Meet Caroline McGinley | Owner & Baker of Gringuita Cookies

We had the good fortune of connecting with Caroline McGinley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Caroline, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Before ever having the capacity to envision myself as an entrepreneur, I was what you may refer to as a “risk” taker. It’s ironic though, because I’ve never felt like I’ve taken a risk in my life. If you look up this overused term, risk is defined as “a situation involving exposure to danger.” Yet, when I was 21 years old and got on a plane heading towards Santiago de Compostela, a city I had never been to, to work as an intern in a hotel I had never previously heard of, in Spain, by myself and with only the money I had saved from working as a hostess, I did not feel as if I were putting myself in a perilous situation. In fact, my heart beat with excitement and my skin tingled with an auspicious energy. That is what I call being alive.

However, when I arrived to the hotel where I would be living and working for the next three months, I learned that the job posted on Google was not matched by reality. I worked as a dishwasher for hours on end, until my hands calloused and cracked. I kept going, and by the time my internship was nearing its end, I was running the hotel’s breakfast buffet on my own. I went from dishwasher to being in charge of several employees. I took inventory and ordered ingredients and supplies. I did all of this in Spanish, a language I had not yet mastered. I will never forget the moment one of my coworkers told me that one day, I would be “la jefa,” the boss. A seed was planted in this moment that would start to take life a few years down the road.

The real risk, I believe, is choosing situations in which you will remain comfortable and stagnant, and not those that will push you to learn and grow as a human being.

What should our readers know about your business?
With my bake-from-frozen cookie dough product being an entirely novel concept, it’s easy to talk about what sets my business apart. Gringuita Cookies specializes in preformed cookie dough balls, each weighing at more than a quarter-pound, which are stuffed with unique fillings and are ready to bake from frozen. So, all you need to do is take the giant frozen dough ball out of the re-sealable bag and pop it in the oven. In 13-15 minutes you’ll have a 4.5oz gourmet, stuffed cookie in the comfort of your own home. The best part? You can bake just one and keep the rest in the freezer for whenever you get a craving or are hosting a dinner party and want a specialty dessert. I use all natural ingredients and no preservatives, but the dough naturally lasts for months in your freezer, so you don’t have to worry about eating them all at once. My four original flavors include the Brown Buttah (my classic chocolate chip. It’s a brown butter dough with 60% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate chips and topped with coarse sea salt), The Jammy (soft vanilla dough stuffed with mixed-berry jam), El Churro (snickerdoodle dough stuffed with dulce de leche from Argentina), and the Chocolate Souffle (chocolate dough stuffed with a dark chocolate soufflé filling).

Since I started the business, I knew that I wanted to see my bags of frozen dough in the freezer section of stores, and in less than a year after starting, I did just that. You can now find Gringuita Frozen CookiDough in five gourmet markets from Vero Beach to Miami Shores! It has undoubtedly been challenging, and since the business is still in its infancy phase, I feel like a student who is constantly up for a new exam. As of now, I work with just one assistant in the kitchen, and every other aspect of the business, I manage myself. I think what most people don’t understand, and I’m sure all startup owners can relate, is how much work goes on in the background. In the course of Gringuita Cookies’ short lifetime, I have personally hand-mixed over two tons of dough. I have not hired anyone to work on my social media or make cold calls to stores or even log sales in Quickbooks–I do that myself. In moments when I feel overwhelmed or stuck, I try to remember where it all started and how far my business has come in such a short duration. It feels like decades have passed since I was an English teacher selling my cookies on the side, right out of my 300 square foot studio apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay, but that was just a few years ago. When I moved back to Florida because of Covid, I was living with my parents and started Gringuita Cookies with only $3000 dollars–enough money to purchase a freezer, ingredients, standup pouches, and first and last months rent at a commissary kitchen. From there, I grew Gringuita Cookies strictly through grassroots marketing, having never taken a business class in my life. I have been blessed to encounter some pretty amazing people along the way, like Jessica Zabel of Cod & Capers Marketplace and Eric San Pedro of Palm Beach Meats, who saw the potential of my frozen CookiDough and were the first to entrust me to sell to their stores.

This story is not close to being over, in fact only the first couple of chapters have been released, but I’m excited to keep writing. It can be challenging, but now that I have a taste of what it’s like to be the author of my own life, I’m never going back.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since I’m not a resident of Miami, but reside a little further north in West Palm Beach, I would also be a tourist in the city. Whenever I visit, I try to go to Wynwood to check out the ever-changing art and food scene. I would definitely drive around to visit local bakeries too, one of which I was recently introduced to and love- Flour & Weirdoughs in Key Biscayne. To make it easy on myself, I might google places that Anthony Bourdain ate at when he visited Miami and copy him. You can never go wrong! Somewhere within this trip I would have to visit Mima Market in Miami Shores because they’re the first store in Miami that sells only locally made products from in and around the Miami area (one of which being my frozen CookiDough, yay!). In moments when I’m not eating my way through the city, I would definitely be spending time lounging on one of Miami’s gorgeous beaches.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Of course, countless people have had an impact on this journey, but I never would have started selling cookies if it weren’t for Mariangel Ramirez. Mariangel and I met in our dorm-style apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay, where I lived and worked as an English teacher for two years, and we immediately became friends. She was the one that encouraged me to sell my baked goods and together we created an account on Instagram called La Gringa y Mari where we showcased our desserts. If it weren’t for her, I never would have proceeded to invent my own stuffed cookie recipes that I ended up selling out of my apartment in Montevideo for almost a year. Not only did she push me out of my comfort zone, but she inspired me to never take anything for granted and to live life to the fullest everyday. It’s cliche, I know, but Mariangel was a practicing anesthesiologist in Maracay, Venezuela, before she was forced to give up her career, leave family and friends behind, and move to Uruguay by herself in order to escape the worsening political environment of her home country. Yet, she always had a smile on her face. She chose to see the good in the bad. Now, after listening to too many podcasts to count, I realized Mariangel was the first person to teach me what a growth mindset, or abundant mindset, looks like. I would not be where I am today without having met her.

I also need to give a huge shout out to my assistant Luis Pacheco, who helps me weigh, stuff, form, and package the dough. Not only is he the hardest worker I have ever met, but he shares my enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and always makes me see the bigger picture when things seem tough.

Last but most definitely not least, my family has been incredibly supportive along this tumultuous journey and has had my back since the beginning. My sister is always there to listen and advise, my parents double as salespeople and might be better at working farmers markets than me, my brothers are my taste testers, and my uncle Gordon is my mentor and type A personality that I need to bring out the business person within me.

Website: https://gringuita-cookies.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gringuita_cookies/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gringuita.cookies

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gringuita-cookies-west-palm-beach

Image Credits
Grace Elkins: photo of me taking baked cookies out of the oven Jessica Zabel, owner of Cod & Capers Marketplace: photo of me with my frozen CookiDough in Cod & Capers Lori McGinley: photo of me at the farmers market & photo of me and my older sister at lemonade stand Claire McGinley: photo of me holding up half of a Brown Buttah cookie I took the other pictures.