| Q: | Who is Lola?
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| A: | Lola is a nickname for Lorraine, the owner of Lola Cookies.
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| Q: | Does Lola get whatever Lola wants?
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| A: | Well, often enough. (We get asked this a lot. In case you're wondering, it's a famous song from the Broadway musical Damn Yankees.)
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| Q: | Where can I buy Lola Cookies?
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| A: | On this Web site (order now). Also at our bakery, which is located at 109 South King Street — the main street of historic downtown Leesburg, Va. From May through October we also sell at the Leesburg farmers' market, which is open Saturday mornings.
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| Q: | Do you offer custom-shaped cookies — footballs, baby bottles, wedding bells, etc.?
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| A: | Yes. For local pickup, we can make our sugar cookies in most any shape or color, and we'll custom decorate them, too. Please call the bakery during business hours and describe what you need. We'll almost certainly be able to work with you. (We don't offer shipping for custom cookies.)
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| Q: | What is Cupcakes for the Cure?
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| A: | It's our annual fundraising campaign. Each October we sell special pink cupcakes and donate a portion of the price to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization that funds breast-cancer research.
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| Q: | Will you donate free or discounted goodies for my fundraiser?
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| A: | Each month we donate a $75 gift card (or several cards totalling $75) to a non-profit organization in our local community. The organization can then offer our card as a prize at a fundraiser, or use it to buy baked goods directly. We get a lot of requests, so we ask groups to fill out a simple request form and deliver it to the bakery. We select the monthly recipient from among these requests.
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| Q: | Do you offer any cakes?
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| A: | We do amazing cupcakes! At the bakery, we try to keep coconut, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes in stock every day. Other flavors appear in rotation, and we always have a special "cupcake of the month." We don't offer full-size cakes ... yet.
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| Q: | How about custom cupcakes for a party or a wedding?
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| A: | Sure. As long as we have enough notice, we can do custom cupcakes for local pickup. Please call the bakery during business hours and describe what you need. For most orders, please call at least two weeks in advance.
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| Q: | Why don't you ship [item name]?
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| A: | Some items don't ship well, while others are too labor-intensive to make in small lots.
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| Q: | Why is Two-Day Air shipping required for some states?
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| A: | Our cookies taste best right after they're baked; the less time they spend in mail trucks, cargo holds and warehouses, the better. We offer ground shipping only to states where UPS says it can deliver within two days.
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| Q: | Why do you ship only twice or three times a week?
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| A: | UPS offers standard delivery from Monday-Friday only, so Wednesday is the latest we can ship cookies and still guarantee they'll arrive in two days.
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| Q: | What's your best cookie?
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| A: | Everyone has an opinion, but our most-requested cookie is usually the Ginger Chocolate, followed closely by the Classic Chocolate Chip. Kids love our M+M cookies. And Lorraine's personal favorite these days is the Belgian Fudge Brownie.
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| Q: | Where do you get your cookie recipes?
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| A: | Like most bakers, Lorraine spends a lot of her time tinkering with recipes. The recipes for Lola Cookies started a bunch of ways: Recipes she made up herself, recipes handed down by family and friends, recipes adapted from bakeries where she's worked, recipes adapted from favorite cookbooks. Lorraine experiments with variation after variation, finally settling on her "perfect" version of each cookie.
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| Q: | I have a severe peanut allergy. Can I eat your cookies?
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| A: | Here is a summary of our peanut practices so you can make the call yourself.
When we opened our new store, we realized we had an opportunity to stop using peanut products. We discontinued all peanut-based cookie flavors. (We apologize to fans of our Peanut Butter Supercrunch cookies, which we admit were pretty tasty.)
Then we purchased a new mixer, new fridges, new pans, and a new oven. None of this equipment has ever been in contact with peanut products, and we don't stock any peanut-based ingredients in the store.
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| Q: | So you're entirely peanut-free, then?
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| A: | We do our absolute best, and we believe that flavors such as Oatmeal Raisin are peanut-free by any reasonable standard. However, we still use some ingredients, such as plain mini M+Ms, that are not warranted peanut-free by the manufacturer. We're talking about trace amounts, if any, but we don't want to mislead anyone.
To address any concerns, we wash our equipment thoroughly between flavors, and we use disposable parchment paper on the pans. If you need further reassurance, drop into the store: We bake in full view, and we're always happy to answer questions.
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| Q: | What about other nuts?
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| A: | We still use several other kinds of nuts in our products, including walnuts, almonds and pecans. Remember, we wash our equipment thoroughly between flavors, and we use disposable parchment paper on the pans.
All flavors without nuts are flagged as such on our cookie flavors page.
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| Q: | Do you offer any low-carb (or sugar-free, or fat-free) cookies?
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| A: | No.
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| Q: | Do you offer any gluten-free cookies?
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| A: | Yes: Our chocolate macaroons contain no flour.
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| Q: | Can I get the recipe for [cookie name]?
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| A: | Sorry, nope. :)
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| Q: | How long do Lola Cookies last?
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| A: | Obviously you haven't tasted our cookies: This question is usually moot.
Still, if you have extraordinary restraint — or were unexpectedly put on a liquid diet — please be aware that our fresh-baked cookies have no preservatives. Keep them in an air-tight container and they can last up to a week at room temperature; in a fridge they'll keep longer.
If you choose to refrigerate our cookies, as we often do ourselves, please re-warm them before serving. Lorraine microwaves individual cookies for 10-12 seconds after they come out of the fridge. Sounds sacrilegious, but it works.
Our cookies freeze well; they'll keep up to three months if frozen when fresh. Defrost them in a fridge, then nuke them to recover that just-baked taste.
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| Q: | How do you stay so slim?
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| A: | Hey, thanks! Actually, baking is very physical work. The odd cookie or cupcake (or two) keeps us going.
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| Q: | And how do you stay so young and beautiful?
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| A: | Here, have a free cookie. (Note: This question works best in person, especially if asked in an awestruck tone.)
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| Q: | Do you bake everything yourself?
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| A: | In the early days Lorraine used to do everything, but now Team Lola comprises a cast of thousands. Well, OK, maybe a dozen.
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| Q: | Do you ever get sick of baking?
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| A: | Are you kidding? This is our dream job.
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Still got questions? 
