When Jessie Muhlin decided to start selling frozen cookie dough, she knew one had to contain seaweed.
The first flavor the marine biologist developed was the Selkie Sea Biscuit, a lemon cookie with flakes of seaweed, almost like tri-color sprinkles. The cookie has a subtle seaweed taste, but it isn’t overwhelming, Muhlin said.
“It adds, I think, an element of intrigue and nutrition because it does have nutritional qualities,” she said.
The seaweed is harvested in Maine and sold by Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, she said.
The Selkie Sea Biscuit is one of five flavors of frozen cookie dough that Muhlin, a professor at Maine Maritime Academy, recently began selling through her company, Buba OG. Baking was always a stress reliever for Muhlin and she would daydream of selling her cookies during countless drives between Bangor — where she lives — and Castine.
Muhlin spent a year workshopping five cookie flavors: sea biscuit, maple butter, oatmeal butterscotch chip, orange with chocolate chips, and chocolate chip. In June she decided to get the cookie business up and running and found a commercial kitchen to rent.
The name Buba OG pays homage to Muhlin’s grandmother and her great, great, great grandmother. The latter lived in tenement housing in New York City and would feed workers lunch, Muhlin said.
“[She was] really part of a community there. I really love the concept of people taking care of each other and kind of small communities,” Muhlin said.
“I’m not from Bangor originally, but I think Bangor has some elements of a small community and taking care of folks in certain ways.”
The frozen dough is sold in bags of 15 cookies. A “tasting party” gives customers three cookies of each flavor.
Buba OG cookies can be found at Tiller & Rye in Brewer, and T & C Grocery in Castine.
