Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so flavor is in the taste buds of the whoopie pie connoisseur.

Each person has his or her own idea of what the ideal whoopie pie should taste like. The whoopie pie that delights the palate of one person can be detestable to another.

We discovered this phenomenon at the Intelligencer Journal when eight volunteers agreed to taste-test 10 whoopie pies purchased at different places around Lancaster County.

For the purposes of the experiment, we chose all chocolate whoopie pies with white filling. This combination is considered the original version, though many variations have been created.

We bought the whoopie pies from the bakery counter. We did not ask specifically for a freshly made whoopie pie, wanting instead to test what the average consumer would buy and eat. Salesclerks assured us that all of the whoopie pies we bought were fresh.

Each taste-tester was asked to rate the whoopie pies on the basis of the cookies' chocolate flavor and moisture, flavor of the filling and combination of the two.

None of the taste-testers knew which bakery had made the specific whoopie pies being tasted. Each whoopie pie was identified by a number.

As the results were tallied and the comments compiled, the differences were dramatic:

Whoopie pie taste-test results

Whoopie pies from Bird-in-Hand Bakery collected comments from "too sweet" to "not sweet enough."

About the cookie part of the Bird-in-Hand whoopie pie, one person wrote, "almost choked" (presumably because it was dry). Another wrote "perfect combination of moistness and density."

So you see, whoopie pie preference is truly a matter of opinion. The only perfect criteria for whoopie pies is, most likely, what you grew up with.

"My gold standard is in my memory," Laura Thompson, a copy editor, said. She said she hasn't had a perfect whoopie pie since her aunt died in 1993 — her aunt knew how to make perfect whoopie pies.

"The cake was just moist and dense and chocolatey and the filling was not too sweet, but the consistency was right on," Thompson said.

"It wasn't quite solid, but it stuck to your ribs, and it wasn't too sweet. The two of them together were so good," she said.

Thompson said none of the 10 whoopie pies she tested came very close, but if she had to choose, she would have chosen Achenbach's because of its "chocolatey goodness."

Her coworker, Monica Elbert, prefers a lighter cake, something fluffier. She likes the cookies to be spongy and moist, filled with a sweet, light, fluffy icing.

With each person clinging to their own "best whoopie pie" definition, we averaged the scores given for overall impression, to find the winner: Hershey Farms.

With an overall score of 3.75 out of 5, Hershey Farms topped the rest, followed closely by whoopie pies from Willow Valley and Oregon Dairy. Obviously not everyone was in agreement, but Elbert gave Hershey Farms a perfect 5.

"This was the best one," Elbert said. "Not too chocolatey. Great filling. Good pie-to-whoopie combination."

She loved the filling because it was "airy but sweet" and was "creamy with a little crunch."

Others who scored Hershey's whoopie pie lower than Elbert did, criticized the filling, calling it "old, dusty" and another "marshmallowy."

Krystal Hoak, bakery manager at Hershey Farms, said her staff is always trying to improve its products, but "our whoopie pies are kind of hard to improve."

"We always say that they are the best around, and now you're proving it," she said — at least according to eight people.

Hoak believes the moisture of the cookie is key.

"When somebody bites into whoopie pie we want them to say, 'Wow, that is moist.' "

The taste-testers did rank Hershey Farm's cookies the third most moist of those tested behind the bakeries at Stauffers of Kissel Hill and Willow Valley.

The whoopie pies at the bottom of the list were sunk by one of two problems — dry cookies or icing that was too sweet and not creamy enough.

Byers Butterflake Bakery, for example, was rated the most dry cookie.

Although the whoopie pie did get positive comments on the filling, and in one case an overall 5/5 vote, the general consensus seemed to be described in the comment, "Lack of moisture torpedoes it."

A whoopie pie purchased at Country Table in Manheim lost points for its filling: "odd taste," "too much vanilla," "very sweet," "like canned vanilla icing," "too crunchy," the taste-testers said.

A call to the owner of Country Table was not returned.

So hold these results in the relativity they deserve — remember it was one pie, picked on one random day, judged by eight people with varying opinions of what an ideal whoopie pie should be.

Our best suggestion is to do your own taste-testing. Or refine your own recipe until you can make one, just the way you like it.

The best whoopie pie is the one that tastes the best to you.

Whoopie pie origin seems unknown

With the plethora of whoopie pies in Amish Country, Lancaster County, you would think our ancestors could lay claim to their creation.

But after skimming cookbooks at Lancaster Public Library's Historical Section, little evidence of our ownership of the cookie pie exists — not in Moravian cookbooks, Amish cookbooks, Mennonite cookbooks or Quaker cookbooks.

The same cookbooks that had repeated recipes for peppernuts, gingersnaps and shoofly pies, seemed to be missing an entry in the index — no whoopie pies, not even globs or wheels as some other "civilizations" call them.

The first clue to their beginning in Lancaster County came in Phyllis Pellman Good's cookbook, "The Best of Amish Cooking," dated 1988.

"These cookies are a relatively new invention, first appearing about 30-35 years ago," Pellman Good wrote. Pellman Good lives in Lancaster and is a best-selling cookbook author.

Whoopie pies were practical desserts to have for lunches, she wrote, because the icing is spread between the two cookie halves and wouldn't rub off like icing on a cupcake.

According to the "All-American Cookie Book," whoopie pie historian Peter Schlichting believes whoopie pies originated in 1926 at the Berwick Cake Company in Boston. He also claims to have found evidence of the pies in several states as far back as the Depression, according to the book.

Author of the book, Nancy Baggett, suggests that the cookies were originally made from leftover cake batter poured onto a cookie sheet. The "whoopie" part of its name might be connected either to the success of the experiment, Baggett said, or to the delight of the person eating the whoopie pie, other writers said.

Get your fill of whoopie pies at Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn, Saturday, Sept. 20, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The event features a whoopie pie treasure hunt for kids, a whoopie pie race, long launch, yell-off. Whoopie pie checkers requires eating every captured piece. Hershey Farm bakers will attempt to set a Guinness Book of World Record for the largest whoopie pie ever made.

The amateur whoopie pie eating contest will be held at 2:30 p.m. For video of last year's winner, log on to www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv42xHFg6bc.

Hershey Farms is located on Route 896, south of Route 30, beside Sight and Sound Theatre.

E-mail: lespenshade@lnpnews.com