A couple of years ago my fellow co-worker Meg Poehler showed the QA department how to view the browser cookie in a JavaScript Alert using JavaScript from the browser URL bar:

In the URL bar type: javascript:alert(document.cookie.split(';').join('\n'))

This is a great Web testing asset when you take it one step farther by adding it the "Links" toolbar in Internet Explorer:

1. Navigate to any URL
2. Drag the URL icon to the IE "Links" toolbar
3. Right mouse click the IE Link and select "Properties"
4. In the "General" tab change the description text to "Show Cookie"
5. In the "Web Document" tab change the URL to: javascript:alert(document.cookie.split(';').join('\n'))

Now, when you're testing a site and need to know what the cookie(s) contain you can now quickly click the link to view the cookie(s).