arico almond cranberry cookies

Arico Almond Cranberry Cookies. I'm always suspicious of "health food" cookies. I don't buy in to the marketing copy about soulful, mindful snacking, breathing deep to enjoy the essence of the citrus zest and all that stuff. So I was suspicious of the hippie marketing on this bag of cookies as well. (It's all on the back. The front of the bag fools you into thinking it's a modern industrial cookie.)

But I love cookies in general so I had to give them a try. These are surprisingly tasty little cookies. Arico promises "moist & chewy," and they do a pretty good job. They were moister and chewier than I expected and the ziploc bag keeps the cookies fresh for several days after opening. I was impressed at the lack of dry crumbliness.

They have lots of strong almond and cranberry flavor and they are fairly sweet. They use the hip new "health food" sweetener agave nectar. Arico prides itself on high-quality organic ingredients for making gluten-free and dairy-free snacks. (They go so far as to note the eggs are cage-free on the ingredients list. Don't get me started on the "cage-free" myth.) They have several varieties of cookies, including chocolate, and Arico also produces snack bars. I have only tried the Almond Cranberry cookies.

I bought these at Whole Foods. The Store Locator on the Arico website does not appear to be current, since Whole Foods didn't appear on the list. You can buy the cookies in bulk directly from the Arico site or call your nearest health food store.

I'll continue to buy these one or two packages at a time. It's nice to have a fruity cookie on hand in the pantry for tea time. (If we end up moving to Africa next year I'll probably buy a case or two from Arico.)

(Image from Arico Foods website.)