The Cookie By DoubleTree

(above photos: TheHopefulTraveler)

One of the best things about the hospitality at all DoubleTree hotels is their signature cookie that awaits each guest as a warm welcome. When I finally checked-in this afternoon I got three and ate them up immediately. Many guests are unaware that they can purchase a tin of cookies from the hotel during their stay or online. I've brought them back as gifts when souvenirs just won't do.

The hotel has released the following facts about their signature cookie which is baked fresh daily and for 25 years has been a sweet part of the hotel's guest experience:

• 30,000 chocolate chip cookies are given to guests every day of the week - more than 10,950,000 every year.
• Every cookie is baked fresh at each hotel.
• The Cookie has an average of 20 chocolate chips and weighs more than 2 ounces.
• 1995: DoubleTree entrusted The Cookie's secret recipe to Nashville's Christie Cookie Company. Christie makes sure the dough is consistently delicious, no matter where it's baked.
• Every year, more than 580,000 pounds of chocolate chips go into making The Cookie.
• June, 2002: Cookie # 100,000,000 greets a happy guest in Minneapolis.
• DoubleTree has donated more than 1 million cookies to special people (doctors, nurses, police and firefighters) and special groups (orphanages, food banks, and shelters).
• February, 2007: The Cookie's 20th anniversary, with more than 150 million served.
• The Cookie spans the globe from China to the United Kingdom, from Africa to Costa Rica, in every DoubleTree hotel and resort worldwide.
• February, 2009: The Cookie reaches the 200 million mark with no signs of slowing down.

Visit doubletreecookies.com to order a decorative tin of six cookies online for $10.95. Order by phone: 1-800-916-0097.