When I first met Joshua Auberbach, he was covered in cookie guts.  Red, white, black: the colored chocolate splattered across his apron.  It was half a week before Valentine’s day and he had orders to fill.  But Joshua hadn’t always been a baker.  No, before he dreamed of Black & White Cookie Kiosks; before he became greater Binghamton’s greatest challah man; before all that, he had been a computer geek.

And like most good computer geeks, his business began, not with a plan, but with an available Internet domain name.  Joshua purchased “blackandwhitecookies.com”.  He had always known that the B&W was a New York staple, but it had just dawned on him that there was no major national distributor that specialized in the cookie.

Years later (and on his third bakery), the Black and White Cookie Company is going strong in a small factory on the east side of Binghamton.  Joshua distributes his custom black and whites nationally.  Heart-shaped B&W’s for your love; Red White & Blue’s for Independence Day; your company logo?  He’ll slap it on a Black & White for your weekend retreat.

Now I understand that you B&W traditionalists might be a little freaked out.  After all, if a “Black & White” is Black & Red, is it TRULY a Black & White?  And how about the heart shapes.  Certainly, there’s nothing in the NAME to say they’ve gotta be round; but there’s something to be said for tradition, right?  I mean, I’m trying to keep an open mind here, but we’ve gotta have some standards, certainly.

Or we could just shut up and eat the cookie.  Yum.

Even as Joshua was telling me about all the different places he ships, a sales rep from a Syracuse Days Inn wandered into the bakery—she’d been in town on business and just HAD to stop by the factory after seeing some of his cookies in an Atlanta hotel.

So Joshua’s cookies get around.  And that’s why we asked him to sit down and answer a few fundamentally important cookie questions.

First thing’s first.  Let’s sort this out once and for all:  is there REALLY a difference between a “Black & White Cookie” and a “Half Moon Cookie”?
Good question! The are two main distinctions between a Black & White and a Half Moon. Black & White’s are a cakey shortbread with a hint of lemon whereas Half Moon’s are more of angel food with no lemon. Black & White’s are iced with a European Fondant (poured fondant) and Half Moons have a butter cream frosting.

It seems like everybody that grew up in New York has a sappy, sentimental “Black & White Cookie Story”.  So what’s yours?
My story is the same as most New Yorkers; Black & White’s were in every bakery I knew and always a favorite of mine. It’s a big cookie, how can one go wrong?
 
I know you make the black & whites to order.  So what’s been your coolest so far?
There are many to choose from, but in the category of ‘cool’, the Eight Ball cookies we made for a wedding on 08/08/08 would top that list.
 
I noticed that you do a lot of the cookie prep yourself.  Was that always the idea when you dreamed up the business?
That was certainly understood as an aspect of the business I would be involved with, but as we grow I am hoping to have more time for my other responsibilities. 
 
Why Binghamton?
‘Cost of Production!’  Can’t be beat in Binghamton. We’re still a New York company, very important for a Black & White Cookie manufacturer and for distribution throughout the U.S., Binghamton is very strategically located.
 
Now, in addition to being the Black & White Cookie company, you somehow ALSO became the big challah maker in Binghamton.  B&W Cookies and Challah.  Now how did THAT happen?
When Wagner’s Bakery closed its doors, the community was left without a local challah supplier. We were asked by a number of institutions if we could take this over and we did.

So what’s the deal with the Corning Cookie Café?  You were once planning on franchising them?
It’s actually a ‘license’ model, similar to franchising, but has many benefits. The biggest benefit is allowing for low cost, small footprint retail operations. The café in Corning is our flagship and will serve as a model. Our licensees will have the luxury of choosing a cart, kiosk or a café.
 
A lot of people see the B&W Cookie Company as one of the more innovative businesses in Bing.  What other cool stuff do you see going on in the Tier?
Not enough! Not to say there aren’t any other innovative businesses in the Hamtons of Bing, but for the same reasons I am here, there should be more and we all need to do what we can to attract more innovative businesses.
 
Well, there’s been a lot of buzz out there that about a secret campaign to replace the spiedie with the pierogi as the official nosh of Bing.  Tell the truth: are you making a play for the black and white?
New York City has a strangle hold on the Black and White Cookie and we’re happy to keep it that way. I will say that as we get more creative with our challah offerings, it could become ‘The Home of Challah’?