Yes, it’s true… I’m still bringing back content from the “old” site. (Will it ever end?)

Now I’m wading through the former “Soup to Nuts” feature to bring you some tasty Nibbles. I have the opportunity to taste a slew of gourmet goodies that run the gamut from nuts to spirits to sweets and everything in between. Occasionally, I’ll round up a bunch of samples of a particular product and then offer reviews on my favorites.

For today’s post, I’ve raided the grocery store shelves for shortbread. It’s one of my favorite cookies — perfect to go with that afternoon cup of coffee that sees me through. And although homemade shortbread is best, let’s face facts — there’s not always time to play Betty Crocker.

For years, I’ve gravitated to one of the red tartan clad brands — Walkers to be exact. There’s another, though (Campbells), along with a slew of other choices available these days. So in the interest of finding the ones that comes closes to homemade, I started tasting. Here’s the scoop:

Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread Triangles ($4 for 15 cookies). Still darn good — it’s hard to go wrong with these. With nice richness, some crunch, and loads of buttery taste.

Central Market Pure Butter All Natural Shortbread Triangles ($3 for 15 cookies). These are sort of an upscale generic replica of the Walkers triangles, and I have to say — they’re nearly as good. They taste only slightly different, but they also seem lighter and have more of the homemade melt-in-your-mouth quality. Impressive.

Butterkist Shortbread Cookies/Biscuits ($1 for 20 cookies). Clearly the deal of the tasting, but not really shortbread, and nothing even remotely like homemade shortbread… These are more like animal crackers, really. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — in fact, these have a potato chip quality that make you want to eat the whole package in one sitting. These also contain some artificial ingredients, if that kind of thing matters to you. (It does to me.)

Shortbread House of Edinburgh Finest Shortbread Original Recipe ($4.25 for 8 cookies). Really interesting — and the most pie crust or pastry-like of the bunch. Layers of flaky, melt-in-your-mouth… crunch. The crunch is the part that makes them unusual. Turns out they contain ground rice, which is definitely unusual, and must be what give them a Nestle Crunch-like thing. But they’re good.

Nikki’s Cookies Key Lime Shortbread Cookies with Almonds ($6 for 15 cookies). The key lime oil really jumps out at you here, both in aroma and taste. And although I sometimes put some citrus zest in my homemade shortbread, this just tastes too flavored. The thing about great shortbread is the wonderful delicacy they offer, verging on blandness, to be honest. This just tasted like key lime — fine, if you’re looking for a key lime cookie. But not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to shortbread.

Starr Ridge Pecan Shortbread Cookies ($3.50 for 12 cookies). This one is appealing for its intense nuttiness, and for the contrast of the coarse sugar topping and the tinge of salt — love the salty/sweet thing. And I could happily eat these with our coffee… But again, not anything like homemade shortbread. But, like the Key Lime version above, that’s probably not what they’re going for.

Rachel Gaffney’s Lemon Zest Shortbreads ($7.50 for 9 cookies). Again, the lemon zest appealed to me, but for the most expensive cookie of the tasting, it was pretty disappointing. A little bitter, frankly. And the ingredients list citric acid, which I felt like I could taste. Would have to pass on these.

Biscottea Chai Tea Shortbread ($5.50 for 10 cookies). Nobody would mistake these for homemade shortbread, but they sure are tasty. I typically like Chai-spiced things — all those cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger combinations just make me happy. If you agree, you’ll love these. And they’re equally good with a cup of good Indian Chai tea as they are with coffee, I might add!

Campbells Shortbread Biscuit Selection, Plain and Chocolate Chip ($9 for a tin of 12 cookies). The chocolate chip ones are odd — a combination that just didn’t work for me. But I loved the plain ones – my favorites of the tasting. Even better than the Walkers, to be honest, though it was close. These had the right balance of rich buttery goodness, just a hint of sweetness, and a spark of salt. Delish.