The Surprising Inspiration Behind Insomnia's New Valentine's Day Cookies

With Valentine's Day less than a month away and candy hearts showing up on end caps at grocery stores, chocolate covered strawberries and heart-shaped desserts might already be on your mind. But Insomnia Cookies wants you to rethink your festive treats to better suit the plans you are making for your romantic (or comfy) night with whoever it is you love. While the bakery chain certainly has thematic classics at the ready, Insomnia Cookies is armed with five new treats just for the holiday.

According to a press release, Insomnia Cookies drew inspiration from one of its ultimate fan-favorite flavors: red velvet. And this isn't just talk — customers have been tweeting their love of the cookie for years. Back in February of 2017, one Twitter user wrote, "get me red velvet insomnia cookies so I know it's real." Another shared a reactionary video along with a tweet that said, "me at Insomnia cookies all February long buying every red velvet cookie they own." Two years later, people were still really excited to see the flavor in the bakery chain, with one fan tweeting, "bro insomnia cookies got red velvet cookies now," and another posting, "insomnia's red velvet cookie. thats [sic] it. thats [sic] the tweet."

Given this (proven) popularity, and the holiday appropriate color, it makes sense the late-night bakery chain has decided to shun more typical Valentine's Day treats and focus on red velvet for Valentine's Day 2022.

These are Insomnia's five takes on the beloved flavor

In 2021, Insomnia Cookies released a more expected Valentine's Day lineup including red velvet cookies, chocolate-covered strawberry cookies, special icing packs and sprinkles, and heart-shaped cookie cakes with cream cheese icing. As shared above, this year the chain decided to go all in on the red velvet options.

Of course, the classic red velvet cookie (which is simply a soft red velvet cookie spotted with chunks of cream cheese) will be among the limited time treats to hit more than 200 stores nationwide. But given that red velvet is typically paired with cream cheese, you might be surprised to learn that the chain is rolling out a vegan version too. The dairy-free red velvet treat swaps in crushed sandwich cookies for the original cream cheese chunks.

Insomnia will also offer a deluxe, filled red velvet cookie, which is the classic red velvet cookie with a pocket of cream cheese in the center. Additionally, they will be selling mini red velvet "Cookies N Cream" cookies, filled with crushed sandwich cookies, cream chunks, and vanilla chips.

Finally, Insomnia is releasing a red velvet cookie butter made with custom sprinkles from Fancy Sprinkles, which the chain is partnering with for the limited release.

If you're a serious red velvet fan it might be worth a trip to the bakery, for yourself or your valentine.