Crunching Data on the Best Cookies

Think you know chocolate chip cookies? Consumer Reports tested 18 of the sugary confections and in a new ranking says the cookies produced by Southampton, N.Y.-based Tate’s Bake Shop take the cake.

“They were excellent. They had big butter and chocolate flavors and smooth chocolate chips,” Consumer Reports’ Maxine Seigel told ABC News. “We rated them excellent.”

Seigel says that because of their price, Tate’s are more of a treat for the gourmand — not an every-day, sit down and eat-a-bag-of-cookies kind of cookie.

“They’re quite expensive,” Seigel notes. “Each cookie costs about 76 cents, but they are worth it if you don’t feel like baking them in your own home for a nice treat.”

In its analysis Consumer Reports says, “If you’re going to indulge in a sweet treat, you want it to be tasty. But most of the 18 store-bought and fast-food chocolate-chip cookies our trained tasters tried, including top seller Nabisco Chips Ahoy, were just O.K., and many were dry and gritty.”

Some of the other top-rated confections? Cookies at Starbucks, McDonald’s and Subway “were very good,” Seigel said. “Dunkin’ Donuts was a little bit less so, only because in some of the stores we found them to be over-baked.”

Cookies from Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts have more calories than the others, according to Consumer Reports, “but their cookies are about three times as big,” the report said. And proof that you can’t have your cake and eat it, too? “Weight Watchers, the cookie with the least fat and fewest calories, was lowest-rated of all.”

Tate’s can be found at Whole Foods, Balducci’s, Bristol Farms, Central Market and other retailers.

ABC’s Steve Iervolino contributed to this report.