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!

It's great to see the business take shape in front of our own eyes. We can't wait to put the Cookies & Corks pairing boxes out there to see how they are received. Leah and I both believe that life is a self-fulfilling prophecy...so we should be good to go! This is such a fun business to delve into. What could be bad about cookies and wine...I mean, really!

Even if there are only one or two of you out there now reading this (Hi Mom!) we hope that one day our blog will have a lot of traffic. Scratch that...we know that we'll get a lot of traffic! :)

Savory Cookies are here!

Well...what once used to take Leah years has now only taken weeks. She has formulated three delicious savory cookies for CookieZen's Cookies & Corks line. Yahoo!! They are: Apricot Sage, Gouda Bacon and Parmesan Thyme. Amy Reiley, our official pairing guru, is hard at work coming up with the perfect wines to compliment these delightful morsels. What a tough assignment! Next comes the packaging...thanks to DINE, we are almost there. Get ready America...Cookies & Corks is coming. Start tasting, start enjoying and start spreading the word!

Savory...meet CookieZen.

The time has come...we think...to add some savory to our line-up. Leah is experimenting and I am taste-testing. What a tough job! Next comes pairing them with wine...again...life is rough!

We'll keep you posted. It's head-spinning fun here at Cookies & Corks...CookieZen!

Cookie, meet my friend Internet...

Life these days doesn't often allow for long moments of reflection, but I had a big "wow" moment yesterday while unpacking a package from Amazon containing a new all natural, no-stir peanut butter and some organic, 100% natural non-partially hydrogenated shortening.

How did anyone manage to start a business before the Internet???

Okay, I know that sounds ridiculous and somewhat spoiled, but seriously, here is a quick list of things I've been able to accomplish with the help of my good friends Internet Explorer (I know...I haven't made the jump to Google Chrome yet) and Google.

1. Email. 'Nuf said.
2. All the pesky but oh-so-crucial documents you have to file with the State of Virginia and the Federal Government in order to form a recognized, official business.
3. Monthly sales tax filing. Everything is linked! I enter in gross sales, the program figures it out and automatically debits my operating account. No letters, no checks, no stamps, no need to pass calculus.
4. Research!! Hours of my life have been spent conducting food science research for no charge whatsoever. Like finding out the reasons behind using Dutch Processed Cocoa as opposed to the regular stuff or understanding why some of my cookies refused to puff up in the oven. Thank god because microfiche used to make me want to throw up back in the day. (All that visual moving while sitting still! Bad combo!)
5. Shopping!! With two young kids and a slew of other responsibilities, who has time to physically scour local grocery stores for all-natural, organic alternatives to mainstream ingredients? Plus, for those times I did actually have to visit a store, Google gave me the address and my navigation system led me there. Back in the day I suppose I'd consult the yellow pages and dial the phone. Hmm...I don't think I even have the yellow pages.
6. Networking. Facebook, Twitter, this blog, random searches for topics with answers found on listserves... CookieZen is "connected" to all these individuals and entities who would otherwise be so difficult to find. And since these options are all free it makes spreading the excitement much more appealing.
7. Business planning. Sometimes I wonder if I should have made a trip to the library to check out "Business Plan Writing for Dummies" or "How to Start a Cookie Company Without Monopolizing Your Kitchen", but then I remember libraries require time and using a reference book's index can be confusing if you don't know exactly what you are looking for. Plus photocopying stuff??? Remember trying to press down on the spine of a really thick book so you wouldn't get that annoying black bar in the center of your page that inevitably covered up the important stuff? Weeding through all the crap on the Internet can be time consuming, but I've discovered some of the best resources by randomly clicking my way through links.
8. Bragging. Let's face it. People, including the ladies of CookieZen, want to succeed. And we want other people to recognize or appreciate all the hard work it's taken to get from point A to point B. Minus the pitfalls and errors, of course! These negative little bits, while certainly not pleasant, make what we've managed to do seem more realistic. How else can we learn from our mistakes if we don't allow for helpful critiques and suggestions?

So yeah...I kind of consider CookieZen a card holder of "Business Planning: Doing it the 21st Century Way". It's amazing what Laura and I are able to accomplish whilst juggling a million other things.

Still, at the end of the day, I like to return to the kitchen where it's just my mixer and me and I can imagine the smiling faces of all the soon-to-be customers enjoying the cookies.

Thank you, Mr. Internet, for getting me here.