Ben's Cookies, and How They Melt In Your Mouth

Wow, it's been raining in Riyadh! For days! When it rains in Saudi Arabia, it's a big phenomenon because it's something unusual. I've been in Riyadh for five years and I haven't seen this much rain in this Kingdom. Reminds me of the earthquake we felt a few weeks back, which my father felt for the first time in his 20+ years of stay here. It's kind of scary how nature is getting too unpredictable these days. However, this entry is not meant to scare you. Or predict the end of the world.

Even if it's quite weird, I meant the rain, it provides a gentle reprieve from the summer heat. It's quite cold this morning even if the sun shone and I love the breeze outside. The drizzles from time to time are nice too. (I miss rainy days in the Philippines! It's my favorite season in our province.) The rain makes us lazy! Don't you just want to hide under your comforters and sleep all day? Or grab a book, a cup of coffee, a cookie, and a --- did someone say cookie? COOKIE?

Reminds me of a pack of Ben's Cookies that I got a few months back in the Jarir Bookstore building in Khurais Road on our way to visit a friend. I've been intrigued by Ben's Cookies that I grabbed the chance to try them. I saw it first in the food court of Sahara Mall.

Yeah, well, it's a tower of cookies!

Ben's Cookies was founded in 1984 in England by Helge Rubinstein and has opened 11 stores in the UK and three stores in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their cookies are baked fresh every day and are made from the finest ingredients. What attracted me first was their size; they're big. Each cookie is priced at SR 7. And with their promo of buy 5 get 2 free, I think I got a pretty much good deal since I get to taste seven flavors in one go for SR35 only.

Can you identify the flavors?

T-B: Milk chocolate chunk, milk chocolate praline, oatmeal and raisin, coconut, white chocolate chunk,  double chocolate chunk, peanut butter

The cookies have a good consistency; slightly crunchy outside and soft inside with gooey chocolate chunks in most of the flavors. The melted chocolate chunks are velvety and lends just the right amount of sweetness to the dough. The cookies are delicious especially when they just came out of the oven. The warm chocolate dribbles in my chin, like lava bursting from a volcano mound. The Milk Chocolate Chunk is my favorite but I like their Coconut cookie too. It's soft, almost like a small, round packed bread filled with coconut shavings, and is not cloying.

My favorite of the bunch -- milk chocolate chunk!

I didn't like the Peanut Butter because they didn't seem to have incorporated the creamy peanut paste in the cookie but just threw in a handful of peanuts. The oatmeal and raisin was a bit tough to chew on; even hard on the edges. It might just be that specific batch but on my next visit, I stayed away from this type of cookie. Most of the cookies, though, are seemingly laden with too much butter that in some cookies, it's all I can taste. Nevertheless, among all the commercial cookies in Riyadh, ones with local branches and are franchised from abroad, Ben's Cookies is the best for me. (It's different when compared to homebakers.) Wish they open more branches which are more accessible to the Riyadhizens in the city center.

I'm already imagining myself reading a book and reaching for a cookie! Pleasant weather, please stay! Oh, and I didn't know why I ended up just taking photos of the cookies in tower form. There's even no solo or bite shots of the cookies! I guess they all melted in my mouth immediately. Burp! :P ~ Sundrenched

Ben's Cookies
Food Court, Sahara Mall
T: +966-1-4520460
Sharq Plaza (Panda), Exit 15
T: +966-1-4714508
Jarir Bookstore, Khurais Road
T: +966-1-208486
FB: www.facebook.com/BensCookies
Twitter: @bens_cookies
W: www.benscookies.com