If the singer Benson Boone were a cookie, he’d taste, in this reporter’s opinion, unpleasant. The flavor would be cloyingly sweet and frosted with notes of lemon, berry and an unnameable processed aftertaste that lingers on the tongue as if you’ve just woken up and have yet to brush your teeth.
Or, at the very least, that’s what a Crumbl cookie inspired by one of Mr. Boone’s songs tastes like.
Still, that hasn’t stopped people from popping into the nearest Crumbl — of which there are more than 1,000 locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada — to purchase Benson Boone’s Moonbeam Ice Cream Cookie, a collaboration between the sweet treat company and the artist.
Mr. Boone, a singer who quit “American Idol” in 2021 and found mainstream fame soon after, is perhaps best known for backflipping off pianos in tight jumpsuits while performing his hit “Beautiful Things.” (Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, borrowed the particular blue, sequined suit Mr. Boone wore for the 2025 Grammy Awards while he serenaded his wife at her birthday party earlier this year. He did not do a backflip.)
“Mystical Magical,” another song by Mr. Boone, was the inspiration for the cookie thanks to the lyric “you can feel like moonbeam ice cream, taking off your bluejeans.”
The song has taken some criticism online, with some social media users suggesting the lyrics sound like something written by artificial intelligence. But it has certainly inspired plenty of memes. As has its accompanying dessert, which Crumbl describes as “a mystical, magical chilled chocolate cookie packed with cookies and cream pieces, crowned with vibrant moonbeam ice cream-inspired lemon, berry, and marshmallow toppings, and finished with a sweet white drizzle and a final sprinkle of cookies and cream.”
On TikTok the treat has played out in similar fashion to when McDonald’s released its Grimace Shake. Crumbl customers have been filming themselves walking into stores singing the song, dressed as Mr. Boone and even doing backflips. The limited-run cookie got an extension for an additional week because of its popularity.
In an email, Jason McGowan, the chief executive of Crumbl, wrote that “Fans called for a moonbeam encore and we’re here for it — with backflips!”
On Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan, the line at the Crumbl location in the Chelsea neighborhood snaked out the store and around the corner. A sandwich board advertising Mr. Boone’s confection stood guard at the door. When asked if they had come specifically for that cookie, well over a dozen patrons, most of them European tourists, made their lack of familiarity with Mr. Boone fairly evident.
Instead, most noted that they had come to try Crumbl after seeing the brand on TikTok.
Alaina Kirby and Lisa Sim, cabin crew members for Norse Atlantic Airways, stood outside the shop juggling suitcases and pink Crumbl bags on their arms while waiting for an Uber to take them to the airport for a flight home to England. Their kids, they said, asked them to bring home some cookies, including Mr. Boone’s.
Customers at three different Crumbl locations in Manhattan who purchased Mr. Boone’s confection seemed to be doing so for somebody else. Tammy Lares, a 34-year-old doula who lives in Perth Amboy, N.J., said she was buying one at the request of her 15-year-old stepdaughter. Terri Darkwah, a 25-year-old nurse manager who lives in Brooklyn, similarly stopped in to get some treats (including the Moonbeam Ice Cream) for her sister-in-law.
MaryClaire Childre and Julia Vargas, rising ninth graders who live in Manhattan, stopped into the Crumbl store on the Upper East Side on Wednesday afternoon. “It tasted just, kind of, like an elevated sugar cookie,” said MaryClaire, 14. The pair bought one cookie, which contains 920 calories and sells for just over $5 after tax, to share.
Inside the Upper West Side store, the air smelled distinctly of sugar.
Cece Hatcher, a Crumbl employee at that location, said the Moonbeam cookie had been popular with teenagers.
“People have been coming in and asking if they’ll get a free cookie if they do a backflip,” Ms. Hatcher said.
The answer, she stressed, is no.
Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture.
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