This August has been a busy one for the Maya’s Cookies team! Maya has been especially busy— baking cookies, being interviewed for features, and taking care of her new family’s new puppy, Duke the dachshund!
As usual, Maya has been baking hundreds of cookies everyday while also planning out our new flavors for the holiday season (sorry, no flavor spoilers just yet!) It’s definitely funny to see Maya using the snowflake cookie cutter in the middle of a California heatwave. We’ve thought about investing in a kiddie-pool to help stay cool since there’s no AC in the bakery or our offices right next door. But, as you could guess, soggy cookies are a no-no.
Not only has Mother Earth been bringing the heat but Maya has been on fire recently, having one to two interviews each week! All that on top of baking for 8+ hours a day, supporting her three boys (well— four boys if you include Duke), and trying to fit in time to practice self-care. Maya’s favorite way to relax is jumping on her Peloton bike for a bit or reading a book— she just finished Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, and raves about it!
In between those moments of calm, Maya is busy being in the spotlight! Some of her favorite moments of this month were being featured on Ash Brown’s Ash Said It podcast (check it out at: https://bit.ly/AshSaidIt) and The CW San Diego’s News 8 Morning Extra (https://bit.ly/NEWS8).
Many of these features highlighted us as a black-owned business since August is Black Business Month. This month highlights the importance of actively supporting black businesses. To do so is a form of activism— it's actively defying a system that has historically disenfranchised our black communities, black voices, and black entrepreneurs. Every dollar is a vote so #buyblack!
An especially sweet surprise was the kind sentiment the dairy-free ice cream company, NadaMoo!, expressed in a recent Instagram post: “We are so excited to be celebrating our friends at Maya’s Cookies, the amazing #1 Black-owned Gourmet Vegan Cookie Company in America that is also female-owned and led by the incredible Maya Madsen… we were truly blown away by their delicious cookies and believe they make the best tasting, baked vegan cookies ever!” Even the vegan magazine, VegOut Los Angeles, posted about this collab (http://bit.ly/NadaMoo&Maya).
As a team, we have definitely been enjoying lots of NadaMoo! ice cream to help bear with the heat but there really is nothing like creamy ice cream sandwiched between two soft and chewy cookies— and don’t forget, this is all vegan!
In the meantime, be sure to keep your eyes open and ears peeled for all the great things that will be coming in September!