  
 Brent Bumpers and Sam DeWitt got their first taste of world-class cookies in Brent's kitchen. Nothing too unusual about that, right?
What was a bit out of the ordinary was the location of Brent's kitchen: the Governor's Mansion of Arkansas. The year was 1972, his dad was governor, and the cookies were the product of the Mansion's legendary cook, Eliza Ashley.
Fast forward to 1984. Brent is now a federal prosecutor and Sam is a phone company exec. Yet both still longed for the taste of those unforgettable morsels. Together, they dedicate themselves to a higher, more ambitious calling --- making those delicious, homemade cookies available to the public. It took three nights a week for over a year, slaving away over a friend's pizza oven, before they got the taste they were after. The wait, and the effort, was worth it. The cookies were so good, and their friends so addicted, that the only thing left to do was to package the morsels in plastic bags with stick-on labels and try to keep up with the demand. Eventually, they progressed to their current gourmet packaging, befitting the treasures found within.
Brent & Sam's Cookies has grown rapidly in the past decade. The company now occupies its own building, and the staff has expanded to over 30, but one thing remains the same: every single batch of cookies is made from scratch in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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