- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 20 hours ago
// Are cookie shops worth it? what makes a great cookie?
I recently moved to Bordeaux, a medieval city in southwest France, not far from the vineyards of Médoc and Saint-Émilion and the Atlantic coast. Vibe is: sunshine over narrow cobbled streets, rugby flags floating from windows, every terrace full of people cheering, hugging and taking their delicious time. Thousands of tourists come here every year for the wine and the local gastronomy: foie gras, cannelés, oysters... and, apparently, cookies. Yes, I know. Doesn't really fit the postcard.
Just walking around looking for our new studio, we passed one after another: shops selling nothing but cookies. Of course, I had to investigate. I'm now on a mission to find Bordeaux's best cookie. I'm ready to get crumbs all over my fingers and grease stains on my tote bag.
I. Groundwork
Before the taste test, I wanted to understand why there are so many cookie shops here in Bordeaux and get a bigger picture of the cookie game.
BY THE NUMBERS
The global cookie market is booming. It was valued at $16 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $21 billion by 2031. Europe accounts for almost 30% of that market. Europeans have a preference for premium, organic, and artisanal products.
France is definitely part of the cookie game, with market growth of around 4% every year. Frenchies love eating on the go, hanging out in coffee shops, and satisfying their sweet tooth. On average, a French person eats around 2 kilograms of cookies per year.
THE BORDEAUX SITUATION
So yes, cookies are definitely taking over our streets, and Bordeaux seems to be a prime target. Since 2019, more than ten dedicated cookie shops have opened in the city. Rue Sainte-Catherine alone is home to four different cookie brands. Quite a lot for a city with a population of 843,738.
"We're the French city with the most cookie shops per square metre"
one baker told the local press.
"Cookies are becoming like pizza or burgers"
said another shop owner,
arguing that the competition
is healthy and that there's room
for every cookie shop.
Maybe cookies feel particularly at home in Bordeaux because of its large student population (it's the fifth-largest student city in France). Maybe they're the alternative to cannelés.
MY COOKIE THEORY
As a French girl, here's my explanation in four points on why cookie shops are popular here:
1
We love a specialist.
Mono-product shops are a big oui. People trust businesses that focus on doing one thing well. We want the crème de la crème.
2
We're a little bored of fancy pastries. They're expensive, pretentious, and not decadent enough. A cookie is simple. You know exactly what you're getting. It feels accessible. Croissants are for tourists or Monday mornings at the office. Cookies are cool. About as cool as a takeaway iced matcha latte.
3
We're grown-up kids. We collect Pokémon cards. We hang plushies on our handbags. We spend our adult money on tiny pieces of nostalgia.
So it makes perfect sense that we love cookies, a kid's favourite goûter.*
*the French 4–5 p.m. sweet snack ritual, one of those core childhood memories of coming home from school..
4
They're American. Or even better: they're from New York. We grew up with Disney movies, we buy I ♥ NY mugs, we binge-watch American TV shows. American culture still has a certain cool factor in France.
As part of my investigation, I tried to identify recurring cookie styles. Most of the cookies I tasted seemed to fall into one of these five categories.
1
Thin & Golden
Thin, flat, evenly baked. Golden with crisp edges and a light texture. The kind you'd find in a cookie jar on the kitchen counter.
2
Soft & Doughy
Soft, tender, underbaked. Often made with brown sugar, which gives them a moist, melt-in-your-mouth texture. Usually quite flat due to their soft structure.
3
Thick Bakery Cookies
Heavyweight, thick, generous, XXL. A firmer outer shell with a soft, gooey interior. Easy to stuff and perfect for piling on toppings.
4
Crinkly Cookies
Bumpy, crackled surface, crisp exterior, lots of textural contrast. Often loaded with nuts, chocolate chunks, or other mix-ins. High crumb potential.
5
Sandy Cookies
Buttery, crumbly, with a texture that easily falls apart. Cookies can end up this way when the dough is overmixed. The flour and butter separate, creating a sandy texture rather than a soft, tender one.
II. The hunt
The goal here is twofold: first, to tell you where to find your favourite kind of cookie in Bordeaux; second, to figure out what makes the ultimate cookie. For this first round of investigation, I focused on 4 cookie shops. In each one, I bought two cookies: one basic chocolate chip cookie and one special, either the bestseller or the cookie of the moment.
Charlotte à Croquer
Located on my favourite street in Bordeaux, just a few steps from the Big Bell (Grosse Cloche), this is the city's newest cookie shop. The team was welcoming, and the display was almost sold out. They seem to enjoy experimenting with flavours and also serve warm cookie dough. You can pair your cookie with a drink and enjoy it at one of the small tables outside. Packaging: a kraft paper bag stamped with a tiny red heart.
BASIC
Hazelnuts & milk chocolate spread
TEXTURE
Chewy, soft, and intentionally underbaked. Very buttery (the paper bag quickly turned translucent). Crunchy hazelnuts bring a nice contrast. Thick and heavy, but fairly flat because of the soft dough.
