Fans Are Rallying Behind Zooey Deschanel's Very Honest Crumbl Cookie Review
A celebrity opened a pink box of Crumbl Cookies on camera, hated what she found, and triggered a conversation about whether the internet’s favorite cookie brand actually delivers.
If you’ve been quietly skeptical about hyped products you don’t enjoy, the culture just caught up with you.
On March 6, “New Girl” actress Zooey Deschanel posted a social media review of Crumbl Cookies that was blunt, funny, and deeply relatable.
“I’ve inherited some cookies,” she said before opening a box of six cookies. “Oh my god, these are a lot.”
She went on to call the cookies “too big” and said they were best for sharing with friends rather than eating solo.
She tried several flavors and didn’t hold back.
The Biscoff-flavored cookie? She urged fans to “just eat a Biscoff.” The chocolate chip got a hard “no” — multiple no’s, in fact. The sugar cookie she described as “heavy” and “so sweet,” and not in a complimentary way.
She also complained that some cookies were “hard” before delivering a flat: “Um, I don’t like it.”
Then came the texture whiplash. She bit into one that was “really soft,” which she described as an “unbaked cookie” and “raw pancake cookie.”
Her full verdict: “They look really cute, I’m sure somebody would like these. 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,” she concluded.
Her caption read: “Someone had to say it.”
Why the Response Was So Loud
The comment sections told the real story. Deschanel’s review tapped into something a lot of people had been thinking but hadn’t articulated publicly.
“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 commenters described her small, tentative bites as “McDonald’s CEO-ing” and “Hollywood bites.” Content creator Sarah McCreanor wrote on Instagram: “Absolutely here for this de-influencing.”
Some bakeries saw the review as a marketing ploy.
“Maybe Bundt Cakes are more your taste? Say the word and we’ll send some!” Nothing Bundt Cakes wrote in a comment on Instagram.
Insomnia Cookies, Nowhere Bakery, and Showstopper Cakes all chimed in too, along with cooking influencers.
Crumbl itself responded on Instagram: “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.”
Crumbl’s Scale and the Gap Between Hype and Experience
Crumbl was founded in 2017 and started going viral on TikTok in 2021.
Today, they have 10.8 million followers on the platform and rank among the most popular cookie brands in the country.
In October, The Hollywood Reporter published an article that described Crumbl as “the cookie that broke the internet.” The brand’s model — rotating weekly flavors, oversized cookies, a pink box designed for unboxing content — was built for social media virality.
That virality creates a gap between expectation and experience. When a product becomes famous primarily through short-form video content, the in-person reality doesn’t always match.
Deschanel’s review zeroed in on that disconnect: cookies that look photogenic but taste inconsistent, portions designed more for content than for eating.
The trend toward honest, unfiltered product assessment isn’t going away. Sometimes the most useful review is the one that says: skip it.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
