So there we were, gathered in the spirit of nonspecific December holidays for a festive luncheon at the home of our fearless leader, Marcia Busch-Jones.

We were relaxed, bursting with cheer, and happy to leave the office behind for a couple of golden hours with our colleagues. (Overheard: “Can we talk about that proof?” “No way!”)

The food was delicious, the company charming, the mood relaxed—that is, until the cookie competition began.

There were 14 entries and five judges: Me (Jennifer Piurek, former food writer for the Herald-Times and past judge of Bloomington’s annual salsa and chocolate competitions); art director Damen Morris, widely known for his chocolate-dipped strawberries; writer/editor Lesa Peterson, poker shark/banisher of sticky wickets; art director Dave Harper, former skateboard champ and silo/primer expert; and Jeff Lindauer, director of special gifts and annual giving at the IU Foundation, and husband of one Angela Lindauer, our traffic coordinator (thus his presence at this exclusive OCS event).

We judges took our seats—closely watched by the very bakers we’d be judging—with our rating system in mind: 1-5 for taste and 1-5 for creativity, 5 being the best. The four categories were Best in Show, Best Taste, Most Creative, and Damen’s Choice. Rebecca Salerno and Erika Knudson began bringing out the cookies, one by one. Everyone held their breaths as we tasted the first cookie, a chocolate marshmallow creation. You could cut the tension with a spork.

Most of the cookies were delicious, making our decision difficult, and compelling more than one of the judges to employ decimal points in their ratings. Some were not so tasty, something Damen subtly indicated with the little row of unfinished cookies on his tray. We were getting full, but we soldiered through, taking increasingly smaller bites. Eight, nine, ten cookies … finally, we had tried all fourteen. We retreated to our chambers to tally the votes.

As we went around the room sharing our scores for each cookie, we also shared a running commentary. Comments ranged from those about taste (“Like buttered popcorn.” “Nice layered flavor.”) to those about appearance (“Boring!” “This is a cookie contest and that was a bar—zero!”).

And then, the winners: “Cinnamon Love,” by Kyle Haskins, won Best in Show. My favorite, Rick Faris’ peanut butter cookies (with that perfect balance of crunch and peanut-buttery softness) won for Best Taste. Marcia’s decorated gingerbread cookies took home Most Creative, while Damen’s Choice went to Kay Daniel’ shortbread cookies.

While prizes were distributed, Lesa tried her best to assure everyone that our choice was a difficult one, that there are no losers in cookie baking.

We judges knew she was wrong.

But we kept those opinions to ourselves, knowing that in the fierce world of competitive cookie baking, the cream always rises to the top. So start practicing your recipes now, OCS team—if we apply to our cookie baking the same rigorous standards that we apply to our work, next year’s competition will be even tastier.

And that, as Rebecca Salerno said, was the way the cookie crumbled.