Love is sweet and so is business success. In 2015, a product like no other was created and continues to be made with affection to this day in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. The story of Taylor Chip and its founders, Sara and Doug Taylor, begins with their passion for each other and for chocolate chip cookies.

Taylor Chip is a cookie company that replaces Crisco with real butter and uses no high fructose corn syrup to make gooey yet ingredient-centric cookies. When the Taylors first started dating, Doug was obsessed with a friend’s mother’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. The two would bake these cookies together, but because the recipe called for Crisco and Sara had grown up on a farm where her family valued real ingredients, the two decided they would substitute butter.

As they continued to date and grew their love for each other, Sara and Doug began to formulate the idea for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. They made these cookies for family and friends, receiving an overwhelmingly positive response. With that fueling them, the two decided to launch a business. The night of their wedding in 2016, they made big cookies to give to their guests as favors, and with that, Taylor Chip was born.

“The wild thing about us is, we never saw this as a viable business. We didn’t do market research either. Ever since 2015, we’ve been making cookies together, and people just really liked them!” says Doug Taylor.

They started making cookies for events and for a market stand. They didn’t have any debt, which helped in the beginning. It costs $15,000 to open the business, and they had $5,000 in savings. They applied for credit cards to reach that extra $10,000. The timing was opportune as well – the Taylors entered the market when convenient, handheld baked goods like cookies were beginning a boom period.

Building a following through social media and positive reviews, Taylor Chip was able to quickly grow its customer base. Sara and Doug used their previously acquired business skills in branding and marketing to keep prices low, especially factoring in the cost of high-quality ingredients.

“We don’t want our customers to eat anything we wouldn’t eat,” Doug says. “Everything we do, we do in consideration of ourselves and what we would like to eat. We have that better-for-you approach naturally. That and our story combined, helps us continue to take market share and is why we’re on path to over double our business again this year.”

In January of 2019, Taylor Chip launched its e-commerce experience. The Taylors tout their website ordering experience as one of the first in the desserts industry to bring the inside-the-store retail approach online. The site allows customers to choose a half or full dozen, fully customized with the cookies they want in the box. While other businesses focus on specific bundles, Taylor Chip once again focuses on what its owners would want in its customer approach.

Doug had a background in web design. He custom coded the site, which combined with marketing experience, helped them to save money in the early years of the business.

The Taylors received a true “rocket launch” moment in their business’s history in the early stages of COVID. In 2020, Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports fame tried the bakery’s cookies live on video. He rated it highly for a cold cookie and told them he was saving the cookies for later because of how much he enjoyed them. That exposure led to a flood of orders that hasn’t gone back down in the following four years.

Taylor Chip now has seven locations, all in Pennsylvania, with a 6,000-square-foot centralized manufacturing facility. All retail and e-commerce products are made and shipped out from there. The company also does local delivery through DoorDash and its own website, and now has its products in close to 200 retail locations through its CPG and wholesale program that was launched in June.

Chips for Success

Doug and Sara Taylor turned their passion for cookies into a successful multifaceted business.

| Source: Taylor Chip

Taylor Chip offers about 25 flavors at any given time, with staples, rotating options and limited-time offers (LTOs). These special releases bring a ton of appeal to the brand and often reflect the tastes of the season.

“S’mores was meant to be a fall cookie, but we had so much backlash when we took it off the menu. So, we actually brought it back and now it’s one of our top sellers,” says Sara Taylor. “Some other popular ones would be iced pumpkin spice in the fall season, that was really popular. Maple pecan in the winter. All of our holiday ones like chocolate mocha peppermint, ginger snap, chocolate covered strawberry. We did an oatmeal cream pie for Father’s Day and that one was really popular.”

“Overall, we believe there are fads and there are trends. Trends are seasonal, fads come and go. I think the consistent rotating of menus and cookies is a fad,” adds Doug. “We took the time and energy to build a system that supports thirty different flavors every single day, because we believe at least fifteen of our flavors should be consistent. They are the tried-and-true, the ones you’re going to come back to or you’re going to bring your son back to, because you remember from your childhood, the sugar cookie or whatever that cookie might be. It’s still there and you want that and crave that. Within that, you get to have fun seasonally and create products that match up with the season.”

Taylor Chip’s dense cookie is exactly what the Taylors love, and it’s what their customers love too. To create great cookies that appeal to customers, they recommend chilling or even freezing the cookie dough before baking if you can. They also advise taking cookies out a couple minutes earlier than expected and letting them sit, because they’ll continue to bake in the tray. This avoids a crispy cookie, and although that may be popular with some, it doesn’t appeal to many of Taylor Chip’s customers.

