Dear Cookie Bites Fans,
First and foremost, thanks for coming by to Cookie Bites. This is the story of how I started the company. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm the modern day version of the NYC 🗽Cookie Monster. I always seek out the best cookies I can find, no matter what country I'm in. When I moved to Qatar 🇶🇦 in 2011, there weren't a lot of places that served that classic homemade chocolate chip cookie. At the time, there were a couple spots but I would frequent this one cafe/restaurant about 30 minutes away from where I lived and they had pretty descent cookies. Yes that’s right, I would drive 30 minutes for about 5-7 cookies every weekend for years. Being from NYC, those classic melty but slightly crispy/chewy chocolate chip cookies are plentiful. My internal cookie monster was starting to take over and once a week was not enough. Around 2012 my wife suggested I try making my own chocolate chip cookie. TBH, she might as well have asked me to launch a rocket ship 🚀 to Mars with Douglas Quaid.
My wife said, “Even if it’s half as good as the cookies you buy, at least we’ll have a ton of them and you don’t have to make those long trips”. At the time, my only claim to “baking fame” was my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, which is now added to the Cookie Bites menu. Other than that, I had very little baking experience. With a very low bar in mind, I went into my kitchen and started experimenting with one simple goal—make AHAGCCC (A Half As Good Chocolate Chip C🍪🍪kie)
These are pictures of some of the first set of chocolate chip cookies I made. Notice how the sizes are all over the place.
The first cookies I made starting around 2012 were pretty awful 🤢but at least they were edible. Yeah, like a piece of raw broccoli 🥦with some chocolate chips 🍫 on top. My initial goal was just to make freshly baked cookies for my wife and children that were good enough. I used to frequent certain cookie cafes ☕️to taste different types of cookies. There were about 3 cookie spots that made really good cookies. I would bring them home, then compare mine to theirs. I did this for years and it became a hobby. I would make different flavors for people at work, bring them to parties and events. It was a cookie evolution, my chip crustulum chocolae (yes, thats latin)
At some point during this cookie journey I started to hit a stride. Every couple of weeks I would create a new flavor. Some of my earlier experiments were the following:
Some of my early concepts that I shared with co-workers. This was a White Chocolate Craisin Cookie.
Bacon 🥓(حلال) Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie
White Chocolate Raisin Cookie
Pretzel 🥨Butter Scotch Chocolate Chip
I would continue to make different types of cookies with unconventional flavors while all the time capturing feedback to make a better cookie. How was the smell? Texture? Sweetness? Did I add enough chocolate? For years I would iterate, no different than building software. I would take the feedback and create another version.
One day, on experiment 1,283,542 😅my wife goes, “Woah, these cookies are pretty good”. I said, “Oh, thanks”. She then said, “No, you don’t understand, really good—these are good enough to sell”. Now keep in mind that over many years my wife, co-workers and various friends all loved 😍my cookies. But around this time, more and more people started to wonder, “Why don’t you have a cookie company?”. Over several months I’d continue to bring small batches to work and the reaction was, “Where did you buy these from?” At that point, something clicked. The cookies got so good that many thought I was buying them then claiming I baked them. Many times, I was challenged to bring cookies daily to prove they were mine. One day I had enough, I said, “Guys, do you really think I’m going to spend hundreds of dollars 💸buying someone else’s cookies?”
After dozens of recipes and testing, I finally made the ideal chocolate chip cookie. The company started in February 2018, and we now have over a dozen types of products. I started Cookie Bites so your friends and family can indulge in this chocolatey goodness that I’ve come to love. Enjoy! Below is a gallery of some key moments from earlier phases of my cookie experiments.
