diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst
index 5783fdcaf..65159a6c2 100644
--- a/docs/faq.rst
+++ b/docs/faq.rst
@@ -240,3 +240,17 @@ In order to avoid parsing all the entire feed at once in memory, you can use
 the functions ``xmliter`` and ``csviter`` from ``scrapy.utils.iterators``
 module. In fact, this is what the feed spiders (see :ref:`topics-spiders`) use
 under the cover.
+
+Does Scrapy manage cookies automatically?
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Yes, Scrapy receives and keeps track of cookies sent by servers, and sends them
+back on subsequent requests, like any regular web browser does.
+
+For more info see :ref:`topics-request-response` and :ref:`cookies-mw`.
+
+How can I see the cookies being sent and received from Scrapy?
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Enable the :setting:`COOKIES_DEBUG` setting.
+
diff --git a/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst b/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
index 5f1acd63a..8693c13ae 100644
--- a/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
@@ -158,6 +158,8 @@ middleware, see the :ref:`downloader middleware usage guide
 For a list of the components enabled by default (and their orders) see the
 :setting:`DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES_BASE` setting.
 
+.. _cookies-mw:
+
 CookiesMiddleware
 -----------------
 
@@ -166,7 +168,36 @@ CookiesMiddleware
 
 .. class:: CookiesMiddleware
 
-   This middleware enables working with sites that need cookies.
+   This middleware enables working with sites that need cookies. It keeps track
+   of merging cookies sent by servers, so that they're send in future requests
+   for that spider, just like a web browser would do.
+
+The following settings can be used to configure the cookie middleware:
+
+* :setting:`COOKIES_DEBUG`
+
+.. setting:: COOKIES_DEBUG
+
+COOKIES_DEBUG
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Default: ``False``
+
+If enabled, Scrapy will log all cookies sent in requests (ie. ``Cookie``
+header) and all cookies received in responses (ie. ``Set-Cookie`` header).
+
+Here's an example of a log with :setting:`COOKIES_DEBUG` enabled::
+
+    2011-04-06 14:35:10-0300 [diningcity] INFO: Spider opened
+    2011-04-06 14:35:10-0300 [diningcity] DEBUG: Sending cookies to: <GET http://www.diningcity.com/netherlands/index.html>
+            Cookie: clientlanguage_nl=en_EN
+    2011-04-06 14:35:14-0300 [diningcity] DEBUG: Received cookies from: <200 http://www.diningcity.com/netherlands/index.html>
+            Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=B~FA4DC0C496C8762AE4F1A620EAB34F38; Path=/
+            Set-Cookie: ip_isocode=US
+            Set-Cookie: clientlanguage_nl=en_EN; Expires=Thu, 07-Apr-2011 21:21:34 GMT; Path=/
+    2011-04-06 14:49:50-0300 [diningcity] DEBUG: Crawled (200) <GET http://www.diningcity.com/netherlands/index.html> (referer: None)
+    [...]
+
    
 DefaultHeadersMiddleware
 ------------------------
diff --git a/docs/topics/request-response.rst b/docs/topics/request-response.rst
index a1092b8e6..baeec8701 100644
--- a/docs/topics/request-response.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/request-response.rst
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ Request objects
             request_with_cookies = Request(url="http://www.example.com",
                                            cookies={currency: 'USD', country: 'UY'},
                                            meta={'dont_merge_cookies': True})
+
+        For more info see :ref:`cookies-mw`.
     :type cookies: dict
 
     :param encoding: the encoding of this request (defaults to ``'utf-8'``).
diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/cookies.py b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/cookies.py
index b99c4b338..1d3fbde22 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/cookies.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/cookies.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 from collections import defaultdict
 from scrapy.xlib.pydispatch import dispatcher
 
@@ -28,7 +29,7 @@ class CookiesMiddleware(object):
         # set Cookie header
         request.headers.pop('Cookie', None)
         jar.add_cookie_header(request)
-        self._debug_cookie(request)
+        self._debug_cookie(request, spider)
 
     def process_response(self, request, response, spider):
         if 'dont_merge_cookies' in request.meta:
@@ -37,31 +38,28 @@ class CookiesMiddleware(object):
         # extract cookies from Set-Cookie and drop invalid/expired cookies
         jar = self.jars[spider]
         jar.extract_cookies(response, request)
-        self._debug_set_cookie(response)
+        self._debug_set_cookie(response, spider)
 
         return response
 
     def spider_closed(self, spider):
         self.jars.pop(spider, None)
 
-    def _debug_cookie(self, request):
-        """log Cookie header for request"""
+    def _debug_cookie(self, request, spider):
         if self.debug:
-            c = request.headers.get('Cookie')
-            c = c and [p.split('=')[0] for p in c.split(';')]
-            log.msg('Cookie: %s for %s' % (c, request.url), level=log.DEBUG)
+            cl = request.headers.getlist('Cookie')
+            if cl:
+                msg = "Sending cookies to: %s" % request + os.linesep
+                msg += os.linesep.join("Cookie: %s" % c for c in cl)
+                log.msg(msg, spider=spider, level=log.DEBUG)
 
-    def _debug_set_cookie(self, response):
-        """log Set-Cookies headers but exclude cookie values"""
+    def _debug_set_cookie(self, response, spider):
         if self.debug:
             cl = response.headers.getlist('Set-Cookie')
-            res = []
-            for c in cl:
-                kv, tail = c.split(';', 1)
-                k = kv.split('=', 1)[0]
-                res.append('%s %s' % (k, tail))
-            log.msg('Set-Cookie: %s from %s' % (res, response.url))
-
+            if cl:
+                msg = "Received cookies from: %s" % response + os.linesep
+                msg += os.linesep.join("Set-Cookie: %s" % c for c in cl)
+                log.msg(msg, spider=spider, level=log.DEBUG)
 
     def _get_request_cookies(self, jar, request):
         headers = {'Set-Cookie': ['%s=%s;' % (k, v) for k, v in request.cookies.iteritems()]}