Sardines & Sugar@sardines_and_sugar

The Founding 1,000 · Drop 01

Good things come in tins

Six hand-decorated sugar-cookie sardines in a numbered tin, made one at a time by (human) artists. The cookies disappear fast. The tin sticks around for years.

Drop 01 arrives before Valentine's Day 2027

You caught a good one.

First access to Drop 01 before it opens to anyone else, and a vote on what we make next. We only write when there's something worth opening.

Help choose the next catch. (optional)

Why a sardine

It started with an unexpected pairing.

Tinned fish turned up mid-experiment for a dessert cookbook, and the pairing stuck. Then came a trip through Portugal, where sardine tins are basically treated like little pieces of art, worth keeping long after what's inside is gone. So we made the sweet version, and held it to the same bar.

The Founding 1,000

One artist. One cookie at a time.

Every cookie is decorated by hand, by one person. That's the real reason there's a limit, not a marketing number.

It's why our first 1,000 tins are numbered and released in small catches. Artwork and flavors may change from catch to catch, every number belongs to the same first chapter, and when No. 1,000 is claimed, that chapter closes.

Drop 01Nos. 001–250Gold tins, six Vanilla Pearl cookies each.
Your numberNo. ___ in the Founding 1,000Every tin arrives with its own numbered edition card.
After No. 1,000The series closesFuture releases sit outside the founding series.

Cookies by Lisa He · Illustrations by Malek Binns

The Original Catch · $59

What's in the tin

A tin worth keeping

A tin worth keeping

A gold tin with a fully illustrated lid, numbered in the Founding 1,000. Made for a second life once the cookies are gone: a desk catch-all, a recipe box, a home for letters.

Six Vanilla Pearl cookies

Six Vanilla Pearl cookies

Sardine-shaped sugar cookies, buttery, rich and caramelized. Hand-decorated, individually sealed and packed three layers deep.

A gift tag, on us

A gift tag, on us

Choose one of six illustrated tags, each its own small print. We'll handwrite your message on the back.

One more thing

There's something waiting under the last cookie. It's our favorite part, and we're not telling.

Sardines & Sugar

Watch it get made

The whole thing, in progress.

The chocolate dough that needed its butter back. A first cookie that came out comically large. The crowned sardine, from sketch to final. It all happens on Instagram first, stumbles included, and the list hears about Drop 01 before anyone else.

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Delightful things for curious people.