “off night.” Similar to Henry’s Donut, the company from a distance successfully caters to all potential customers by finding a solid target market. More specifically, there is none. Lynnwood offers a wide timeframe of hours, 8 AM to 10 PM from Monday to Thursday, while the Friday and Saturday hours of 8 AM to 12 PM accommodate peak foot traffic. Their flashy brand colors and cute pink boxes are enough to attract any and all customers under the banner of serving massive cookies.

Despite such massive cookies being so rich, four dollars for just one is simply exorbitant. Conceptually, selling primarily cookies is a bold strategy. But Crumbl pushes bold, and they welcome bold—not just in their modernized open kitchen and interior. To the business, bold is necessary for times where pure cookie shops are almost unheard of. Success has been easy to come by in terms of all things homemade. Such charm is anything but fleeting.

“It might seem obvious that they’re kind of rustic, homemade cookies, but literally everything is homemade,'' says Russell, referring to daily practices in his Lynnwood-employed store. “Down to the mixing to us balling the cookies out individually. I mean, it’s made by a bunch of teenagers!”

On a day right after school without teenagers present behind the counter, for whatever apparent reason, the main electronic register malfunctioned, forcing me and a handful of others walking in to use a secondary screen that we ordered with ourselves. Even then on self-automation, my order was mistaken for someone else's! It goes to show that not even Crumbl is perfect with trivial errors under pressure.

But by all means, that is how the cookie can crumble. The business certainly will not.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.