How Baltimore's Berger Cookies Became A Statewide Phenomenon
Baltimore, like many major cities, has its share of home-grown specialties ranging from fairly obscure sweet and sour lemon sticks to a beer so beloved that some think its old jingle should be adopted as the new state song. (Maryland is anthem-less after its old one was canceled in 2021.) Of course, there are crab cakes, a dish so iconically Baltimore that Duff Goldman makes them for the Super Bowl even when the Ravens aren't in contention. The city has its very own dessert, too. No, it's not anything baked by the aforementioned Ace of Cakes, but is instead a fudge-frosted yellow cake-like confection called the Berger cookie.
Berger cookies, unlike New York black and whites, are a specific brand as well as a type since they're produced by only one bakery. They originated in the 19th century as a family recipe brought to the U.S. by German immigrant Henry Berger. A glance at the ingredient label shows that the cookies have been tweaked through the years to make them a more shelf-stable product complete with preservatives and coloring. Artificial ingredients notwithstanding, the cookies have been embraced by their hometown for the better part of two centuries. It wasn't until the 1990s that the bakery started transporting this product over to Maryland's Eastern Shore. This was done at the request of Baltimore expats –so charming is Charm City that even in retirement, some folks don't go too far. By now, the cookies have reached such ports of call as Bethesda, Germantown, and Rockville, Maryland.
Berger cookies have only made limited inroads outside the Old Line State
If you check out the current edition of the Berger distribution map, you'll see that the cookies are clustered in two main areas: the greater Baltimore area and the Maryland suburbs outside DC. The cookies are carried by supermarket chains like Safeway and Wegman's, both of which have a much wider footprint. So why haven't Berger cookies spread beyond the state's borders? It seems that they have, but only to a very limited extent. The bakery prefers to handle its own transport so it only services only those locations its fleet can reach.
At present, the map indicates that the only out-of-state stores carrying them are in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, plus a handful in Washington, D.C. At the very least, marketing them in the District may seem like a no-brainer since so many stores in bordering Montgomery County, Maryland carry the cookies. Even if the bakery doesn't truck its cookies beyond the mid-Atlantic region, it's willing to ship them nationwide. Not just Berger cookies but a few cakes and some cookie-themed merch are all available for purchase from its online shop.