This week at Crumbl, the Lemon Bar Cookie immediately caught our eye in the weekly lineup, standing out as a bright, bubbly burst of flavor amid a sea of chocolatey and cinnamon-forward options. So when it came time to choose a flavor for our taste test, there was no questioning the choice—it was the clear pick.
Our Official Thoughts
Pros — As devoted fans of the bright, zingy flavor that lemon bars offer, we approached this cookie with genuine eagerness. Even a simple lemon bar typically yields a satisfying bite, and this cookie largely delivered on that expectation. It wasn’t a groundbreaking triumph, but it did thoroughly convey the intense lemon flavor it promised without becoming overly sour in the process.
Beyond the lemon itself, one of our favorite qualities of lemon bars is the texture of the set filling. Slightly chewy, a touch sticky, and irresistibly luscious, the topping of this cookie met every textural hope we had. That said, the cookie still fell short in a few key areas.
Cons — While the lemon topping tasted surprisingly natural and appealing, the real issue lay with the cookie base. It arrived dry enough to feel chalky and lacked the strong lemon bite that the topping suggested. Instead, the cookie tasted more like a subpar sugar cookie. This would have been a good moment to introduce a balancing salt, but that essential seasoning was missing.
Not only was the flavor of the cookie lacking, but its thickness was off as well. There was no reason for the cookie to be so thick that it dulled the impact of the delicious lemon topping and ended up misrepresenting the very concept of a lemon bar.
Our final quibble is with the overall presentation. The topping’s gooey texture understandably makes neat handling challenging, yet the finish came off as sloppy, especially contrasted with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. The inconsistency in Crumbl’s design polish across different cookies was evident here once more and somewhat disappointing.
