This SF bar transformed Girl Scout cookies into cocktails

Now, unless you are exactly 21 years old, a cookie-flavored cocktail might sound like a hangover waiting to happen. Fortunately, Mejicanos understands this. Instead of a menu of saccharine Girl Scout replicas, he went for more loose interpretations. 

“My main concern was that I didn’t want to have these over-the-top sweet drinks, because the cookies themselves already have a pretty good amount of sweetness to them,” he said.

It’d be easy to look at a Thin Mint and think of a chocolate mint martini, but that’s just not Mejicanos’ style. 

“I didn’t want to do anything that was too on the nose about the cookie,” he said. “For me, whenever I’m doing a flavor pairing, I’m either comparing or contrasting flavors.”

On an early weekday evening after work, I took a few colleagues to go sample the cookie menu. We made our selections from the cute cookie box-shaped menu, largely influenced by the nostalgia of our favorite cookies. 

I was tempted to order based on my personal favorite cookie (Samoas), but changed my mind at the last second. Probably for the best — a traumatic memory from my own Girl Scout cookie selling days was my friend getting stung by a bee while dressed in a Samoas costume.

Instead, I went for the Do-si-dos, an oatmeal sandwich cookie with peanut butter filling, because I was intrigued by the unexpected interpretation. Mejicanos angled for a drink that complemented rather than replicated the cookie, with flavors inspired by Thai green papaya salad: green papaya juice, Thai basil, calamansi, and nori-infused peanut cookie syrup, topped with an actual Do-si-do. 

Refreshingly acidic and herbal but with a light nutty creaminess from the peanut cookie syrup, it ended up being my favorite cocktail of the bunch. I still can’t stop thinking about it.

“Whenever I think of papaya salad, I think of crumbled up peanuts on top that always have that ending flavor of peanut, and everything throughout the salad is really fresh,” Mejicanos said. “… Once you taste the cookie and then you drink that, you’re like, this makes sense.”

A runner-up favorite for me was the Adventurefuls, inspired by the brownie-caramel cookies. On the other side of the spectrum, I found this drink to be a fairly accurate reflection of the cookie it was based on — just more grown up. 

The cocktail is a twist on an old-fashioned with tequila and a mole syrup made from pasilla peppers, roasted banana, sesame seeds and the Adventureful cookies. It smells sweet, but on the tongue, the warm caramel vibe is chased with a pleasing bitterness.

If you want to order a drink that will inspire the most childlike wonder, though, order the S’mores. This drink is unveiled tableside to release a tendril of smoke. Made with rye whiskey, coffee liqueur, chicory and marshmallow fluff, it both looks and tastes like a campfire-toasted Irish coffee. 

“It gives you the feeling of roasting a s’more over the fire,” said Mejicanos. “That was the whole point of it. It’s supposed to be a full complete idea, not just a bunch of sweet ingredients thrown together.”

The only miss for me on the menu was actually the most popular Girl Scout cookie — Thin Mints. The mint julep-inspired cocktail was overwhelmingly minty, more mouthwash than cookie. To be fair though, I’m not a big fan of the cookie it’s based on, either.

But every other drink shone in its own way. The Samoas tasted like a tropical Tiki drink, a cookie-infused rum slushy with coconut water and hints of Meyer lemon. It’s even served in a coconut, which is probably why it’s the most popular drink on the menu. On the other hand, the Lemon-Ups is all elegance — a citrusy, buttery twist on a white negroni with lemon cookie-infused gin, vanilla-infused Campari, limoncello and bianco sweet vermouth. 

Causwells’ Girl Scout cookie menu is only available through the month of April, so get them while you still can. Best of all, the bar is donating $1 from each cocktail to the Girl Scouts Opportunity Fund, which supports Girl Scout troops in local low-income areas.

“When we can do something cool while being able to help, I think everybody wins,” said Mejicanos. “It’s a feel-good menu all around. Nice and sweet, like the cookies.”

Causwells, 2346 Chestnut St., San Francisco. The Girl Scout cookie menu is available through April 30 (drinks range from $16 to $19). Open Tuesday and Wednesday, 5-9 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.