The One Savory, Non-Cookie Snack The Girl Scouts Ever Sold

The stereotypical image of a Girl Scout is this: a freckle-faced young girl between the ages of 8 and 12, wearing a green beret and a sash dotted with the multicolored badges for a variety of different achievements worn similar to the medals worn by military commanders. Trailing behind this precocious Scout is a red wagon filled with a haphazard pyramid of boxes upon boxes of cookies, of all different shapes and flavors. The Scout clutches in her hand a clipboard and a pen, a foot tapping in bored rhythm as she waits for you to pick which cookies you want to buy.

Of course, the image of the Girl Scouts has evolved over the course of its lifetime and the above image of the Girl Scout is nothing more than a relic in old popular culture. But while the Girl Scouts may have changed, their most famous product — Girl Scout Cookies – certainly hasn't. The first-ever cookie sale began in 1917, during a high school bake sale to raise money for troop activities. From there, Girl Scouts have become synonymous with selling cookies, whether it's the chocolatey mint delights of Thin Mint to the rich indulgences of the Peanut Butter Patties. Hey, who doesn't love a good cookie, right?

But, once upon a time, cookies weren't the only thing Girl Scouts sold. In fact, this particular snack — Golden Yangles — wasn't even a dessert at all.

Imagine that you're looking over an order sheet for Girl Scout Cookies. As you go through the usual list of names, you notice one type of cookie you've never heard of before: Golden Yangles. Expecting them to be something along the lines of a vanilla cookie, you put in an order for them. You would be surprised, then, when you discover that what you bought isn't any kind of delicious crème-filled vanilla cookie, but instead a bag of cheese crackers.

According to the Girl Scouts Hearts of Michigan, Girl Scouts actually did sell Golden Yangles — fan-shaped cheese-flavored crackers similar to Cheez-Its — starting sometime in the 1980s. The cheese snack stayed around until 1992 when they were discontinued. Some seemed to look back on the unorthodox Girl Scout cracker with fond memories, perhaps showing that, even if they weren't cookies, the Golden Yangles made quite the impression.

"Okay, so it's a cheese cracker, but the box still says "Girl Scout Cookies," pines the MeTV staff. "It's always good to have some savory to balance out all that sweetness."

If you really want to try some Golden Yangles for yourself, a seller on eBay is currently selling a box of the crackers from the 1980s for $59.99. Is that too much to ask for a piece of Girl Scout history?

While it is admittedly strange to get cheese crackers from the Girl Scouts, they aren't entirely unfamiliar with selling crackers and other non-cookie snacks throughout their history.

The Northwest Georgia Girl Scout Council, although reportedly never selling Golden Yangle crackers, also sold its own type of cracker back in the late 1970s. The cracker, simply titled "Sesame Wheat Crackers," was sold between the 1979 and 1980 cookie seasons and then never sold again.  While not a cracker on its own, there was a "cookie" known as the Kookaburra. Unlike cookies such as Thin Mints or Do-si-dos, Kookaburras were a cross between a Rice Krispy treat and a Kit-Kat bar, being a layer of crispy rice topped with caramel and chocolate. Strangely, if you want to try the Kookaburra cookie for yourself (without having to go through eBay), discount grocery store Aldi reportedly sells a copycat of the cookie under the name "Benton's Delights." 

While there are many types of snacks and non-cookies that have come and gone through the halls of Girl Scout history, one thing is always certain: so long as there are Girl Scouts, there will always be cookies.