I like them enough that my husband will actually point them out in the grocery store when he wants to get an immediate, cheerful response out of me. "Hey Lindsay, they have Hello Panda!" "Yeah they do! I love those things." I'll even drop whatever I'm talking about to acknowledge them, which makes these cookies a useful way for people around me to initiate fast changes in conversational topic.
(Other, similar strategies include pointing out nearby small animals--"Hey Lindsay, there's a dog across the street!"--fish tanks, Doctor Who paraphernalia, novelty socks, etc. I try to keep a lot of conversational eject buttons conveniently placed in my behavioral programming, because they do tend to come in handy. Now back to the subject of cookies.)
It's true that I am at least a little biased by how TOTALLY ADORABLE the cartoon panda on the box is, but the cookies inside are also lovely independent of their cute marketing strategy.
Hello Panda Cookies Are Nicely Portioned
Each little cookie is modestly sized, approximately 1" x 1" x 0.5" which makes portion control much easier than with many other delicious, commercially produced, boxed cookies.
The internet (whom I am tentatively trusting, because Nabisco's website only gives Oreo calorie information by the gram, not by the cookie) states that a single Oreo cookie contains 70 calories. Quite a lot of cardiovascular exercise and/or austere eating elsewhere is needed to offset a stack of Oreos, making them something of a special occasion cookie.
Hello Panda cookies are 20 calories each, and eating 3.5 of them (70 calories) feels like considerably more cookie time than a single Oreo does. While they are still genuinely cookies for cookies' sake, they're still a more manageable choice for cookie time in normal life.
In defense of Oreos, Hello Panda cookies are not as suitable for dunking in milk. But different cookies are best for different situations.
Hello Panda Cookies Have a Lovely Balance of Textures and Flavors
I likened Hello Panda cookies to Oreo cookies because the flavors and textures are reasonably comparable. They're quite different foods, but familiarity with one can help build a fuller imaginary representation of the other.
Both cookies have wonderful, crunchy exteriors and pleasing (if a little confusing) creamy middles.
Both cookies have chocolate-themed elements that are not actual chocolate, and both seem to be full of sweetened, mildly dangerous shortening. (IS it shortening? It is shortening, isn't it. Is it? Is it?)
Hello Panda cookies have a perfectly crunchy and mild biscuit exterior, and they are filled with a creamy, not-actually-ganache "choco cream."
The consistency of the biscuit layer is similar to that of the snack food style of small, hard pretzels. (Which I am making a little too much effort to distinguish from the larger, soft, baked, traditional pretzels.)
The Hello Panda outer cookie is slightly more brittle than a pretzel. It's less tough, less salty, and is a little thicker and sweeter, without being too sweet. The biscuit exterior gently cracks and snaps apart when bitten, and does not bend under pressure. The flavor resembles shortbread, but is less greasy and intense. (Shortbread isn't particularly intensely flavored, but these cookies are still milder.)
As mentioned before, the cookies have a delicious, chocolate-themed filling, similar to ganache but more shelf-stable. Like the outside, the filling is not overly sweet. To liken it to other chocolatey products found in many American grocery stores, the texture is slightly harder than Nutella but slightly softer than the inside of a a Lindt truffle.
The combination of crunch with smooth, of flour-based flavors with chocolate-like candy/frosting flavors, is very nice. Perfectly suited to the not-quite-a-baked-good, also-not-candy role that I have for crunchy, commercially produced, boxed cookies.
That, and, did you see how cute the cartoon panda is?!?! Wow.
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