The Maui Cookie Lady has gotten praise from celebs like actor Dwayne Johnson and rapper Ludacris since its start more than a decade ago, and this weekend it received national recognition on Good Morning America.
The Makawao-based bakery, which offers hand-crafted, small-batch, artisan cookies, was featured during a Dec. 13 segment where “Bon Appétit” and “Epicurious” Editor-in-Chief Jamila Robinson highlighted the best cookies to order online.
In the clip, Robinson said the publications were not only looking for cookies that were delicious but shipped well, too.
“Now, these are dessert cookies and they are massive, so you want to think about sharing these with folks,” Robinson says about The Maui Cookie Lady, noting local ingredients like macadamia nuts, passion fruit and coconut.
The segment showcased a lineup of the Maui Cookie Lady’s seasonal and signature flavors.
“I’m still taking it in,” Mitzi Toro, founder of The Maui Cookie Lady, said in an announcement Monday. “Seeing our cookies featured on Good Morning America felt surreal and deeply meaningful for our small Maui business. I’m proud of our team and grateful for the support that has carried us from our island kitchen to a national audience. I hope this moment reminds people how special our Maui community truly is.”
The Maui Cookie Lady took the No. 4 spot on the 2025 list of Best Cookie Shops in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards, which aim to rank the 10 best in several areas of travel and lifestyle.
Toro told Aloha State Daily earlier this year 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 told ASD in May. "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."
The cookie company began after her terminally ill father died in 2012, when Toro began baking cookies as a fundraiser to thank the nurses at Maui Memorial Medical Center who cared for him, the company's website notes.
Find out more about The Maui Cookie Lady here.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
