Cafe des Taxi has become a staple of many student’s break-time cravings, though for some returning students, there seemed to be less of their favorite sweet treat.
Twenty-two percent of AAU students are from the U.S., so it’s no surprise that chocolate chip cookies are the most popular item at the cafe, according to cafe co-owner Bill Carroll. The international student body can appreciate the classic dessert, too.
“I have noticed there are less cookies at the cafe, and it is truly saddening,” said third-year Lora Lukova.
Chocolate chip cookies are an American confection whose recipe, as we know it today, was invented by Ruth Wakefield in the 1930s. Websites and blogs differ in opinion, but most polls rank chocolate chip cookies in the top ten, sometimes even at number one. They’ve been recognized as one of the world’s 50 most famous desserts.
“They taste very good, and I get why they are favorites,” said a first-year, Finnish student, Nea Lukkonen, after trying the cafe’s chocolate chip cookie for the first time.
In the Czech Republic it is a bit more difficult to find a chocolate chip cookie than in the US because chocolate chips (the American kind) and brown sugar (not the coarse demerara sugar for coffee) are not available in every grocery store. Making your own requires a lot more labor as well.
“People see them and they dive right on them. They sell out much faster. We can only make 24 in one go in the mixer, and before I’ve even cleaned up after myself, half of them are gone,” said Carroll.
The hypothesis as to why the cookies are not around as much as they used to is because they were not as profitable as other foods. But the opposite is true. The cookies actually have a higher profit margin than the coffee or the sandwiches, according to the co-owner.
The question students this Spring semester are asking remains: where are all of the homemade cookies?
“Every semester we hire a new team, so, whenever we do that, the job gets harder for a few weeks. And as the team gets stronger, it starts to get easier, which gives us more time to do stuff like baking,” Carroll said.
Class schedules also play a role. The cookies sell out at about the same time everyday, explained Carroll, so a student might miss them routinely.
As the semester goes on, expect to see more cookies in the cafe, or, if you’re feeling like attempting to bake the cookies at home, ask Bill Carroll. He is happy to give student’s the recipe.
“Anytime I give a student a recipe, I follow up with ‘hey how did it go’ and they say ‘it didn’t work.’ I’m not too worried about it,” the co-owner explained.
