Is there a food that takes us back to childhood more than the cookie? For most toddlers, it's their first taste of "dessert" food, often because most cookies won't melt, stain or otherwise render unusable valuable items of furniture.

For this test, however, I chose a cookie that is on the "most messy" list. But it is perhaps the most iconic of American sweet treats: chocolate chip.

Hidden Sugar | Evening Eating

All the cookies in the test were found on a single trip that hit two major supermarkets. One of them is, admittedly, a "small market" cookie, but is easily available online at a fair price.

Our tasting panel was composed of six members -- four adults and two kids, plus my toddler son, whose cookie intake was carefully controlled and whose excessively enthusiastic response to all the cookies was not taken into account.

The comparison was not done against any one ideal, but against each taster's idea of what the perfect chocolate chip cookie should taste like. I was a bit worried at giving the kids such a nebulous concept, but as their mom is a whiz at baking, they had a firm grasp on what made a good cookie.

Each cookie was rated on a 1 to 10 scale for chocolate flavor and overall taste, for a possible perfect score of 120.

Nutrition information per serving is included for each cookie.

Famous Amos Chocolate Chip: (4 cookies) 150 calories, 7 grams fat, less than 5 mg cholesterol, 105 mg sodium, 20 grams carbs

Wally Amos is one of the original cookie superstars, and his recipe has won the hearts of legions of cookie connoisseurs since the mid-'70s. However, mass production seems to have caught up with the product. The bite-size cookies have good chocolate flavor, although there were too many cookies with only one or two chips, but the cookie itself has an oddly flat flavor, as if perhaps a spoon or two of sugar was left out of the recipe.

Having heard of Famous Amos many times over the years, I was surprised at the final score of 91, but looking at my own score sheet, I realized it reflected my opinion perfectly.

Pepperidge Farm Soft-Baked Milk Chocolate Caramel: (1 cookie) 140 calories, 6 grams fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 21 grams carbs

Pepperidge Farm inhabits that gray area between mass-produced "kid" cookies and the more-expensive boutique goodies. With this offering, it continues that middle-of-the-road tradition. The cookie is a bit too sweet, making the caramel almost cloying, but the chocolate flavor is good and plentiful.

Overall, the testers weren't terribly impressed, expecting something a bit more refined from the Farm. Final score: 87.

Full Circle Chocolate Chip Pecan: (2 cookies) 130 calories, 8 grams fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium, 14 grams carbs

For lovers of thin and crispy cookies, this is really good stuff. The cookies have a light crunch and melt in the mouth nicely. The chocolate flavor is well-balanced with the cookie, but the pecans should be a bit more plentiful. That demerit didn't hurt the final score much, with the "all natural" cookies notching a 110.

Keebler Soft Batch Chocolate Chip: (1 cookie) 80 calories, 3.5 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 11 grams carbs

The cookie here tasted like something engineered for endurance rather than flavor. It truly failed to impress the testers, with a floury aftertaste and not much in the way of any flavor beyond sugar. The chocolate was of middling quality, although plentiful. This entry, one of two from the giants of the cookie business, scored a paltry 71.

Back To Nature Chocolate Chunk: (2 cookies) 130 calories, 6 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 70 mg sodium, 17 grams carbs

These cookies get credit for having no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors and using no high-fructose corn syrup. However, what they're also lacking is taste. The cookie part of the confection had the weakest taste of the entire test. The chocolate was quite tasty, but the blandness of the cookies gave a rather disharmonious overall impression. The final score was a disappointing 65.

Nabisco Chips Ahoy! Big & Soft: (1 cookie) 170 calories, 7 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 140 mg sodium, 27 grams carbs

These cookies had the highest sodium per serving of the test, and were the only ones in which you could actually taste the salt. Oddly enough, it wasn't completely unwelcome. There was a bit of salty/sweet action that was quite unexpected, especially in a cookie from one of the biggest names in the business. The chocolate, however, was waxy and lacked punch. Chocolate being one of the cookie's entire reasons for being, the score came in at a middling 94.

Mrs. Field's Milk Chocolate Chip: 160 calories, 8 grams fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 21 grams carbs

Mrs. Field's is one of the great success stories in the American food business, but the lackluster flavor of this cookie indicates the company has pushed the envelope a bit too far. There was almost no aroma whatsoever, and that was indicative of the flavor. The texture was excellent, but the flavor seemed to stop just short of making a real impact on the palate. This was nothing like those hunks of deliciousness that make trips to the mall bearable. Final score: 71.

Chocobillys Chocolate Chunk: (3 cookies) 130 calories, 7 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 16 grams carbs

Chocobillys, from Immaculate Baking Co., are tiny wonders of flavor. Straddling the line between crunchy and soft effectively, they deliver a stellar chocolate punch carried by a cookie that would easily stand on its own without the chocolate. The inner bag is not resealable, which is fine because you will be unable to stop eating them until they're gone.

If points could be awarded for social responsibility, Immaculate Baking would max out that bonus, but the cookies will have to settle for an outstanding 112 out of a possible 120 points and a narrow win of the taste test!

The Immaculate Baking cookies are available at a lot of small places, but the easiest way to track them down is online.

It's really no surprise that the small bakery cookies beat out the big boys. The margin of victory was a bit surprising, but not its existence.

But whatever cookie you choose, remember that any cookie is better than no cookie at all! Other Diet Features:

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