HUNT VALLEY, MD — McCormick & Co. has once again partnered with bakery brand Milk Bar and its James Beard Award-winning chef and founder, Christina Tosi, for a second holiday cookie launch.
The brands developed the McCormick x Milk Bar Eggnog English Toffee Cookie, inspired by the seasonal flavors of eggnog and buttery toffee. The limited-edition product combines McCormick’s spice expertise with Milk Bar’s inventive flavor profile.
Following the success of the Candy Cane Pretzel Bark Cookie, the brands coordinated to develop the second iteration of the collaboration, paying homage to the most notable Christmas flavors consumers reach for; the festive cookie features McCormick’s Ground Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Pure Vanilla Extract and limited-edition English Toffee Finishing Sugar.
“We started by identifying products that are top of mind during the holiday season, alongside our new limited-edition finishing sugars, which we knew we wanted to feature in the cookie collab,” said Hadar Cohen Aviram, executive chef at McCormick. “From there, we worked closely with our expert chefs, the McCormick Culinary team and Christina Tosi, to collaboratively come up with a recipe that took a fresh take on a timeless holiday flavor and the comfort of classic eggnog.”
However, when translating the beverage flavor into a baked format, the spice supplier had to overcome a few challenges.
“Getting the right flavor requires a different approach when translating a drink into a cookie, since we’re using dry versus wet ingredients,” Aviram said. “The mouthfeel and the way the flavors hit your palate and nose are something we paid close attention to. Flavor is all about memory and our subjective experiences, so when putting those key aromas and flavors together, we were able to check all the boxes.”
Once R&D and product formulation were complete, McCormick relied on its previous selling seasons to plan for the sourcing, production scheduling and retail distribution of the new product to meet peak holiday demand.
“With our long history of selling iconic holiday spices, we have a very strong history of sales that we can use to predict demand,” said Giovanna DiLegge, VP of marketing at McCormick. “Through our forecasting process, we mapped out a plan across our full supply chain to pre-build our inventory in advance to ensure we can meet demand.”
The Eggnog English Toffee Cookie will be available at participating Milk Bar locations through Dec. 31.
This year, McCormick also launched limited-edition seasonal finishing sugars featuring two new flavors, Chocolate Hazelnut and Spiced Orange, and two returning ones, Candy Cane and English Toffee. The brand’s Finishing Sugars are available at grocery retailers for a limited time while supplies last.
