I compared store-bought ginger cookies and the cheapest, most festive kind was my favorite

The bag cost $5.79 at my local Key Food Marketplace.

This is comparable to other brands of packaged cookies I usually buy.

Sometimes I find ginger snaps can be a little tough, but these ones crumbled easily.

I thought the cookies tasted strongly of spices like cinnamon and molasses but were slightly off-balance in sweetness.

These cookies were borderline spicy, which I’m personally not a huge fan of. However, I did enjoy the texture.

These cookies, the most expensive of the ones I tried, cost $5.99 at my local Key Food Marketplace.

However, unlike the ginger snaps, these cookies supposedly contained pieces of crystallized ginger. I was excited to see how the flavors would measure up.

I could also see the pieces of ginger on the surface of the crispy cookies.

I loved the texture of the crispy cookies and the crystallized ginger and thought these were just as good as any non-gluten-free cookies I’ve ever tried.

At my local Stop & Shop grocery store, a box of eight cookies cost $3.59. They were the least expensive, but the box also contained the fewest cookies.

I thought these cookies would be a really cute touch for a festive school lunch or snack on the go.

The icing and smattering of red and green sprinkles upped the sweetness, but I also preferred the softer texture of these gingerbread cookies compared to the other two kinds.

Aesthetically, I also thought these were the most festive for the holiday season.

While I enjoyed all of these cookies, I would choose the classic gingerbread cookies for a sweet, festive treat.