Everything You Need to Know About Queens’ Hit Mochi-cookie Pop-up, The Boiis Co

Reporting by Kat Odell

Helmed by Queens-based Filipino trio and hospitality vets Kert Lasdoce, Aaron Ortega Maxey, and Rivy-Major Oponda, The Boiis Co––a dessert outfit dedicated to chewy baked goods fortified with mochi (a form of glutenous rice that’s pounded into an elastic texture)––is one of New York’s hottest sweets concepts, and one that you’ve got to act quick to try. Offering just 100 orders per week, and selling out a day or two after sales open, The Boiis Co is known for its doughnut hole-designed tofu mochi bites, its mochi-laced Basque cheesecake, and the star player: Mooks™, a smash up mochi-shortbread cookie hybrid in flavors like matcha green tea and ube, a type of purple yam that’s popular in Filipino desserts.

While Lasdoce and Ortega kicked off their business in 2019 (Oponda joined three months later) with a fried, bite-sized dessert made from tofu and glutenous rice flour in flavors like salted caramel and black sesame, it wasn’t until the pandemic hit and they paused operations that the thought of a mochi cookie began to form. It was “an idea born out of the pandemic,” states Oponda, who adds, “we had a lot of time on our hands.” And it was a concept worth pursuing because Lasdoce’s idea of creating shortbread cookies filled with mochi in flavors inspired by the team’s Filipino heritage paid off, and The Boiis Co’s Mooks™––the smashup name of mochi plus cookies––as they call them, has become their best-selling confection.

Below, we caught up with the team to learn about how Mooks™ are made, where to get them, and what’s on tap for the future.

Who created this mochi-cookie hybrid? Kert Lasdoce created Mooks™, our mochi-filled cookies concept, which falls under the company’s umbrella name, The Boiis Co. The team is made up of Filipino trio Kert Lasdoce, Aaron Ortega Maxey, and myself, Rivy-Major Oponda.

What does the company name mean? The name The Boiis Co started with Kert and Troy. It's a casual nickname equivalent to the term bro, which is short for brother.

When did The Boiis Co debut? It started in late 2019 with Kert and Troy (I joined a few months later to kickstart the business) with our first mochi-based product: Tofu Mochi Bites. They came in three flavors: dark chocolate, ube, and black sesame. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, we paused production and began to brainstorm a new product as a comeback. That's when we came up with mochi-filled cookies, which we named Mooks™. We started with two cookie flavors each stuffed with ube mochi: Ube Mooks™ and Matcha Mooks™.

Tell me about your backgrounds. All three of us have over five years of restaurant and hospitality experience spread between New York and Hong Kong. Kert and Troy have a degree in hospitality and cooking, but we weren't professionally trained. I've done a lot in the past eight years: from waitressing to hosting to serving as a maître d' to marketing and social media content. I've combined all of these experiences into The Boiis Co.

How are these cookies made? Our Mooks™ consists of a shortbread-style cookie filled with a chewy homemade mochi center. For example, to make our Ube Mooks™, first we heat a homemade ube purée with glutenous rice flour and some other ingredients and mix it until it cools to make the ube mochi filling. While it's cooling, we make our shortbread cookie dough with a bunch of ingredients plus ube. Once that’s ready, we portion the dough, flatten it, add the mochi filling and tuck that into the shortbread dough like a dumpling. Roll the mixture into a ball, freeze it to set the shape, then bake it.

Which flavors have been your most popular? Definitely our classics: Ube Mooks™, Matcha Mooks™, and Salted Caramel Mooks™.

Photo via Rivy Major — Photo via **Rivy Major**

How do you guys come up with new flavors? We brainstorm two to three months beforehand based on seasonal ingredients. We also create polls on Instagram and ask our followers to pick the flavor we should create next. Each recipe goes through four to five iterations.

What are some of your seasonal flavors? Flavor of the month cookies include Strawberry Mooks™ with matcha mochi filling, Mango Float Mooks™ with mango cream mochi filling, and Thai Tea Mooks™ with Thai tea mochi filling.

Where can people try your cookies? We do pop-ups across New York City. From this past May to August, we have been doing pop-ups every weekend back-to-back and places like Hester Flea on the Lower East Side, and Artists & Fleas in Williamsburg. And now that local regulations are a little more lenient, we also sell on our website. Customers can place orders for pick up in Sunnyside, Queens, and we also offer nationwide shipping.

And how can potential costumers learn about pop-up locations? Follow us on Instagram. We post daily and that’s where we announce drop dates––a drop is when we open our pre-order slots for local pick up and nationwide shipping. We limit our orders to 100 a week total to create efficiency. And when we announce a drop, the 100 order slots are usually sold out in one or two days.

Why do you think Mooks™ have been so popular? They’re different, and people who love being adventurous and trying new things are interested in the unexpected cross textures.

Are you selling anything other than Mooks™ ? We also sell Tofu Mochi Bites and Basque Mochi Cheesecakes, but these are for local pick up only.

Anything else in the works? Right now we are working on another mochi-based product, that we plan to release next year.

How about plans to open a brick and mortar? It would definitely be a dream! But for right now with the pandemic situation going on, we may need to delay this for a few years more.