Crumbl Critics: New club turns cookie reviews into campus fun

What started as a love for cookies has quickly turned into one of The University of Akron (UA)’s sweetest new student organizations. Founded in January 2025 by senior business data analytics majors Tyler Shean and Hanna Pope, the Crumbl Critics club brings together fans of the freshly baked cookies and desserts each week to taste, rate and discuss Crumbl’s weekly flavor lineups.

Crumbl Cookies is a franchised bakery with more than a thousand locations that release a weekly menu of unique cookie and dessert flavors. Crumbl’s flavors – which range from chocolate chip to carrot cake to everything bagel, and often incorporate viral flavors such as Dubai chocolate – have become a viral sensation with social media content creators sharing videos of weekly taste-tests and rankings.

Shean, a senior business data analytics major and the club’s president, says the idea to start a student organization came after watching Crumbl review videos online. “I would watch them every week, see what the cookies were, how [people] liked them. And I was like, I want to do this, but I want to do it in my own way,” Shean said.

As a worker in the Student Organization Resource Center (SOuRCe) at the time, Shean was inspired to start a campus club around the idea of trying Crumbl cookies. With the help of Pope, who serves as vice president, the club was up and running a few months later.

Since then, the club has amassed nearly 60 active members and is continuing to grow. The Crumbl Critics were named Crowd Favorite at the Undergraduate Student Government’s Student Leader Showcase during the spring 2025 semester.

“We started off very small, and then with our advertising and the love that people brought to the club, we’re at the size we are now only 10 months later,” Shean said.

The Crumbl Critics meet every Monday at 7 p.m. in Leigh Hall, Room 307. Each meeting features a tasting and discussion of the Crumbl cookie flavors of the week, with club members scoring the cookies on a scale of 1-10 in four categories: appearance, taste, texture and likelihood of repurchase.

Shean and Pope have also turned the club’s cookie-tasting activities into a hands-on data analysis project, using skills they’ve learned in their classes. After each meeting, the pair compiles members’ ratings into spreadsheets, creating graphs and tables to compare over time. The data shows which flavors – like the strawberry tres leches cake – rank the highest with the campus critics, and which cookies – like the cereal milk cookie – crumble under the pressure.

Beyond the fun weekly taste tests and data analysis, the club hopes to grow its connections with the Crumbl brand. They have been in contact with Crumbl’s corporate office, which provided the group with a public relations box of Crumbl-branded gifts that members received in a giveaway early this semester. The company has even commented on some of the club’s Instagram posts. Shean and Pope are hoping to establish an official partnership with a local Crumbl franchise.

As the club looks ahead, Shean wants to expand membership and continue giving students a fun space to start the week off with a sweet treat. Anyone is welcome to become a club member by joining on RooConnect and attending the weekly meeting.
“We try to build a community with this group,” Shean said. “We really want to establish a welcoming and engaged community around the idea of just trying Crumbl cookies. It’s mainly just for a good time and to bring some good spirit to the campus.”

Media contact: media@uakron.edu