Ice cream, snow cones, and popsicles typically come to mind when thinking about classic American summer desserts. Although, according to Yelp’s Data Lab and your trend-obsessed cohort, there is a new summer treat in town: raw cookie dough. Eater and Yelp paired up to get to the bottom of the sudden popularity of edible cookie dough.
When diving into Yelp’s review data from 2009 to 2017 the mention of “cookie dough” in reviews in the dessert category has grown significantly. Between the years of 2009 and 2016 the mention of cookie dough in dessert reviews posted between the start of the year and June 20 remained pretty stagnant, fluctuating by minuscule amounts year to year. In 2017, all this changed.
As featured in the Eater story, at the start of the new year, Kristen Tomlan opened DŌ Cookie Dough Confections in New York City. A few days after Tomlan’s launch on February 2, INSIDER food published a Facebook video feature of the shop that went viral, with 67 million views, over 700,000 shares, and over 250,000 reactions to date. You might have seen this video pop up multiple times on your Facebook feed, featuring tubs of decadent cookie dough scooped into hot pink cones like ice cream.
This crazy amount of exposure to the concept of edible cookie dough catapulted DŌ’s popularity in addition to sparking openings of several other similar shops around America like Cookie Dough Cafe and Dough Boyz. Yelpers, being the in-the-know locals they are, were quick to check out the trend, raising mentions of “cookie dough” in reviews in the dessert category on Yelp by nearly 70% from the same period in 2016.
There is no denying that 2017 is seeing a cookie dough boutique boom. With numerous shops already opened and multiple shops in the works, cookie dough options are expanding across the states. Check out this Yelp bookmark collection for some of the hottest spots to get your cookie dough fix, including:
DŌ, Cookie Dough Confections – New York, New York
Yelp Review Highlight: “The line is worth the wait if you’re a cookie dough lover. This stuff is THE GREATEST on earth.” – Marty R.
Treet – San Diego, California
Yelp Review Highlight: “Like their name, this place is truly a “treet”. I came here on random Saturday night with thoughts of the new, trendy edible cookie dough in mind. They had three big buckets of Oreo, chocolate chip, and some Twix/Kit Kat mash-up. As you thought, I had to sample all three! Each one had the perfect consistency of cookie dough and wasn’t too sweet.”- Vince L.
Cookie Dough Creations – Naperville, Illinois
Yelp Review Highlight: “Outrageously good eggless cookie dough! Turtle, peanut butter, chocolate chip… Love the ice cream/ cookie dough mix.” – Corin C.
Dough Boyz – Cheektowaga, New York
Yelp Review Highlight: “We purchased original with mini chocolate chips, one with sprinkles, one with mini M&M’s, and a salted caramel one. Every one of them is delicious, but a single bite of original brought me back to sneaking bits of raw chocolate chip cookie dough from the bowl while making cookies with my gramma.”- Stephanie M.
Cuckoo for cookie dough? Reshare this article if you think Yelp should create a cookie dough category.
