We are growing, and gaining a ton experience along the way. Who knew...certainly not us...that we'd be getting ready for someone else to make our cookies so soon because we can't keep up with the demand? Who knew...again, not us...that we'd be talking about shipping our cookies on pallets and printing 25,000 boxes? It's terribly exciting for us and unbelievably nervewracking at the same time.
Leah and I are becoming educated in areas we didn't know existed last year. Words like Co-Packer, LTL shipments, Keystone, Broker, Distributor, Food Scientist, Auto-Bottom, etc are now a regular part of our vocabulary. Last year...well, really prior to January 2010, we had no idea that we would earn an unofficial degree in "Specialty Food-ology." OK, so that's not a real degree, but it sure feels like we deserve some sort of diploma. Further, Leah should have a minor in Food Science and me in Specialty Food Sales/Marketing.
That says nothing about the wine education we're getting along the way. Who knew...certatinly not us...that we'd need to stop each other from joining another wine club? Last year we didn't know what a wine club was and the only thing we might have stopped each other from buying was another latte at Starbucks. We hardly ever go to Starbucks now...too much wine to drink!
The best part of our journey thus far has FOR SURE beed watching people react as they taste our cookies with wine...it's a hoot! Some folks nod their head nicely and might mutter something like, "mmmm...that works," or perhaps a little more excitable like "WOW...that is so cool!" We love the really animated folks whose eyes grow large and head starts shaking uncontrollably...that's fun for us!
No matter where the cookies are made, shipped from, sold at, eaten...we just want people to enjoy a little more wine, eat a few more cookies and share their experiences with others. Sip the wine, bite the cookie, sip the wine...YUM.
Growing Gains...
Cline Wines, Washington Post, and holiday cheer...oh my!
Apologies are in order...we have been attempting to update this blog with a list of bloopers CookieZen style but keep getting distracted by REAL WORK (ha ha...tongue in cheek attempt to poke fun at professional bloggers...because we're jealous that you can make a living off of blogging!). Granted all this real work has provided plenty of inspiration for our list of "what not to do when trying to run a cookie company", and we'll share a few of those further down, but in the meantime...drum roll please...
Check out the Food Section in the December 8th issue of the Washington Post!!! We couldn't be prouder of ourselves for how far we've come since a little concept of pairing cookies and wine was born in the summer of 2009. For whatever reason, there is something just so thrilling about seeing our labor of love photographed and published in print media. This in no way discredits, knocks, or diminishes the importance of the multitude of on-line support and encouragement heaped upon us this fall. We value and appreciate every little mention our fledgling company receives and give everyone credit on our website because we know all too well what it feels like to be a voice among many (or a cookie among many...hee hee).
For those of you not in the DC Metro area, you can read our mention here: Food in The Washington Post
In the meantime, here are some things to digest... consider the fact that it sometimes takes us four tries to get a batch of Ginger Molasses cookies correct (a recipe we've made hundreds of times), or the one little incident of spilled essential oil of lemon that caused our Sparkling Boxes to be back ordered for a week (although isn't it a sign that you've made it when you can claim "back order" status?? Yikes...or maybe it's just wishful thinking...), or perhaps the oven fiasco in which both thermostats had to be replaced, or that one little trip to Restaurant Depot (our wholesale ingredient procurement store) in which we somehow ended up in Maryland instead of Virginia and had to call in reinforcements to pick up our children from preschool, or the fact that one of our baking assistants broke her foot and is in surgery today, or maybe it's the sheer ridiculousness of trying to parent full-time, co-op for four children at a preschool, work-out at 5:45 in the morning (because something has to be done to keep these waistlines from spilling over), run a household AND a booming business simultaneously that causes us to wonder why someone (probably a non-multitasking man) scheduled only 24 hours in a day. BTW--I'd google this answer but don't have the time!
Ho ho ho...it's been a fabulous December. Seriously. We couldn't be more blessed.
Box O' Cookies, Bottle O' Wine
The serious holiday gifting is beginning. We are slated for several appearances this month for Cookies & Corks at various wine shops and a few holiday parties. Today was a great tasting at The Wine Cabinet in Reston, VA. We love that store...owners, employees, customers, etc. We've always had a great time with wine reps there too.
See, when we show up for a tasting we generally have no idea what type of wine will be there. We come armed with some of our most versatile cookies and cross our fingers that the wine rep will be receptive to the idea of our cookies with their wine.
Our goal is to enhance the experience of wine consumption. In order to enjoy the cookies to their fullest, you need some tasty wine. It's a win-win. We pitch our cookies, they pitch their wine and the happy customer walks away with a bottle o' wine and box o' cookies. A great gift, a great evening, a great luncheon, a great book-club...you get the picture!
At the tasting, people were picking their favorite cookie and asking which wine (of those the rep had) would be best with the cookie/pairing box. Or, people were picking up wine from the rep and asking which box of cookies were best with that particular bottle of wine. Either way we were all happy...cookie ladies, wine rep, wine store and most assuredly the customer.
