How did The Cookie Dough Cafe get started, and what does it look like now?

My sister Joan and I started The Cookie Dough Cafe back in 2011. We come from a family of 7 and 5 out of 7 of us are entrepreneurs. Our mom would always make homemade cookie dough and we would lick the beaters, it was always the best part. One night we were out to dinner talking about desserts and it was our light bulb moment. Why don't we just sell cookie dough?! We spent months perfecting egg free, safe to eat, edible cookie dough! Who cares about baking it! Once our idea came to life, we created a brand new category in supermarkets and disrupted a sleepy category. The refrigerated dough category had been the same for decades. We brought something fun and creative to a very boring category!

What was your experience like being on Shark Tank? How did the exposure help your business?

Being on Shark Tank was an amazing experience. The whole world just found out about two sisters making gourmet edible cookie dough. It opened up so many amazing opportunities and different opportunities to expand.

What flavor is your favorite?

This is a tough one! Chocolate chip will always bring us back to our childhood, but sometimes you just crave different flavors and it is so hard to pick one, haha! We are both huge PB fans, so when we perfected the Monster recipe (natural PB, chocolate chips, oatmeal and M&M's) we talked on the phone the next day and both were like "what did you think about our final Monster recipe"...we both started laughing hysterically because we knew we both ate the entire container of Monster! In the summer I love Brownie Batter in place of the chocolate for S'mores over the campfire. Soooooo we might have to pick "seasonal" favorites at this point!

Where do you see The Cookie Dough Cafe in 10 years?

We hope in everyone's refrigerator. We want our customers to have the opportunity to swing by their local supermarkets, grab dough on the go at their local gas station/convenience store, or visit a scoop shop!

What has been the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome?

Convincing supermarkets that edible cookie dough is a thing! We were the first to the market nationwide which forced us to educate both the retail buyer and consumer. We had to convince retailers that people will buy a jar of edible cookie dough and that they would buy it again and again! We also had to educate consumers that our product was safe to consume unbaked.

What's the best part of working together and how has it made your business stronger?

The best part of working with your sister is we are always in sync. We have always had the same vision for our company. □

Article Credits

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Website: thecookiedoughcafe.com