The Maui Cookie Lady has received celebrity shoutouts from the likes of actor Dwayne Johnson and rapper Ludacris since its start in 2012, but is now calling on all its fans in a quest to be dubbed the best.
The Makawao-based bakery has been nominated for Best Cookie Shop in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. The awards aim to rank the 10 best in several areas of travel and lifestyle.
This is the shop's first nomination in the category. Voting is open through 11:59 a.m. EDT — 5:59 a.m. local time — June 9. Fans can vote once a day here. Winners will be announced June 18.
Mitzi Toro, the Maui Cookie Lady, said she had seen the 10Best awards circulate in different categories in the past.
"The cookie companies that have made the list in the past all have had a wonderful brand, story and the common denominator is they are loved and supported by their customers," she told Aloha State Daily in an email. "I received an email from the magazine that their editorial staff had selected us as a finalist and at first I thought 'this can't be true.' Our shop is quite small, really — less than 500 feet — and we make the cookies in a kitchen not much bigger.
"As a self-taught baker that started [this business] as a fundraiser, this is the stuff dreams are made of."
Cookies weren't necessarily the plan for Toro, who was born and raised in El Segundo, California, and moved to Maui after high school to be closer to her parents who had relocated there.
Toro, who met her Hawai‘i-born husband Joseph shortly after moving here, went to college to become a school teacher and worked as a public school counselor and teacher.
She said, though, that she's always loved to bake and has been doing so since high school, spurred by her freshman English teacher who handed out fresh-baked cookies on the first day of school.
"I remember the cookie calmed my nerves and that feeling of serenity the food brought sparked my passion for baking cookies," Toro said. "I was inspired and [have been] baking ever since, passing out cookies to fellow students in school, coworkers, neighbors — pretty much any chance I could. I loved the creativity [that] baking brings as well."
When her terminally ill father died in 2012, Toro said she started a fundraiser to thank the nurses at Maui Memorial Medical Center who cared for him.
"I never intended to have a business," she said. "I was really happy working as a public school teacher. ... When the fundraiser was over, the customers asked if I would continue. I was flattered. ... I remember specifically a cookie customer, Sarah Biggs, asked our last night at the farmers market. When I let her know the fundraiser was over, her response was 'So?'" Toro recalled. "Had she not asked, I would [have] never tried to keep going. A year later, I surprised her with her own cookie named after her, called, what else, but 'The Sarah Biggs.'"
It was a best seller for quite some time. According to Toro, current best sellers include liliko‘i, white chunk mac nut and the Maui Monkey cookies. The latter includes banana, milk chocolate, vanilla caramel and Maui-grown macadamia nuts.
For Toro, the connections and relationships with customers is her favorite part of the business, and over the years many of the shop's patrons have returned.
She named a few:
A fitness trainer in Delaware has ordered more than 60 times "and posts our cookies with his muscle milk on his treat days."
A woman in Kaunakakai, Molokai, is at 68 orders, "and when I see her name pop up on [our] orders list there is a smile ear-to-ear."
A Colorado woman sends "a sweet email after each order."
A man in New Jersey orders for his dad.
"It means a lot to us that a customer gifts us to [a] loved family member and it's a responsibility we take seriously," Toro said. "[The] customer leaves kind notes with each order and passes along how our sweet treats makes his dad's day."
Customers also spread the word about the cookies.
After sending an order to Kentucky, for example, Toro said she received "several orders from the same small town and we know that the coconut wireless is strong across the nation."
"We don't know if we will ever meet many of our online regulars or if they will ever make it to Maui," Toro said. "I am happy to send a little Maui to them, and in the meantime, I consider our customers more than friends. They are life ‘ohana."
What makes The Maui Cookie Lady a contender for Best Cookie Shop?
Toro is humble in her response.
"We just love what we do and never claim to be the best at anything," she told ASD. "We have a big heart and a strong, dedicated staff that gives 110% every day they come to work. We appreciate the nod and just to be recognized in itself is a victory and milestone. We have made a lot of mistakes along the way and it seems we never stop learning. As long as our customers want us to stay open, we are beyond honored and excited to keep going."
Several other Hawai‘i businesses have also been nominated in other 10Best categories.
Donna's Cookies in Pa‘auilo is among the nominees for Best Cookie Shop. You can also vote for Ala Moana Center in the Best Shopping Center category; Hanapēpē's Talk Story Bookstore in the Best Independent Bookstore category; Hakalau's Botanical World Adventures in the Best Aerial Adventure Park category; Kaua‘i's Holo Holo Charters, Honolulu's The Vida Mia, Wai‘anae's Wild Side Specialty Tours in the Best Boat Tour category; Līhu‘e's Air Kaua‘i Helicopter Tours, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, Island Helicopters Kaua‘i, Honolulu's Magnum Helicopters and Maverick Helicopters, which operates in Hawai‘i as well as on the Mainland, in the Best Helicopter Tour category; Kapa‘a's Kayak Kaua‘i and Kīhei's Maui Kayak Adventures in the Best Kayak Tour category; and Copper Bar at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Duke's Waikīkī, Edge of Waikīkī at Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort, House Without a Key at Halekūlani Hotel, Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian and Mamahune's at Hilton Garden Inn Kaua‘i in the Best Beach Bar category.
You can find all the categories — and vote — here.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