The Taylors say that it’s all in the leavening. They do a long time bake at a short temperature, as opposed to a fast bake at a high temperature. This locks in moisture, which keeps the cookie dense and gooey.

A good product is vital, but you need to be able to reach potential customers as well. When getting started, kindness goes a long way. People want to support that positivity. The Taylors also suggest diving into what you know and bank on yourself. Their backgrounds in marketing and design made it easier to grow the business.

“I think that’s why we’re able to make this business work so well. There’s not a single aspect of the business we can’t replace. If we lose somebody, we know how to do that,” Doug says.

After six years, the Taylors have learned plenty about what works and what doesn’t. The biggest thing they would’ve changed during the early years is automating quicker. Fulfilling orders several weeks out is not ideal, because customers want their products quickly after ordering. Doug and Sara took a unique approach to their marriage in saving their money and avoiding loans, and they used that same approach to their business, building it completely from cash in the first five years.

“Growing up, we both had to pay for everything ourselves. We went into marriage not even having a car loan and never wanting one. We took that same approach to the beginning of our business. We could have gotten a loan for a machine, but we thought, “No we can’t do that.”” Sara says.

“To grow 2,000 percent in three years just off of cash is possible, because we did it, but if we would’ve understood leveraged finance and the power of automation, we would’ve been able to double the size of where we are now,” Doug adds.

Sweet New Ventures

Taylor Chip rolls its cookie flavors and dough into the ice cream, which is made with organic Pennsylvania dairy.

| Source: Taylor Chip

Not satisfied with simply cookies, Taylor Chip is looking to build a beverage and dessert empire. The Taylors want cookies, coffee and ice cream, all under one brand. They’ve been working on a creamery for over four years, as well as refining the coffee roasting to create a product worthy of its reputation.

“We’re building a 20,000-square-foot creamery where we’ll be able to do 40 pints a minute, with the goal of large CPG distribution. It will also support our retail stores through three-gallon containers. We’ll also be able to do 200 dough balls a minute in this facility,” Doug says. “We didn’t realize how fast we would grow with just cookies, but we love that we’ve already committed to the process of being a creamery too. We just love ice cream. Eventually, we’re going to be in thousands of store shelves with our ice creams.”

Taylor Chip is using consumer awareness of its cookie flavors to help grow its ice cream business. They want to create a unique, better-for-you experience that has more inclusions than even a top name like Ben & Jerry’s, rolling the cookie flavors and dough into the ice cream, which is made with organic Pennsylvania dairy.

Just like its cookies, Taylor Chip’s ice cream has no weird gums and no egg yolks. “Just pure creamy goodness” as they like to say.

The initial flavor offerings include:

• Vanilla – A smooth and creamy vanilla ice cream made with two types of real vanilla—Madagascar and Tahitian
• Chocolate – A rich and creamy chocolate ice cream uses the same cocoa as the cookies, giving it a familiar, comforting flavor with a decadent twist
• Strawberry – This fruity ice cream is made with a house-made strawberry jam using fresh strawberries. It’s naturally colored with beet powder, no artificial dyes, just fresh and flavorful
• Snickerdoodle – A cinnamon sugar ice cream with pieces of the signature Snickerdoodle cookie mixed in for a sweet and slightly spiced treat
• Cookie Dough – A brown sugar and vanilla-based ice cream loaded with chunks of a house-made chocolate chip cookie dough and toasted Wilbur chocolate chips
• S’mores – A graham cracker-flavored ice cream packed with toasted Wilbur chocolate chips and swirls of house-made marshmallow fluff
• Tart Berry Crumble – A creamy vanilla base with swirls of tart berry jam and crunchy oatmeal crumble for a sweet and tangy experience
• Blackberry Cookies & Cream – A take on cookies and cream with a fruity twist. Oreo cookies are mixed into a birthday cake-flavored base with house-made blackberry jam
• Deepest Darkest Chocolate – A rich, extra chocolatey ice cream with toasted Wilbur chocolate chips, brownie bites and a fudge ripple
• Sweet Potato Casserole – Made with real sweet potato purée, candied pecans and marshmallow fluff. It’s like Thanksgiving dessert in every scoop
• Apple Walnut Crisp – A vanilla-based ice cream with cinnamon-spiced apples and chunks of walnut crumble, like an apple crisp à la mode
• PB&J – A peanut butter ice cream with swirls of house-made strawberry jam and pieces of peanut butter cookies

“Each scoop is dense, stretchy and oh-so-smooth, giving you that guilt-free indulgence you’ve been craving. Plus, our house-made, better-for-you inclusions and toppings take it to the next level,” Taylor Chip says. “It’s all about making ice cream magic, one scoop at a time!”