The aroma hits you before the van is even in sight: a medley of warm sugar, melted chocolate and butter. By the time you spot the familiar tan paint of the Katie’s Cookie Van, usually parked at the intersection of West Wheelock Street and Main Street, there is already a small line forming as students pull out their wallets before they’ve even decided which flavor they want.
Painted to match its home bakery in Lebanon, the van travels daily to locations across the Upper Valley with a rotating selection of cookies made fresh every morning. Behind these delicious treats is Katie’s Cookies co-founder and baker, Katie Boardman, who picked up her cookie-making skills as a child from observing her family members bake. As a stay-at-home mother of six, she spent years baking for her kids’ sports teams, scouting events and church functions before she realized she could turn her talent into something more.
“I recognized early on that I was pretty good at it,” Boardman said. “And I thought, ‘Someday, I would love to open a cookie shop.’”
That day finally arrived when her youngest child started school, and Boardman found herself with some free time to spare. She tested the waters at the Lebanon farmers market for one season, and less than a year later expanded into a storefront at the Lebanon Pedestrian Mall. Her husband Casey built the bakery’s current location, and Katie’s Cookies opened its storefront in March 2023 to a warm reception from locals.
The community “was very supportive,” Boardman said. “When I moved over to my shop, the people came and told their friends and it’s been a really great time.”
In response to the success of the shop, Casey proposed another expansion: the cookie van. Since early this year, the van has made regular stops at Dartmouth and other venues across the Upper Valley, from concerts to baseball games.
Despite the company’s rapid growth, the process behind making the cookies hasn’t changed much. Everything is still baked from scratch at the main bakery everyday, from 6 a.m. to well into the afternoon, according to Boardman.
“Everything we put on our cookies we make,” she said. “We’re baking fresh every day. We’re just passionate home bakers. None of us are professionals, but we enjoy it, and I think our love of the job comes out in our product.”
That process inspires loyalty in the cookies, including among the people who sell them every day.
“Everybody likes these cookies,” Bill Finn, a former planner at Ruger Firearms who started driving the Katie’s Cookies van this past spring, said. “They’re made out of top quality ingredients. I like to believe in a product if I’m going to sell it, and I believe in these cookies.”
There is one particular cookie that Finn especially believes in: “I’m 71 years old and I have not eaten a better chocolate chip [cookie],” he said. “Those are what’s in my freezer at home. That’s what I eat every night.”
The chocolate chip cookie is one of several staples on the menu, which also always includes flavors like peanut butter and caramel. The rest of the cookie lineup rotates daily, mixing familiar flavors with those built to replicate desserts people already know, like blueberry cheesecake or a maple creemee.
Sydney Shohan, a lab manager at Dartmouth who found out about Katie’s Cookies when they were brought to a board game night, said she tried the tiramisu cookie once — and has been “looking for it ever since.”
Some menu items are designed to incorporate seasonal ingredients: apple and pumpkin in the fall; cornmeal and spices in the winter; ginger and peppermint during the holidays.
Not every seasonal cookie wins people over right away, though. Finn recalled himself and his wife feeling apprehensive about trying the mango-lime cookie, a summer special, at first.
The flavor “wasn’t our usual thing, and we didn’t think we were going to like them,” Finn said. “We took a bite, looked at each other and went, ‘Oh my God, this is good.’”
Although the cookies are a big part of what keeps customers coming back, Boardman said she also loves “providing a space where every single person who walks through our door matters.”
“They are welcomed, we appreciate them, we love them, we are thankful for their business, and I hope people feel that,” she said. “Whether it’s children coming in after school or people who come over and they’ve had a hard time at the hospital or students from the College, everyone who comes at our door is welcome.”
Payton Schetter ’27 said she first learned about Katie’s Cookies in her freshman spring when she received a GroupMe text in the “FREE FOOD @ NOW” chat about cookies leftover from a house community event.
“We all just immediately booked it out [of] 1902 and went over, and they were so good,” she said. “They’re delicious.”
Finn said he sees that same excitement everywhere the van goes, no matter the setting or the crowd. After months behind the wheel, he said the response from customers rarely changes.
“It’s the best job I ever had, because everybody’s happy to see the cookie truck, right?” Finn said.
