What makes a cookie $3? I often find myself asking this question as I eat around town and come across places selling cookies. These days, cookies are everywhere. From bakeries to donut shops to lunch spots to restaurants. All of varying degrees and prices. Usually the $3 tag is something I only see at "specialty" places where they offer it up as "organic", "locally produced", "sea salt", etc. Really sometimes these are just buzzwords to get you to spend more. See places like Craftsmen and Wolves and the like. I don't mind paying $3 if the cookie is worth it and part of that comes down to size also. Take the cookie above for instance. I got this at the new Samovar Tea Lounge location on Valencia street. Overall it is a perfectly decent cookie. A little crispness around the outside, chewy towards the middle, chocolate mostly throughout and a sprinkle of sea salt and brown sugar on top. A pleasant salty sweet treat. Is it $3 worthy? Eh, not so much. Even if they do use Valrhona chocolate, organic sea salt and what not. These things aren't that uncommon in town and honestly no longer make a cookie a special thing. Sort of that concept that if everyone is doing it then it isn't so special anymore. I would say the sugar on top was unnecessary and the cookie as a whole was a tad overdone. Plus it was about the size of my palm and not thick but thin. Thus when taking this into consideration and comparing it to other cookies around town I'd say this is more a $2-ish cookie, still a smidge high maybe, but passable in San Francisco pricing terms. The upshot of this for me is that special ingredients don't always make it "special". When it all comes down to it, taste is the most important thing and you can make just as good a cookie with proper baking and Nestle Toll House chocolate as with anything else. Cookies don't need to be pricey to be good, they just need to be baked right.
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