When local cookie company owner Deborah Tuggle invited me into her cookie factory, I thought I might have died and gone to heaven. Cookie heaven.

Tuggle is the woman behind the genius that is Friday's Cookies-a company she has owned and operated since 1999. More recently, in 2004, she acquired a second company, Bite Me Cookies. I say genius because the fact is both lines of cookies are fricken amazing. Once you taste one, you'll never even glance at a Chips Ahoy again.

Both cookie product lines are produced in Tacoma. Tuggle did not have a food background when she started out. Baking was just a hobby that she had on the side while she was going to school at Bates to become a court reporter.

"When I was going to school, I would bake on Fridays and would bring and sell cookies on Fridays," says Tuggle. "Then I would sell to-I don't even know if Central is still there on Tacoma Avenue-but I would take them over there. I had a cookie basket and would take them around and sell them to whoever would buy cookies. It got to the point where people would place orders because they knew I'd come back. I started out with Friday's Originals, which is the white chocolate-chocolate chip-pecan."

She worked in the legal field for about eight years, but the universe had a calling for Tuggle-and that was return to making cookies. She opened a storefront on 11^th Street for a while, and it did okay, but never took off. It wasn't until she bought Bite Me Cookies, a friend's company then based in Seattle, that all her cookie dreams came true.

In a world filled with cookies and desserts of all shapes and sizes, both cookie brands have something special to offer-the coolest of which is the admirable list of all-natural ingredients. That's not to say these cookies are healthy. They're incredibly decadent and naughty. But you can at least rest assured that you're not snarfing down chemicals. They use real sugar, real butter, and even dyes made from things like beet juice and turmeric and red cabbage.

WHAT?? Where's my Red No. 40? Not here!

"I wouldn't feed you that stuff!" Tuggle exclaims.

The two cookie lines are very different. Bite Me cookies are primarily frosted shortbread and include both an original shortbread and a whole wheat shortbread. Friday's Cookies are a gourmet cookie line that includes such delights as Friday's Original (white chocolate/ chocolate chip/pecan); Olympic (oatmeal/white chocolate/cranberries/coconut); and the Rainier (oatmeal/white chocolate/blueberries/chocolate chips).

You can find both lines of cookies both in a ready-to-eat form as well as cookie dough you can prepare yourself at Met Market, PCC, Whole Foods, Tacoma Boys, H&L, Harbor Greens Market in Gig Harbor.

Where can the cookies go from here? Give it time. Tuggle is inventive and always striving to offer better cookies and options for all.

"I'm probably not going to buy anymore cookie companies," she says, "but I'm partnering  with a company now to do a gluten-free product line. You always have to think about ways to keep up with the industry."