Chips Ahoy faces backlash from lifelong fans after cookie recipe is quietly altered: 'Absolutely shameful'

Cookie fans are branding the new Chips Ahoy! recipe as 'awful' and 'truly terrible' after the iconic American brand altered its ingredients earlier this year. 

The company debuted a new recipe for its original cookie in March - which was the biggest update to the snack in almost a decade. 

Bosses said the new 'MMMproved' cookie had been revamped with chocolate chips with a higher cacao content and 'just the right cookie texture.'

Development for the new recipe took more than four years and testers considered 60 different recipes before making the final choice. 

But many Americans are taking to social media to express their distaste about the change to the beloved snack - with some even pledging to never buy the brand again as a result.

Chips Ahoy is the best-selling brand of chocolate chip cookie in the US - accounting for more than half sold. A 13 oz pack costs around $4 in stores.  

The company debuted a new recipe for its original cookie in March - which was the biggest update to the snack in almost a decade

Read More

Full extent of price rises at Burger King McDonald's, Wendy's and Carl's Jr revealed: $20 combo a grim reality

One user wrote on Reddit: 'Truly terrible. Absolutely shameful that anyone green lit this. I've been eating Chips Ahoy for my whole life, but this is worse than the worse low budget store brands. I won't be buying ever again. Sad.'

Others questioned why the company would change the recipe of their most popular cookie. 

'I used to LOVE Chips Ahoy. I had one of the new ones and threw away an entire party size box,' wrote another. 

Another person simply declared: 'The "new" Chips Ahoy recipe sucks.

Among the frustrated customers' complaints are that the cookies are 'stale', 'overcooked' and have an 'off-putting vanilla aftertaste.' 

'Stocking up on the originals whenever I can find them. New ones tastes of a darker chocolate with a nasty vanilla aftertaste,' wrote another unhappy customer on Reddit. 

The updated recipe features 'specially blended' chocolate chips which feature a higher cacao content and a higher concentrate Madagascar vanilla extract. 

Chips Ahoy! cookies have more than 53 percent of market share for chocolate chip cookies in the US, the company's senior director Sabrina Sierant, senior director at the company, said in a statement. 

The company - owned by giant Mondelez International, which also owns Oreo and Cadbury - has been making cookies since the 1960s.

According to research company Euromonitor International, Chips Ahoy! is top of the cookies category globally - holding more than a 10 percent share of the market. 

Among the frustrated customers' complaints are that the cookies are 'stale', 'overcooked' and have an 'off-putting vanilla aftertaste'

Cocoa prices have been on the rise since the second half of 2023 due to poor climate

But the classic brand is not alone in tweaking its products over the last year. 

Cocoa prices have soared in recent months due to poor climate and bean disease in West Africa, which is home to 70 percent of global cocoa production. 

This, in turn, has tightened supply and seen prices skyrocket. 

This has meant that some confectionary brands are pitching more non-chocolate treats - or altering existing recipes. 

For example, the latest addition to the permanent flavor lineup at Hershey's is a Chocolate Frosted Donut flavor Kit Kat bar - which is only partially dipped in chocolate rather than completely covered - Bloomberg reported earlier this year.