While we transition from week one to week two, and the Sunday-scaries creep nearer and nearer as Sunday afternoon becomes the evening, we all know the remedy: the alleviating feeling of googling ‘crumbl.com’ to find their line of sweet treats this week. This week we found flavors of decadent chocolates and cream cheese frostings along with fresh carrots and strawberries. “The Voice” staffers ventured to Crumbl for their second week in a row to taste their new flavor rotation. Here are our thoughts.
Anyone who is a Cheesecake Factory fan, or just a cheesecake lover, needs to run to Crumbl to give their New York Cheesecake Cookie a try. It is a perfect combination of vanilla cheesecake frosting on top of a slightly chilled graham cracker cookie, which comes together to taste exactly like it’s supposed to, or maybe even better. While we were somewhat split on the rating of this cookie, one taster truly believed it is one of the best Crumbl cookies she ever had. However, to acknowledge another perspective, others thought it was merely another cheesecake cookie, not bad, but not special. While—quite obviously—this taster with a self-declared exceptional palate didn’t agree with this perspective, we all agree that this cookie was not one that brought this week’s lineup down. If anything, it did the opposite.
The highlight of the Strawberry Butter Cake was the vanilla-bean whipped cream topping, pairing nicely with the strawberry shortcake flavor. The texture of the actual cake exterior was harder and coated with sugar, with a warm interior. Some staff members were less passionate about this flavor, but if you like strawberry shortcake, you’ll love this.
We were hoping for the Brownie Batter cookie to taste more like a home-cooked brownie during the holiday season with a perfect warm gooey center. While it didn’t quite live up to those lofty expectations, it didn’t completely disappoint either. It tasted like any other brownie from any grocery store. It tasted more like a brownie than brownie batter (it might not seem like there would be a significant taste difference between the two, but believe us, there is.)
While the Carrot Cake ranked high this week, we suspect the dessert was a repeat of last week’s disappointing Biscoff Cake. Both shared a similar cinnamon-y flavor that fell short of their expectations. The Carrot Cake consisted of layers of topping swirls and carrot infused cake, providing a sweet treat appropriate for the Easter season. That’s all it was, though.
The M&M Monster cookie was certainly impressive—all monster, no M&M—too much but not enough all at the same time. Crumbl’s website described the cookie as a capsule of peanut butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, and M&Ms, but we found that most of these components missing in significant amounts. The chocolate chunks and M&Ms were sparsely distributed throughout the cookie, leaving it tasting more like peanut butter than anything. Had the cookie been labeled as a solely peanut butter cookie, perhaps our staff’s opinion would have yielded a higher ranking. Instead, we found ourselves seriously disappointed when we held this cookie up to its promising name.
Those who read our review of last week’s lineup know just how much we loved the chocolate chip cookie. While last week’s Milk Chocolate Chip cookie still comes first in our hearts, this week’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chunk served as a solid palate cleanser for this week’s rich flavor profile. The cookie delivers exactly what it promises: delightful chunks of semi-sweet chocolate. Traditional, reliable, delicious!
The Red Velvet cookie was one of the most delicious cookies we’ve tasted. No cookie is perfect, but this one came close. The cookie had the perfect red velvet flavor—a balance of mild cocoa and vanilla. The classic cream cheese frosting was even better than the cream cheese topping on the cheesecake cookie. It balanced the slight sour twang of the cream cheese with the sweetness of the frosting. The cookie was crunchy on the outside—which gave us some pause—but upon taking extra bites, we found the soft center was where the red velvet flavor really shone through. Those who read our last review will know we are very particular about our cookies, and we have lots of different palates among our staff that all prefer different flavors. This cookie was agreed upon by all of our staffers as the best one this week.
Overall, this week was better than the last, but we still aren’t impressed. Our staff would like to see a more cohesive idea for a week rather than random flavors that allow them to reuse ingredients from past weeks—biscoff-carrot cookie we are looking at you. We are on the edge of our seats waiting for Sunday night to excite ourselves over the new flavors of next week (which crumbl has been keeping under wraps) not even the spoiler pages have been able to get their hands on next week’s line up. It is sure not to disappoint.
