Zooey Deschanel Just Said What Many Crumbl Cookie Critics Have Been Thinking All Along
Zooey Deschanel just walked into one of the most heated food debates on the internet — and she did not come to make friends.
The “New Girl” actress posted a video review of Crumbl Cookies on March 6 that was blunt, specific and utterly unsparing. Her caption: “Someone had to say it.”
The response has been massive, pulling in competing bakeries, fellow celebrities and years of pent-up skepticism about whether social media’s favorite cookie chain lives up to the hype.
Zooey Deschanel Didn’t Hold Back — At All
“I’ve inherited some cookies,” Deschanel said before opening a box of six cookies. “Oh my god, these are a lot.”
She went on to say the cookies “are too big” and are best for sharing with friends, as opposed to eating them by yourself. From there, her review turned into a flavor-by-flavor teardown.
After trying the Biscoff-flavored cookie, she urged her fans to “just eat a Biscoff.” She gave the chocolate chip cookie a hard “no” (multiple no’s) and described the sugar cookie as “heavy” and “so sweet” — not in a good way.
She also complained the cookies were “hard” before saying, “Um, I don’t like it.”
“Now my hands are dirty. I don’t mean to complain, but I don’t like these cookies,” she added.
Then she bit into one that was “really soft,” which she described as an “unbaked cookie” and “raw pancake cookie.”
Her final verdict packed everything into one tight paragraph:
“They look really cute, I’m sure somebody would like these,” she said in the video.
She concluded: “Nutshell review, I hate these cookies. Some of them tasted overbaked, some of them tasted underbaked. Some of them had a bunch of stuff on top of them for no reason. I can’t figure out why people like these cookies, but if you like cookies like this, bless you. You can have mine.”
The Internet Has Been Waiting for This
The reactions across platforms were immediate. People who had been quietly questioning the Crumbl hype for years suddenly had a celebrity co-sign.
“Crumbl cookies are not good, it’s all hype and rotating bad cookies,” one user wrote on TikTok.
“The realest crumbl cookie review,” another TikTok follower wrote.
Some comments described her tiny bites as “McDonald’s CEO-ing” and “Hollywood bites.” Even among people who agreed with her, the roasting never stopped.
Content creator Sarah McCreanor leaned in too. “Absolutely here for this de-influencing,” she wrote on Instagram.
The video turned into an unexpected brand battlefield.
Several cookie joints — including Insomnia Cookies, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Nowhere Bakery and Showstopper Cakes — and cooking influencers chimed in and offered to share some of their cookies.
“Maybe Bundt Cakes are more your taste? Say the word and we’ll send some!” Nothing Bundt Cakes wrote in a comment on Instagram.
Crumbl didn’t ignore the review. The company commented directly on Deschanel’s post.
“Zooey, we’re huge fans of yours! We’ve released over 200 flavors and we’re sure we can get you something you’ll love if you’d give us another chance,” the company wrote on Instagram.
The Cookie Brand Deschanel Just Took On
Crumbl has built a massive following around rotating weekly flavors, pink boxes and TikTok-ready unboxing content. The company was founded in 2017 and started going viral on TikTok in 2021.
Today, they have 10.8 million followers on the platform.
In October, The Hollywood Reporter published an article that described Crumbl as “the cookie that broke the internet.”
Deschanel’s review is essentially one person asking, “OK, but does it actually taste good though?” — the question that all the aesthetic unboxing videos and weekly flavor drop content never quite answers.
For the millions of people who have stood in a Crumbl line, spent the money, opened the pink box and thought, “Wait… this is it?” — Deschanel just said what they couldn’t.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
