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Meet The Superdoodle, A Cookie That Will Make You Want To Eat Bugs

DENVER (CBS4) - It's grainy, but pleasant. Sweet, but definitely protein filled. Oh, and it's made of worms.

I'm meeting with the women behind Chirp, a startup focused on bringing insects to the table -- literally. It's the first of its kind in Denver, and their cookies are very convincing.

There are more than 1,900 edible insects, which contain an incredible amount of protein and fiber for their size. Insects as food has been encouraged by the United Nations and promoted by the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), which recently released a report on their seemingly unending potential.

With the world's population expected to reach an alarming 9 billion humans by 2050, food security is a real threat. Current practices can't be expanded simply because land and resources are limited. Some are hoping for another technology boom like the Green Revolution that began in the 1960s, but others say more is needed than bioengineering.

Insects offer a sustainable solution. They're a tightly condensed food source: protein in a small package and harvesting that does not require acres of land or gallons of water. Fewer resources are needed to produce insects than livestock, and the health benefits are significant.

Colleen Jacobs and Claire Nessler got the idea while serving in the Peace Corps in Guyana. The Guyanese culture loves cooking, and although they don't eat insects, the two women had a lot of time to read and listen to podcasts. Omnivore's Dilemma and downloaded talks sparked an idea.

Both returned to the U.S. less than a year ago and went to work making insects desirable, hence the peanut butter-chocolate-worm cookies.

bug container, Chirp
Superworm growing production (credit: Claire Nessler)

But they're much more than treat bakers. Colleen and Claire are slowly building an edible insect empire, beginning with producing their own bug resource.

Colorado doesn't have any bug farms -- crickets at pet stores don't count -- so they have to purchase from Texas. In Austin, the first cricket farm intended solely for human consumption just opened.

"We could order from Texas, but that just defeats the purpose," Colleen said -- the purpose of sustainability, reducing their carbon footprint, and eating insects in the first place.

So they began rearing their own insects: crickets, mealworms, and now superworms, a product not yet on the market.

See more insect food creations on Chirp's Instagram

The women experienced a lot of trial and error in the completely uncharted field of entomophagy.

"We started with crickets, kept them in the garage where we stayed, but they froze to death," Claire said.

She added that they learned to freeze the crickets before cooking them, because otherwise they hop all over. The cricket flour, though, had a few more appendages than most would like.

Mealworms were next, Claire's favorite. She used to be a vegetarian but now eats mealworms in handfuls, and would love to sell the bugs as if they were roasted almonds. Colleen puts them on sandwiches.

mealworms
Mealworms (credit: CBS)

In order to get mealworms in the first place, the women need a supply of beetles. Tenebrio molitor produces the larva mealworm, which feed on oats and carrots until large enough to be roasted and ground up as flour. Fertilizer is another possibility as the mealworms' excrement is nutrient rich.

They've succeeded in breeding mealworms, but found the real potential in superworms. These guys are larger and don't have as thick of an exoskeleton, making for finely ground flour. So well ground that you can't taste the larval worms it came from… (just don't think about it!)

"People should enjoy it, and say oh insects aren't that bad," Colleen explains.

To make them even more acceptable, Chirp's food products use organic ingredients alongside insects. For the cookies, that means peanut butter and cocoa, both people-pleasers.

Despite those tasty additions, "people are hesitant with the cookies even though you can't see it [the bugs]," Colleen tells me.

Family and friends, who are very honest, get the first taste of experimental bug creations. In the past that has meant burnt crickets and mealy cookies. But once a recipe passes that test, they take it to the public.

Claire said, "I bring them to work, I bring them to school and the kids try them." Children in particular are open-minded, and typically unfazed that bugs were used to make the flour in their cookie.

After all, "What kid says no to a cookie," Claire stated. Upon her most recent trip home, Claire learned that her little cousin began raising her own crickets after trying one of Chirp's creations.

She's encountered some children grossed out by eating bugs, but you have to wonder if that's a learned behavior. Claire says that in our society, "You see a bug, you kill it. You don't pick it up and save it for food."

"People look at it like I'm not starving, I don't need to eat a bug yet," she said.

And I admit that's kind of how I felt when she passed a long, juicy-looking worm with quite the array of legs. Why would I eat that? I don't have to.

superworm, edible insects
A live superworm (credit: CBS)

Colleen agrees that social norms play a big role in attempts to convince Americans that insects are food. "I think it's that creepy crawly factor, that we think they're dirty and gross," she said.

She also said that most people are shocked at first to learn that bugs are in Chirp's cookies -- that's usually a bad thing -- but oftentimes stop and realize it makes sense.

So what did I think of cookies made with bugs? Well they smelled like peanut butter, looked like chocolate, and tasted … like worms. Just kidding! Regardless of the insect ingredient, these cookies were perfection. The fact that I'm getting a sustainable dose of protein from aptly named superworms makes them even better. And who doesn't love pretending cookies are good for you?

While livestock provide protein, their agricultural operations are resource-consuming and Claire doubts the health and nutrition benefits of animals fed things they're not supposed to eat.

Plants also have protein, but bugs consist of 'complete protein' as well as amino acids, the same kind found in livestock. Insects as food also provide the promise of a sustainable harvest within a closed loop system.

Chirp hopes to be selling packaged products within the next several months. They're looking to break out through Farmer's Markets, but have surprisingly been turned down in the past. A friend who owns an ice cream truck needs cookies, so the women plan to provide their Superdoodles next month.

Creating a sustainable source of insects is their current focus, which would provide the basis of an insect food company. The superworm protein powder will be the first product, something that can be sold for people to use as they like: protein powder for a shake, or flour for a cake.

Chirp, edible insects
Claire holds a mealworm and Colleen displays superworm flour (credit: CBS)

As Claire appropriately reminds us, "Sushi was gross at first."

For the women behind Chirp, it's a no-brainer. Now it's time to convince the rest of the country that bugs in your food is in fact a good thing.

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