The Mackles’extra S’mores
Hey Robin
One among my favourite cookies in Seattle is the Mackles’extra at Hey Robin. To make it, they press a golf ball-sized glob of chocolate chip cookie dough onto a graham cracker sq., high it with a marshmallow, and bake till it’s ooey gooey superb. Then, proper out of the oven, whereas the cookie dough continues to be heat and smooth, they high it with a bit Theo chocolate hat, which melts right into a silky pool of decadence with the roasted marshmallow and elevates the deal with into an entire new class of cookie. It’s perfection.
I’m not the one one who loves it. The cookie’s creator, Robin Wehl Martin, put the Mackles’extra on the menu at her bakery Hey Robin when it opened on Capitol Hill in 2013. Since then, each she and the deal with have collected quite a few accolades, with reward from native and nationwide shops, together with Time Out, Cosmopolitan, and Enterprise Insider. What’s extra, Martin’s Mackles’extra recipe is featured in Theo Chocolate’s cookbook, Theo Chocolate: Recipes & Candy Secrets and techniques from Seattle’s Favourite Chocolate Maker, in addition to Allyson Reedy’s cookbook 50 Issues to Bake Earlier than You Die, which lists Martin amongst different pastry world luminaries similar to Christina Tosi, Dominique Ansel, and Joanne Chang. Form of an enormous deal! Macklemore has additionally accepted (or, no less than, politely held one and smiled for a photograph).
Which is why it was shocking to see, throughout a current go to to Hey Robin whereas selecting up cookies for this month’s cookie countdown, that their arguably most well-known cookie had been downgraded to, merely, the S’mores cookie.
I joked with the shop’s worker once I seen the change. “Why the identify change? Did Macklemore lastly threaten to sue?” The worker kindly laughed at my dumb joke and stated the identify was modified when the bakery began utilizing Spinnaker chocolate as an alternative of Theo. They switched to Spinnaker since Theo was now not producing its chocolate in Seattle, they stated, the results of the corporate being bought to American Licorice Firm in 2023. Since Theo Chocolate was synonymous with the Mackles’extra, a brand new chocolate meant a brand new identify.
However the timing is curious. After a bit extra digging, it seems the identify change occurred across the similar time Macklemore was receiving criticism for saying “Fuck America” throughout his efficiency on the Palestine Will Love Eternally profit live performance on September 21 on the Seward Park Amphitheater.
In an announcement revealed a couple of days afterward Instagram, he defined, “The ‘Palestine Will Reside Eternally’ pageant I carried out at was rooted in peace, love and solidarity. Sadly, the historic occasion in my hometown that introduced 1000’s of individuals collectively to boost consciousness and cash for the individuals of Palestine has develop into overshadowed by two phrases. … I want I had been in a greater place with my grief and anger. However the fact is I’m not okay. I haven’t been. The final 11.5 months of watching a genocide unfold in entrance of us has been excruciating on a religious, emotional and human degree. I’ve been in utter disbelief with how our authorities is exhibiting up at this second in historical past. I don’t assume I’m alone.”
Nonetheless, Macklemore pissed some individuals off. That week the Mariners and the Kraken launched a joint assertion saying, “We consider that sports activities deliver individuals collectively and unite us. We’re conscious of Macklemore’s more and more divisive feedback, and they don’t replicate the values of our respective possession teams, leagues, or organizations. We’re presently evaluating our collective choices on this matter.” The Mariners didn’t play “Can’t Maintain Us” through the seventh-inning stretch, which that they had accomplished since 2022, and Macklemore was dropped as a headliner on the Neon Metropolis Competition in Las Vegas lower than per week after being introduced. (Competition organizers cited “unexpected circumstances.”)
Did Macklemore’s feedback additionally value him a cookie? Hey Robin didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark to make clear when the identify was modified and if it had something to do with Macklemore’s feedback on the pageant. Macklemore’s PR additionally didn’t reply to our electronic mail. So it’s tough to pin down precisely when the swap occurred and why, but it surely’s clear that the Mackles’extra nonetheless existed in early September, and ceased to exist later within the month.
With out concrete solutions from the bakery, we did a bit social media sleuthing. There are a number of user-submitted pictures on Yelp, posted within the first half of September, the place Hey Robin’s menu nonetheless lists the cookie because the Mackle’smore. The previous identify additionally seems on this video, revealed on Instagram on September 16, with Hey Robin listed as a collaborator. That very same day, Hey Robin introduced on Instagram that they’ve switched from Theo to Spinnaker, and whereas the put up’s caption presently refers back to the cookie because the S’mores cookie, Instagram indicated that the caption was edited after posting. It’s not doable to inform precisely when or what was modified (rattling you, Instagram), however, in response to Instagram’s edit time stamp, the edits occurred 11 weeks from the time of this writing, whereas the primary feedback on the put up confirmed up 12 weeks in the past.
Seven weeks in the past, on that very same put up, a commenter requested, “When did the identify change from macklesmore occur??” and Hey Robin replied that it occurred after they stopped utilizing Theo and switched to Spinnaker. That very same individual then wrote, “it’s regarding you retain deleting feedback about individuals asking extra questions.”
It’s Hey Robin’s prerogative to drop Macklemore’s identify from their cookie. However this cookie, and its memorable identify, had develop into a notable a part of Hey Robin’s model. Utilizing Macklemore’s identify little doubt benefited the bakery in its very early days. When the cookie was launched in 2013, Macklemore was big! His album with Ryan Lewis, The Heist, had been launched the earlier 12 months, and the duo was promoting tens of millions of information, racking up billions of YouTube and Spotify performs, and profitable virtually each main music award accessible. Macklemore didn’t invent the Mackles’extra, or put within the laborious work required to efficiently develop a small enterprise, however identify recognition goes a good distance.
Hey Robin didn’t reply to any of our inquiries to attempt to contextualize all of this, and the corporate doesn’t must make any sort of assertion on what’s taking place in Gaza proper now—many companies aren’t. However eradicating Macklemore’s identify from the menu after greater than 10 years, coincidentally at a time when he was already receiving very public criticism from different enterprise partnerships for talking out towards individuals and entities who’re actively funding the assault on Palestine, effectively, that does look like a stance: A stance that claims that Macklemore went too far; that criticism of our nation’s continued help of the assaults in Gaza is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. And that leaves a nasty style in my mouth.
We’re counting right down to 2025 by sharing a few of our favourite cookies on Slog each day in December! As a result of life is difficult, and sugar helps. Will issues get bizarre? Perhaps! There might have been a small hearth through the first picture shoot! However hopefully, you may additionally uncover some new favourite treats to get pleasure from this season. Monitor our day by day suggestions right here! 🍪
