Ashley Fields, one of the five daughters of Debbi Fields, the founder of the namesake cookie brand, has all of the family’s sweet treat recipes memorized by heart.
But those classic recipes are of little use in her very own baking journey. With her college roommate, Kimberly Anderson, she has co-founded Fields Good cookies, which are slightly healthier than her mother’s and contain ingredients that appeal to wellness-focused consumers.
“Growing up in a baking family, I learned how to bake,” said Ms. Fields, who lives in Austin, Texas, “but I didn’t learn how to bake with science-backed ingredients. That was something that I’ve learned myself and figured out and failed through.”
There are three kinds of Fields Good packaged cookies, which are sold online. One is a focus cookie, with nutrients that are believed to improve brain performance, like creatine and citicoline. There’s a protein cookie, which also contains fiber. And there’s a sleep cookie with L-theanine, an amino acid believed to calm the nervous system.
As with many wellness trends, research on the effectiveness of these ingredients, particularly on creatine for focus and L-theanine to lower stress, is thin or mixed.
That a descendant of an old-guard cookie brand would turn toward the functional-food boom, with close to $2 million in venture capital funding, is yet another indication of consumers’ seemingly bottomless appetite for “permissive indulgence,” said Jonathan Deutsch, a professor of culinary arts and science at Drexel University.
As more Americans scrutinize their diets for a variety of reasons, such as an increased use of weight-loss medications or adherence to the Make America Healthy Again movement backed by the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., adding protein and supplements to nearly anything — from gummy worms to potato chips — can be a way to win over consumers.
A recent McKinsey report found that two-thirds of global consumers were willing to pay 10 percent more for healthier alternatives to their regular snacks.
“We get requests almost daily at the Drexel Food Lab for someone who has a protein or functional twist on a classic food that they want to explore bringing to market,” said Dr. Deutsch, who also spots trends for the Specialty Food Association. “If you can think of a food product, someone is thinking through how to add some combination of protein, fiber or functional ingredients to it.”
Ms. Fields and Ms. Anderson, both 38, spent most of their careers working for other consumer brands. Ms. Fields worked for Dyson, the vacuum cleaner maker, and Ms. Anderson had a role at Rent the Runway, the clothing subscription service.
Before creating Fields Good, the two worked together at Cann, whose canned fizzy drinks are spiked with THC. When they started to think about starting their own brand, they considered making cookies with THC. But having seen how difficult it can be to navigate the heavily regulated and high-stakes cannabis space, they decided against it. They also didn’t want to have a THC line of cookies confused with one of their protein cookies, which children can eat.
“We want everyone in the household to be enjoying Fields Good cookies,” Ms. Fields said.
Ms. Fields added that her cookies had no connection to her mother’s brand, which was launched in 1977 and reshaped the commercial cookie industry.
“I am zero involved,” her mother said in an interview, adding that she has tasted only some of the earliest iterations of her daughter’s cookies. She didn’t weigh in on the recipes. “The most important thing for me is not to interfere.”
When Mrs. Fields opened her first outpost in Palo Alto, Calif., fresh-out-of-the-oven soft cookies felt innovative in a market where consumers were mostly accustomed to crispy packaged cookies, like Chips Ahoy. Mrs. Fields was also one of a relatively small number of women to own and run a business at the time, starting her brand only a few years after women won the right to apply for their own loans or credit cards.
“I did not have a pedigree of any kind. I did not have a college degree. I did not have any money,” Mrs. Fields said. “I was everything you wouldn’t want to invest in.”
The brand would become one of the largest cookie retailers, with more than 700 stores around the world at its peak. The Mrs. Fields brand was sold to Capricorn Investors in 1996 for an undisclosed amount, and she is no longer involved with it.
Famous Brands International, which was acquired in 2023 by a Utah-based private equity firm, Pearl Street Equity, currently owns the Mrs. Fields trademark and licensing rights, including to its cursive logo.
And bound by a lifelong noncompete, Mrs. Fields said she couldn’t invest in, endorse or consult on new cookies. Including her daughter’s.
Fields Good is a registered trademark, but its logo renders “Fields” in a strikingly familiar script.
“I would say the logo is more a throwback to diner culture,” Ms. Anderson said, adding that the script was commonly used in neon diner signs. The brand’s palette of cream and brown is derived from the classic diner plates, which were typically speckled cream with brown rings around the edge, she said.
A spokesperson for Famous Brands said in an email that the company was not aware of Fields Good. Pearl Street Equity did not respond to requests for comment.
Ms. Fields and Ms. Anderson also had to hunt for investment. They reached out to more than 80 potential funders over 10 months, with little success. They even took boxes of hand-baked cookies to investor meetings.
“One naysayer told us no one is ever going to give us money,” Ms. Fields said.
Last summer, the pair were connected with the Female Founders Fund, which invests in early-stage companies, like Billie, Zola and Milk Bar. It was the biggest investor in Fields Good’s pre-seed funding round in December, putting in $1.2 million of the $1.86 million total. The rest came from friends and family.
“Our investment was driven by a clear market thesis: Consumers are exhausted by clinical health food options that sacrifice taste,” said Anu Duggal, the fund’s founding partner. Fields Good, she added, feels more like “a real, nostalgic cookie.”
Days before the company started selling cookies online ($47.50 for 10), Ms. Fields and Ms. Anderson were seated near Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, wearing matching brown cardigans with an embroidered Fields Good logo, when they caught the attention of three women passing by.
“Fields Good? That’s not the chicken place, right?” one of the women, Sarah Beresheim, asked, referring to Fields Good Chicken, a New York chicken bowl chain.
“No, we’re a functional-cookie company — we make science-backed soft-baked cookies,” Ms. Fields responded. “You recognize Fields Good because my mom started a company called Mrs. Fields cookies.”
“Baking is in her DNA,” Ms. Anderson chimed in.
Ms. Beresheim sampled the chocolaty focus cookie.
“Oh, this is my jam,” she said, nodding approvingly before walking away.
Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering style and pop culture.
The post Not Her Mother’s Cookies: Daughter of Mrs. Fields Starts Healthy Brand appeared first on New York Times.
