SAN FRANCISCO — Chef Aaron London is breaking into the CPG market with the launch of AL’s Real Goods.
The brand’s founder spent the last two years developing the boxed cookie brand, inspired to fill a gap in the market for a premium center store gluten-free cookie at a lower price point.
“I had been eating a lot of fancy handmade cookies,” he said. “They were delicious, but super expensive. I then shifted to buying the standard center store boxed cookies, and the gap in between was a mile wide, no comparison. I figured that center store needed a chewy, buttery, premium cookie, where you could get a box for under $10.”
It took him two years to get AL’s Real Goods off the ground, with R&D taking up more than a year of that time. While London intended to launch with six gluten-free cookie SKUs, he realized the market was too small to launch into directly and pivoted to wheat-based cookies, which took 4-5 months to refine. He did the development himself while working alongside food science consultants for technical questions and guidance.
“My background is as a Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur,” he said. “I am accustomed to highly complex and refined methods and techniques. I thought I had simplified things enough to work well at a copacker, but then I would meet with one and discover I was way off. Either what I had created would be too difficult, or it would be too expensive. So, I would have to start over from scratch every few months. It took a long time to crack the code on a cookie I would be really proud of, one that the market needs and would be commercially viable to produce at scale.”
The chewy cookies are made with Non-GMO Project verified, organic, fair trade and sustainably sourced ingredients. Flavors include Choco Choco, Choco Chip, Ginger Smack and Peanutter.
AL’s Real Goods come in 12-count 6.7-ounce boxes at an SRP of $9.99 and are available through various independent natural channels on the West Coast as well as online through the brand’s website and Good Eggs. London also shared that the brand is working on foodservice distribution through Sysco and Vistar and is set to launch in some c-stores and alternative channel stores across the US soon.