TASTE
Brown sugar and vanilla notes, but the milk chocolate spread doesn't come through much. Personally, I found it a little too rich after a few bites.
SPECIAL
Salted butter caramel & toasted buckwheat
TEXTURE
The same soft, chewy, intentionally underbaked texture as the classic, with an extra touch of crunch from the toasted buckwheat.
TASTE
A really interesting combination. I loved the crunch and toasted cereal flavour of the buckwheat, and the fleur de sel tied everything together beautifully. The caramel, however, stays very much in the background.
WHO IS IT FOR?
For the adventurous and the cookie dough lovers. Bonus points for the beautiful location.
Be my cookie
Not far from Utopia Cinema, and still in one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Bordeaux, you'll find Be My Cookie. They sometimes hand out cookie samples outside. From what I've read, this was the first cookie shop to open in Bordeaux in 2019. Even at the end of the day, there were plenty of cookies left to choose from: peanuts, three chocolates, and other familiar flavours. Packaging: a kraft paper bag.
BASIC
Chocolate chip & walnut
TEXTURE
Soft, chewy, and intentionally underbaked. Smaller than the other cookies we tried.
TASTE
Walnuts bring a nice crunch. The chocolate isn't very pronounced, with just a hint of vanilla. A simple, comforting cookie.
SPECIAL
Dark chocolate, peanut butter & fleur de sel
TEXTURE
Still soft and underbaked. The peanut butter centre is very rich and a little sticky, almost coating the roof of your mouth.
TASTE
The peanut butter definitely takes over. It brings the saltiness too, which could have balanced the dark chocolate dough, but I couldn't really taste it.
WHO IS IT FOR?
For underbaked cookie lovers and anyone who enjoys simple, classic flavours.
Tiki Bar
Tiki Bar has two locations in Bordeaux. I visited the one on Rue du Parlement, just off Rue Sainte-Catherine. The team was welcoming. The cookies are displayed in the window, but you have to step inside the bar to order. The flavour selection is simple and a little childish, think Kinder, Oreo… You can also sit down with a drink. They're known for their smoothies. Packaging: branded white paper bag.
BASIC
Chocolate chip
TEXTURE
Soft and nicely baked. Fairly flat, not too chewy, no textural contrast. A generous size for such a flat cookie.
TASTE
I don't know why, but it reminded me of an industrial cookie. The chocolate flavour wasn't really there. Personally, it wasn't my favourite...But AT80 (love of my life and cameraman) looooved it. Maybe this one speaks more to your inner child.
SPECIAL
Kinder
TEXTURE
Exactly the same texture as the classic: soft, fairly flat, and not too chewy.
TASTE
The Kinder didn't really bring much to the cookie for me. It tasted very similar to the classic, just sweeter. Again, not my favourite, but my big kid over here oved it.
WHO IS IT FOR?
For the big kids after a generous, affordable cookie.
Pepite Cookie
A cute outdoor cookie stand with three cookie sizes to choose from, and three different price points. To make the comparison fair, I went for the biggest size, which is closest to the cookies from the other shops. The team was friendly. Their dome-shaped cookies probably explain why they offer so many filled cookies with runny centres. Packaging: a branded paper bag, with each cookie individually wrapped.
BASIC
Chocolate chip & walnut
TEXTURE
Delicious. Almost ball-shaped, which gives it a crunchy outside and a slightly softer centre. Crunchy walnuts, big chunks of dark chocolate, lots going on texture-wise.
TASTE
Slightly caramelised, slightly toasted. The dark chocolate really shines through. It tastes like the cookies my mum used to bake.
SPECIAL
Homemade chocolate hazelnut spread
TEXTURE
The homemade hazelnut spread has the perfect consistency: runny, but not messy. It doesn't spill everywhere when you break the cookie.
TASTE
The dough around the filling is DELICIOUS. Honestly, I'd eat that dough on its own. It's the perfect shell for the runny centre. It can be too rich, but I have a weakness for Nutella, so I'm willing to forgive anything.
WHO IS IT FOR?
The indecisive: try several flavours with the mini cookies. The sweet tooth: the large ones are huge. The nostalgic: they taste like the cookies your mum used to bake.
CONCLUSION
Turns out eating eight cookies in one afternoon is a terrible idea. I genuinely didn't think it would make me feel sick... but it did. That's a lot of sugar.
Doing all this research also reminded me of the time I spent writing a business plan for my own food project five years ago (yes, that's a story for another day). For a second, I almost wanted to do it all over again. If I were opening a cookie shop today, I'd push the branding much further. Cookies are cool. They're American. Give them the identity they deserve. A strong concept, memorable packaging, great storytelling (without trashing the planet, of course).
The funny thing is, after all this tasting, I don't actually feel like giving you a ranking. Every shop has its own style. Some bake thick gooey cookies, others go for childhood nostalgia, others experiment with unexpected flavours. They're all trying to make the best cookie possible. So instead of looking for the best cookie, maybe just find your best cookie.
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