Australians desperate to try the famous American Crumbl Cookies after a disastrous pop-up in Sydney have been urged to try a much cheaper “copy” currently available at Woolworths.
Loaded Cookies from Cookie Man, an Australian-owned brand that first opened in 1958, feature the same doughy texture and sugary fillings as Crumbl Cookies.
Sydney mom and food lover Annie @Anniesbucketlist shared a review of Cookie Man’s red velvet and snickerdoodle flavors.
Both varieties are available in packs of two for $5.50 at Woolworths.
“Apparently these are Crumbl Cookie dupes that you can get in Sydney,” Annie told her followers in a video on social media.
‘They cost like five dollars for a two-pack of Woolies, so I had to try them.
‘I have the red velvet and the snickerdoodle. You have to microwave them for 10 seconds to get them sticky in the middle.’
While visitors to the Crumbl pop-up shop in Bondi on Sunday complained that the biscuits, which had been flown back to Australia from Hawaii for resale, were “stale”, Annie said the Woolworths alternative was delicious .
‘The red velvet filling wasn’t as sticky as the other one, but the cheesecake filling inside was really creamy and delicious and contrasted nicely with the chocolate exterior. “Eight out of 10,” he stated.
‘Honestly, I don’t usually get the snickerdoodle flavor, but the cookie butter filling was the best. This was nine out of 10. Super surprising for a Woolies biscuit.
“I would buy this again.”
Loaded Cookies (pictured) from Cookie Man, an Australian-owned shop that first opened in 1958, have been named as a ‘copycat’ of Crumbl Cookies.
Sydney mom and food lover Annie (pictured), @Anniesbucketlist, shared a review of Cookie Man’s red velvet and snickerdoodle flavors on TikTok.
Several foodies and TikTok influencers who queued for more than an hour on Sunday to buy a $17.50 Crumbl cookie said they were disappointed by the quality.
“This was like a scam, it’s actually very bad,” said TikTok food critic Hamze.
“It’s so sweet, the texture is just weird, it’s so sugary… I feel like I’m eating sugar.”
Crumbl co-founder Sawyer Hemsley commented on a TikTok review by influencer Elle, the eastern suburbs mom, who spent $150 on 10 cookies.
‘You have to try them fresh in the USA!’ PS: This pop-up is not affiliated with Crumbl Cookies,” Hemsley wrote in the video.
It was the first time the US-based franchise had acknowledged the event, which has been fiercely defended by organizers in an online statement.
They said they had never claimed to be an official Crumbl store and that the cookies had been stored in an airtight container before the event.
Loaded Cookie varieties (pictured) are available in packs of two for $5.50 at Woolworths
Sydney influencer Elle (pictured) spent $150 on 10 cookies at Crumbl’s fake pop-up in Bondi on Sunday
“Our goal was to bring authentic Crumbl cookies to Australia by importing them directly from the United States,” organizers said.
‘We traveled to the United States to buy the cookies and imported them with their original packaging. We don’t bake them ourselves.’
Organizers also said all legal boxes had been checked for the pop-up.
‘Our goal was to bring cookies to Crumbl fans. The import and resale is called parallel import. Parallel imports are legal,” the statement continues.
“We followed all legal procedures, declared the cookies as commercial products and obtained the necessary approvals from Australian customs.”