During the Victorian era, cookies were known as "sweet biscuits" and were eaten only by paupers, who were forced to substitute rich, hearty tallow with inexpensive sugar. Relish this sweet substitution with today's Groupon: for $29, you get a catered assortment of 40 cookies from Insomnia Cookies, a Manhattan-based cookie-delivery service (a $58 value).

Insomnia Cookies began as a project to feed fresh-baked cookies to hungry college students who spend the wee hours studying, partying, or studying parties for an anthropology course. Cookie couriers deliver confectionary catering trays anywhere between the Financial District and 96th Street to elevate subpar celebrations with a baked blast of sweet snacking. Inside chocolate-brown boxes bound by satin ribbons, 40 delightfully soft cookies await molarized mastication in an assortment of signature flavors, which include chocolate chunk, snickerdoodle, white-chocolate macadamia, double-chocolate chunk, M&M, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter. Grab the spotlight at upcoming holiday gatherings or charm overtaxed auditors with a stomach-stirring conglomeration of delicious discs.

Reviews

Insomnia Cookies has generated a lot of media buzz for its late-night cookies. The New York Times, the New York Post, Daily Candy, and Gotham magazine are among the media outlets that have featured it. More than 100 Yelpers give Insomnia Cookies an average of four stars.

• Chocolate chunk, macadamia, peanut butter, and oatmeal rounds have zero regard for portion control or calorie counting — which means they are absolutely delicious. – Daily Candy
• Need to hurry and procure a birthday party gift or treat for someone special? Think of Insomnia Cookies and its new store as your last-minute lifesaver. – Cristina Greeven Cuomo, Gotham