Your guide to a better future
Aug. 4 is a day to celebrate the classic chocolate chip cookie. Insomnia Cookies, Potbelly and others are offering some delicious deals.
Dan is a writer on CNET's How-To team. His byline has appeared in Newsweek, NBC News, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, The Daily Mail and elsewhere. He is a crossword junkie and is interested in the intersection of tech and marginalized communities.
Today, Aug. 4, is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day -- though, when don't we want to celebrate those moist, chewy, chocolatey delights? A number of brands and businesses nationwide are celebrating the holiday with free cookies, deals and discounts to satisfy any sweet tooth.
The chocolate chip cookie is a relatively recent invention: In 1938, Ruth Graves Wakefield tossed a broken-up Nestle semisweet chocolate bar into her cookie batter at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Whether Wakefield thought the chunks would melt into a dark chocolate cookie or remain "chips" has been hotly contested, but there's no denying the results were a sensation. The following year, Nestle asked to put her recipe on its wrapper. She agreed and sold the rights for $1 -- and a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate.
Below, check out ways to celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day with free cookies, discounts and more.
Feeling daring? Try this recipe for yummy chocolate chip cookies made with pancake mix.
Snatch up a nostalgic Chips Ahoy set designed by LA streetwear brand Market. It's available on the shopping app NTWRK.
To mark the day, the company will release Chips Ahoy Perfect Pair kits on the shopping app NTWRK starting at 2 p.m. PT Thursday. Designed by LA streetwear brand Market, the $75 kits include a cookie jar, ice cream scooper and a retro blue bowl that can hold cookie-and-ice-cream creations.
Everything at Deux, including the Best Seller Pack -- jars of Chocolate Chip, Space Brownie, Birthday Cake and Mint Chocolate Chunk -- is 20% on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.
You can eat this vegan cookie dough straight from the jar or roll it into balls, flatten it and bake it some for piping hot, fresh cookies. In addition to regular cookie ingredients, Deux fortifies its dough with all-natural ingredients like zinc, ginseng, elderberry and ashwagandha.
Deux's Best Seller Pack, which includes jars of Chocolate Chip, Space Brownie, Birthday Cake and Mint Chocolate Chunk, normally retails for $60. In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Deux is offering 20% off all purchases at checkout with promo code COOKIES20.
A post shared by The Dolly Llama (@thedollyllama_us)
This LA-based artisanal waffle and ice cream shop has just launched a limited-edition Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Shake made with real Chips Ahoy cookie pieces, vanilla and Speculoos (cookie butter) sauce. The shake is available throughout August. But on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, visitors to The Dolly Llama can buy one shake and get another for 50% off.
The Dolly Llama currently operates locations in downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown and Sherman Oaks, as well as a new spot in Dallas's Uptown neighborhood.
Insomnia Cookies' Vegan Chocolate Chunk cookie.
Insomnia Cookies is celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in a big way: From Thursday through Sunday, get a free chocolate chunk, vegan chocolate chunk or gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookie with any in-store purchase or delivery order from any of the 220-plus Insomnia locations nationwide.
On Thursday Jacques Torres is offering 15% off chocolate chip cookies and cookie mixes.
The French chocolatier has called the US home since the 1980s, so he wasn't about to let National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day slip by. On Thursday, he's offering 15% off chocolate chip cookies at his shops, located in the Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn -- as well as on the Jacques Torres website. Choose from straight-up chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate, cookies with pecans, and cookies with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
Want something more homemade? Torres' signature chocolate discs and assorted mixes are also included in the deal.
Get 25% off select vegan cookies from Lenny & Larry's through Friday.
Through Friday, Lenny & Larry's is offering 25% off select flavors of its plant-based "complete cookies" online, including double chocolate, peanut butter chocolate chip and white chocolaty macadamia. Use promo code CHOCOCHIPDAY25 at checkout.
Dip your free chocolate chip cookies in Leroy's signature espresso martini.
In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, this Greenpoint, Brooklyn, bistro is offering a special cocktail-and-cookie deal: From 4 p.m. ET until close on Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. ET to close on Saturday and Sunday, get two free chocolate chip cookies -- made fresh daily with big gooey, chocolatey chunks and flaky sea salt -- with the purchase of a Lexington martini, Leroy's twist on a classic espresso martini made with rye, walnut, coffee and Espelette peppers. Now doesn't that sound better than a glass of milk?
A post shared by Levain Bakery (@levainbakery)
Customers literally queue up around the block at this New York institution. On Thursday and Friday, you can skip the line and get free shipping (up to $20) on all eight- and 12-packs of Levain's decadent cookies using promo code COOKIEDAY22.
"Maman" is French for mother.
Since opening the original Maman bakery cafe in Soho in 2014, partners Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall have added 20 more locations across North America. On National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, get a free nutty chocolate chip cookie when you spend $15 on the Maman app and use the promo code ILOVECOOKIES
This deal is available for pickup at all of Maman's New York locations, including Hudson Yards, Union Square, Rockefeller Center, the Meatpacking District and Brooklyn's Cobble Hill. You can also get 15% off shipping of Maman's nutty chocolate chip cookie boxes nationwide, using promo code CHIPCHIPHOORAY.
Get a free Potbelly cookie with purchase on Thursday.
Potbelly Perks members get a free cookie of their choice with the purchase of any sandwich, whole salad or bowl of soup on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.
Check the Tiff's Treats Instagram account for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day discounts all week long.
Since 1999, Tiffany and Leon Chen have been delivering warm, chewy cookies and other sweet delights to appreciative fans in Atlanta and the Texas cities of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. This year, Tiff's Treats is celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day all week long with discounts on online and app orders using promo codes you can find posted on the company's Instagram page.