Insomnia Cookies 2022 Holiday Treats, Ranked From Worst To Best
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
If we had to describe our perfect winter day, we'd say the fireplace is roaring, "The Holiday" soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is playing, and we have a nice warm cookie in our hand. Holiday cookies can really spice up the season, and while it can be nice to make them yourself, getting a pre-made batch that is ready to eat is just as delightful. That's why we were so excited to hear about this year's Insomnia Cookies holiday lineup, which four different kinds of cookies (and even a cookie cake).
If you happen to live near an Insomnia Cookies location (or want to make use of the delivery feature), trying out all of the holiday flavors could be a fun activity for you and yours. But if you don't have that kind of time or you want to cut to the chase, we've tried what Insomnia Cookies has to offer this holiday season and ranked the items for you. Enjoy some for yourself or gift a few cookies to loved ones — it's the season of giving after all, right?
7. Jinglebread Cookie Butter
As we noted in our Insomnia Cookies fall lineup ranking, we enjoy cookie butter in lots of contexts, like on a dessert butter board, but spreading it on a cookie can be a bit overkill in our opinion. Unless you forgot to put sugar in your cookie or you want the cookie butter to act as a sort of frosting on top, pairing sweet with more sweet is a lot for the palate to handle. This Jinglebread Cookie Butter (Jinglebread is Insomnia Cookie's cheeky name for the gingerbread flavor this year), is a dream come true if you're enamored with gingerbread or all things ginger, but otherwise, it falls a bit flat.
Putting it on the Classic Jinglebread cookies (more on that later) might be an overwhelming amount of gingerbread flavor, and putting it on any other flavor might be confusing to the palate. Overall, we don't hate the idea of cookie butter, we're just generally not huge fans of gingerbread, which is why this spread is at the bottom of the ranking for us.
6. Classic Jinglebread
Like the Jinglebread Cookie Butter, the Classic Jinglebread cookie has one note — gingerbread. Don't get us wrong, Insomnia Cookies gets that one note right (it really tastes like one of the best gingerbread cookies we've had), it's just when compared to all of the other innovating flavors on this list, gingerbread doesn't compare. It's classic, but a bit boring.
We will say that the granulated sugar on top added a nice crunch, and we also enjoyed how soft the texture of the cookie was. Overall, this isn't a bad choice by any means, we just think it was a bit basic compared to the other options. But if you're a big fan of gingerbread, you'll love these. Perhaps pair them with a cold glass of milk (dairy or otherwise) to balance out the intense ginger flavor. Or, go for the Holiday Delight Dipper to get some cookie flavor variety in your dessert.
5. Holiday Delight Big Dipper
The Holiday Delight Big Dipper from Insomnia Cookies combines three of the holiday lineup items: the Jinglebread Cookie Butter (with sprinkles included), the Classic Jinglebread cookies, and the Classic Red Velvet Cookies N Cream cookies (more on those later). The Big Dipper package recommends dipspreeai the cookies in the cookie butter for an extra burst of flavor or spreading the cookie butter on the cookies. We like the concept, and while the Jinglebread cookies pair well with the Jinglebread Cookie Butter if you really, really, love gingerbread, we're not sure about the Red Velvet Cookies N Cream cookies with the Jinglebread Cookie Butter.
We think that the Vegan Cinnamon Bun cookies would actually work better with the Jinglebread Cookie Butter, as the cinnamon notes in each would complement the other. It's not a bad deal if you happen to want all of the items included anyway, but we just wouldn't necessarily combine them all together in a single bite.
4. Jinglebread Cookie Cake
More elevated than your typical grocery store cookie cake, the Jinglebread Cookie Cake is delicious and fun. The "cake" consists of two giant layers of the Jinglebread cookie with your choice of either buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting in between (and in adorable piping patterns around the outside edge of the cake). You can also get your choice of an image on top, like "Happy Birthday" or "I Was Told To Bring Dessert," or just stick with a blank canvas. This cake is very dense, and the layers make it quite tall. We'd say it would feed between five to eight people (more if you cut small pieces) so it's perfect for a smaller gathering.
We preferred this to the standard Jinglebread cookies(hence its place in this ranking). The icing (we tried the buttercream frosting) provides the perfect balance to all that ginger flavor in the Jinglebread. This is an ideal gift for your friend who loves the holiday spirit, or for someone wanting to switch up their birthday cake this year.
3. Vegan Cinnamon Bun
Vegans, rejoice! A lot of vegan cookie options out there are either subpar or just plain bad. But Insomnia Cookies got this one right on the money. The Vegan Cinnamon Bun cookies in the 2022 Holiday line are perfectly balanced in flavor, texture, size, and, probably best of all, you wouldn't even know they were vegan. We think these cookies taste like snickerdoodles (in the best way possible) and they add that light cinnamon cheer to the holiday line that's not too overpowering. The addition of white chocolate chips adds a nice contrast of texture, and especially when heated up, they are the perfect winter treat.
Another excellent thing we noticed about these is that they don't contain tree nuts, which is a hard quality to find in vegan baked goods, as many recipes use nut alternatives to dairy products. Overall these cookies are excellent whether you're vegan or not.
2. Classic Red Velvet Cookies N Cream
These cookies were good enough to earn the second spot in our ranking. The Classic Red Velvet Cookies N Cream cookies from Insomnia aren't new (we've seen them before during Valentine's Day), but we're glad they're back. Though red velvet isn't necessarily a holiday flavor in itself, the color of them alone makes them uber festive. More importantly, the flavors pack a punch that makes you think, "Why haven't I tried these before?"
This is a solid cookie flavor, and we're glad to report that Insomnia nails both the red velvet as well as the cookies and cream elements. The base of the cookie is red velvet, and there are white chocolate chips scattered throughout along with chunks of a chocolate cookie. Thankfully, the combination provides just the right amount of sweetness. These cookies may be delicious, but they don't take the top spot because something even better deserves that place.
1. Deluxe Filled Hot Cocoa
This might've been one of the best cookies we've ever had. No, seriously, it was phenomenal. Insomnia's Deluxe Filled Hot Cocoa cookie captured the holiday magic of hot chocolate perfectly. We had medium expectations for this one, as we love hot cocoa and weren't sure if this cookie was going to capture the exact vibes of it. But, oh, it did.
If you're thinking, "This just looks like a double chocolate chip cookie with a marshmallow on top," you're dead wrong. Yes, it had a chocolate base with warm, gooey chocolate chips throughout, but the geniuses at Insomnia Cookies managed to make it taste not like ordinary chocolate, but like a rich cup of hot cocoa (hence the name). We were over the moon with how delicious this cookie was, and we will be re-ordering them until they're no longer available (that day will be sad, indeed). This was by far the best cookie of the bunch and we highly recommend heading to your local Insomnia store or ordering some online before the holiday season wraps up.