"McDonald's first debuted Happy Meals in 1979, and the pioneer iteration included cookies. Unlike McDonald's current soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies, the cookies that dominated the early aughts were a hard, crunchy cookie spiked with a distinct lemon flavor, animal-cracker-meets-shortbread style. Packaged in technicolor cardboard boxes designed with the cartoon faces of O.G. McDonald's universe characters (think Grimace, the Fry Kids, Hamburglar, and Birdie), the shortbread cookies came with every Happy Meal."
"Alas, like a setting sun, these lemony beauties weren't to last. Due to changing national health standards, McDonald's switched up the McDonaldland meal in 2003, much to many fans' chagrin. By 2004, the iconic cookies were discontinued. Facing public concerns about growing childhood obesity rates, they were replaced with apple slices in Happy Meals as a healthier option for meals marketed toward children."
McDonald's Happy Meals originally included lemon-flavored shortbread cookies when they debuted in 1979. The early-aughts cookies were hard, crunchy, and resembled animal-cracker-meets-shortbread, often packaged in technicolor cardboard boxes featuring McDonaldland characters and later in yellow paper packets printed with Hamburglar & Company. The cookies were shaped and imprinted with the faces of McDonaldland figures. Changing national health standards and growing concern over childhood obesity prompted McDonald's to replace the cookies with apple slices in 2004. Occasional McDonaldland-themed returns, such as the Grimace shake and a 2022 Adult Happy Meal, have generated renewed interest and affected foot traffic.
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