Here's why Levain Bakery is still NYC's best cookie shop

• Levain Bakery has won countless awards from The New York Times, TripAdvisor, and Yelp for its thick, crunchy yet gooey cookies.
• The bakery is considered a New York City cookie destination.
• It offers four kinds of cookies along with other baked goods. The chocolate chip walnut is the most popular.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Herrine Ro: If you're wandering around New York City and have a hankering for a sweet treat, there's no better place than Levain Bakery. Locals and tourists flock here for the world-famous cookies.

Customer: I've heard they have the best cookies in all the world. [laughs]

Herrine: I've got the goods, and I am ready to eat all the different kinds of cookies. We all know that the chocolate chip walnut cookie here is the best chocolate chip cookie in New York City, but how do the other three cookies taste? Are they equally as good as the chocolate chip walnut? These are all questions that I have posited in my brain, and I'm here to answer those questions. You can find the cookie on multiple best-of lists, and it even got our vote as the best chocolate chip cookie in New York City. There are four types of cookies. Chocolate peanut butter, double chocolate, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip walnut, which is Levain 's top seller. Every day, the cookie dough is made in Levain 's Harlem location, then shipped to every other location to be freshly baked.

Pam We ekes: We get two people to get the bowl, because it's so big and heavy with all that dough, and carry it over to the table. We weigh each cookie by hand to be sure that it's 6 ounces, and then we put them on a tray and wrap them with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator until we're ready to bake them. Every cookie that you get when you come to Levain Bakery is probably gonna be less than an hour out of the oven.

Herrine: Pam We ekes and Connie McDonald are longtime friends. While training for the Iron man Triathlon, they created the ultimate chocolate chip cookie to fuel them through workouts. In 1995, they left their jobs in fashion and finance to open the first Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side. The bakery quickly became a neighborhood favorite, and the massive cookies were the most beloved item on the menu. In a time with no social media, the cookies' popularity grew by word of mouth, stretching from New York City and beyond.

Connie McDonald: We're an overnight success of after 24 years. [laughs] Herrine: Fast-forward almost 25 years, and you can find perpetual lines of tourists, marathoners, and seasoned New Yorkers at all six Levain Bakeries.

Customer: It's very good. My mom, I think, makes really good chocolate chip cookies, and this is very, like, thick and doughy, which is what I love.

Herrine: It's no surprise many bloggers and YouTubers have attempted to imitate these famous cookies. But the original Levain cookie recipe is top secret. Let us start with the chocolate chip walnut. I mean, look at.... Ooh! Look at that. It's everything you want in a cookie. It's, like, molten and gooey and almost cake-like in the inside, the outside is this beautiful golden brown and has this crunchy exterior shell, and there's speckles of little chocolate chips inside, and then you get the nuttiness and crunchiness from the walnuts. Walnuts? Yeah. It's everything you want. This is the dark chocolate peanut butter cookie. That almost looks like a brownie. That tastes like a candy bar. Honestly, this tastes better than a Reese's cup. Like, dare I say that? It tastes better than a Reese's cup. Next up we have oatmeal raisin. Because of the molten interior, it's just a far... adult version of the oatmeal raisin cookie that I grew up eating that I know and love, so as of right now, three out of the four cookies in, this will have to be my least favorite just because it's not what I'm used to. But still, very delicious cookie. Last but not least, the dark chocolate with chocolate chips. Is this gonna be too much chocolate? Isn't, like, brook ie a thing? A brownie-cookie mash-up? If it isn't, I would describe this as closely to a brownie-cookie hybrid. Of the four that we tried, this one is the sweetest. It also is the chocolaty-est. If you are a chocolate lover and you love to indulge in rich, sumptuous desserts, this is the one for you. Now that we tried all four, I will give you the breakdown. [drumroll] I am a creature of habit. I know what I like, and I'm gonna stick to them. Therefore, the chocolate chip walnut is my favorite. Always has been, always will be. Runner up, the chocolate chip peanut butter. Oh, my God, it is so good. And then, third would be the oatmeal raisin. Still very good. I like a chewier oatmeal raisin cookie. And the double dark chocolate... I'm not too much of an avid chocolate lover, so the overall sweetness and everything makes it the fourth. If you want to try the cookies yourself but don't live in New York City, Levain can ship its cookies to you. But if you ever find yourself in the Big Apple, make sure to step into one of Levain Bakery's stores, because New York City's favorite cookie is best enjoyed fresh and warm. It's so good.