
Sweet Thea
Holiday Cookies
Gift reviews written by our special correspondent, Max the Christmas Cat!
Max says: I send out delicious treats to all my feline friends and loved ones every Christmas. Over the years, I’ve dispatched catnip-flavoured candy canes, tree-ornament kibble balls and chicken giblets dipped in dark chocolate––although it’s best to forget the old-fashioned figgy puddings I sent one year, one of which rolled off a table and permanently flattened the tail of my Great Uncle Malcolm.
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Luckily, a few years back, I discovered Sweet Thea. This near-legendary family-run bakery is famous for making utterly delicious breads, pies and a cornucopia of treats for in-the-know locals. And they seem to love Christmas almost as much as I do, judging by the top-notch holiday creations they offer every year.
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And what do I mean by top-notch? Let’s just say that if you’ve been yearning all your life for the very best stollen, fruitcake and Christmas puddings––like a cat that can't quite reach the open Friskies Party Mix jar on the high shelf––your search has now very happily ended.
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In the interests of research, I recently tried every one of Sweet Thea’s 2023 Yuletide goodies. It was a particularly intense week of crumb-tastic excess, but I was able to finally choose this year’s delicious gifts for all my whisker-twitching loved ones. Drum roll, please: my Sweet Thea gift recommendations this year are their amazing handcrafted holiday cookies.
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It’s not hard to find Christmas cookies in local supermarkets. But even starving shop mice wouldn’t touch those sorry slivers of misery. In contrast, Sweet Thea’s cookies are a small-batch, made-from-scratch symphony of deliciousness. And I’ve already started sending them out to my hungry friends and relatives.
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My posh cousin Portia––a Persian who usually turns up her nose at my gifts––received a package of decadent Honey Hearts. Moist, gingerbread-like lebkuchen covered in chocolate, she downed them quicker than a ravenous Cookie Monster. I’ve never heard a cat burp so loudly and joyously.
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Great Uncle Malcolm, of course, is a shortbread connoisseur who is famous for turning his nose up at mass-produced brands masquerading as home-baked treats. He’d rather eat his own tail than have another box of factory-made “olde-fashioned shortbread.” But when he received some of Sweet Thea’s delicate, crescent-shaped Vanille Kipferls, his eyes moistened, he let out a great howl of joy and he scampered into his cardboard den with his treats. We haven’t seen him since, but if you listen carefully you can hear little munching and purring sounds.
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I’ve gifted lots of other Sweet Thea cookies over the holidays this year––including Chocolava Cookies, Raspberry Jammer Cookies and a cool Christmas Cookie Box that contains seven different delicious treats––but I saved one particular baked wonder for myself.
Although I’m a ginger cat, I’ve never loved ginger-flavoured items. But when I sank my curious fangs into Sweet Thea’s soft and spicy Ginger Crinkle Cookies, my eyes widened, my tail began twitching and I started running excitedly around the kitchen like a kitten discovering its mother’s milk for the first time. Christmas, it seemed, had finally arrived––in Sweet Thea cookie form!
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