Easy as Pie

If you’ve ever tried to bake a pie, you might think the common idiom “easy as pie” is a relic of the past.

Maybe the phrase was coined in a bygone era when crafting a perfect crust and filling it with delicately balanced fruit flavors seemed easy by comparison to the cruel reality of living in a time before air conditioning, WiFi, and streaming services.

Once you’ve had a pie baked by Brie Golliher, however, you might conclude what we did. The phrase was born out of the idea that it’s easy not to make pie, but to eat and fall in love with pie. 

Delicious, homemade pies are why in and around Alvaton, Kentucky, Golliher is known as the Pie Queen. Her throne resides at the Boyce General Store, which she and her husband own. 

A life-long love of baking

It’s there where she lives out her life-long passion of baking. Ever since she was a child, she’s had a love of baking, but it wasn’t pies that caught her fancy at first.

“My favorite dessert as a kid was no-bake cookies,” she said. “I still make them weekly and they are one of the best-selling items on our menu.”

Brie is a student of the kitchen. Learning from mistakes and capitalizing on tasty wins over the years (and getting inspiration from food television in her free time), she started to develop her winning pie recipes.

When she bought the Boyce General Store in 2012, she finally had a community with whom she could share her perfected creations. 

Brie is a natural baker, but not a natural business mogul. She says she’s a “hostess at heart” and cares less about making money and more about nurturing a community within her space.

Nurturing her community

That community is what keeps her baking, even when she gets tired of the everyday number crunching in a back office, the unavoidable reality of being a small business owner.  

“The best part of my job is my community,” she said. “Nothing brings me more joy than baking for the people in my community, hosting them in my space and sharing life with them.”

All of the Pie Queen’s subjects have a favorite pie– even the Pie Queen herself.

“My favorite pie to eat is my peanut butter fudge pie,” she said. “It’s a fudge brownie filling with homemade peanut butter swirled on the top.” 

No surprise then that Gollier said the Peanut Butter Fudge pie is also her favorite to bake because “every swirl is unique.”

Golliher’s love of community and tasty stuff is why the All Friends team was so excited to partner with her as our first brand ambassador. 

All Friends Brand Ambassador Program

There are plenty of perks in the All Friends Brand Ambassadors program. Free product and swag, as well as cross promotion on social channels and our website all sweeten the deal. 

We let the ambassador choose the flavors they want to share with their customers, and we’re happy to collaborate to develop drink recipes that fit seamlessly into their existing menu.

All we request of our ambassadors is their support, which The Pie Queen was happy to give. 

“I love supporting other businesses, especially when I enjoy their products,” she said. “It just seemed like a natural fit that I would want to promote All Friends.”

Her customers have loved the Blueberry Chai and Farmstand Lemonade combo.

“I added it next to our usual tea and water options, and it was gone first,” Golliher said.

Blueberry Chai with Farmstand Lemonade is a popular combo with customers, but the beauty of All Friends is that all the flavors play well together– that’s why we call them All Friends! 

Combine Farmstand Lemonade with Blueberry Chai, but also combine it with Strawberry Hibiscus, then Black Tea, then try all three together. There’s no wrong way to do it!

Long Live the Queen

The Pie Queen’s reign continues because it brings her joy to deliver tastiness to her customers. She says the whole process of getting inspired, creating something delicious, and then serving it to a loved one has a healing effect.

“Baking is like therapy to me,” she said. “I love putting on an apron and making things with my hands. Creating new recipes inspires me to keep going.”