Time Warp
Has it truly been since July that we've posted anything to this blog? We have been in overdrive these days. Baking, selling, more baking, trade shows, and still more baking. We are up to 11 retailers now...so exciting! We have our Cookies & Corks at some great stores in the Northern VA area and are baking in a commercial kitchen with 2 baking assistants --- and Leah & Laura, of course!
We were also introduced into The Whole Foods Market Mid-Atlantic region...albeit just one store. We are, for now, only in the P Street store in DC. This just so happens to be the busiest store in the whole region. Great staff there. Our other retailers like Red, White & Bleu in Falls Church and The Wine Cabinet in Reston continue to re-order. We are very happy to see that.
All in all, we're very pleased with the response from the general public regarding pairing wine and cookies. It's a stretch for some, but met with great enthusiasm by most. We hope to get talking to event planners soon so they can share this idea with their clients who are planning weddings, corporate events, etc. It really is a cook party idea...not just because we said so! It goes over very well.
One of my favorite recommendations is to get a group of people together with a box of our Sparkling Wine pairing cookies, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, bottle of Prosecco and bottle of Merlot. Taste just the Iced Lemon cookie with all three of those wines...fabulous with each wine, yet different tasting each time. It's a cool party trick!
We'll be posting some pics soon...we've got tons to share.
Cheers!
Tick, tock...
Where has the time gone? Is it really July already? We have been so engrossed with our company, that we've missed all of June! Great strides have been made. We've finalized all of our recipes, begun baking in a commercial kitchen and finally have the ink-presses getting all warmed-up for our beautiful new packaging. It's going to look outstanding! We'll post some pictures for sure.
We're also getting ready to launch Cookies and Corks. We'll begin locally, in the Northern VA, DC, Baltimore area first, then secure an on-line retailer and finally look to other parts of the country. We've got help from a great PR gal. We are also very excited about the Fancy Food Show coming up in January where we'll have an official launch into the Specialty Food industry. We'll have a nice kick-off party out there for sure...wine country...Cookies and Corks...oh, you betcha!
We're also looking to getting some momentum with Cookies and Corks events. We love that people are really enjoying the concept of pairing our cookies with their wine. We've been doing weddings, small parties, large events, etc with the cookies. People tell us how many people are coming, and we help guide them with the right number of cookies to order and what type of wine they could buy. It's great.
Off to bed now...zzzzz's are in short supply these days. Both of us are also training for a 1/2 marathon...our second summer in a row doing this. Wish us luck. Not sure if next summer will be available to us for these early morning work-outs and long runs on Saturday's. We'll see...depends on how many cookies you folks decide to buy!
Nite...Laura
First, the good news... www.cookiezen.com 3.0 is up! It serves us well having one spouse in the equation who is a whiz at web development. Especially when said party is willing to take direction from multiple people (and not always delivered in the nicest way--hee hee it's a perk of being the wife--no need to sugar coat everything!). New photos, new layout, new copy...it's a transformation from the previous site that catered solely to our direct sales customers. Version 3.0 provides information for interested retailers and will also provide people in markets that don't carry our product ways to spread the word. Get it out there!! We're super excited for everyone to try our products be it our classic line-up of all-natural gourmet cookies or our awesome cookie and wine pairing boxes.
And speaking of cookie and wine pairing boxes, www.cookiesandcorks.com is also well underway and should go live by the end of the week. We've worked tirelessly to get our pairings just right and are currently training for our second half marathon to work off the experiments. There will be cookie and wine pairing matrices for people to consult, a forum for consumers to share their pairing experiments, and weekly wine pairing suggestions. The wine industry is constantly evolving and we're going to do our very best to try to keep up!
Hey...at least our hearts will be healthy from all the red wine we'll have to sample...
On the business front (i.e. the not so thrilling part of starting a business), we've had to deal with a lot of first time learning experiences. Hiccups, gliches, successes... the old adage of two steps forward one step back definitely applies to us. It once again makes us wonder how in the heck people do this! And do it successfully! And manage to avoid being one of the 95% of new specialty foods brands that don't quite make it. SCARY!!!
But we're doing well for the most part... Our new business cards are at the printers, the final reformulations from our food scientist should be arriving this week so we can move forward with the packaging for both the bulk cookies and the pairing boxes (which is just so incredibly awesome...thanks DINE!!), and funding is trickling in slowly but surely which enables us to sleep a little better at night. Oh the nightmares I've had about falling victim to this money pit called "starting your own business when mortgaging your house or selling your first born aren't options". Yikes.
Finally, our big PR launch will hopefully be in either late June or early July. Bring on the orders!!!
...or wait...at least until we secure our commercial kitchen rental (cross your fingers) and line up our ingredient distributors, a process completely dependant on having a commercial address. Ugh...these circular frustrations where you can't move forward without first achieving steps that are dependant on other steps is kind of ulcer inducing.
So yes...lots of wheels in motion...tons of exciting changes on the horizon...lots of work to be done...and one huge mama jama credit card bill. We're excited about it all.
New, new, new...
Time is flying. We've got a new logo, new packaging design, new pairings, new more shelf-stable cookies, new business plan and new butterflies in our stomachs. We're gearing up for an official launch at the Fancy Food Show in NYC this June and couldn't be more excited...and/or nervous!
