‘Cookie Guy’ doles out crumbs of human kindness
Milos Paprica doesn’t look like an Internet sensation.
Walking down Queen St. W. in a grey hoodie and baseball cap, his hand gripping a reusable shopping bag, he blends in easily with people enjoying the Boxing Day sales.
But the 31-year-old Etobicoke resident isn’t buying goods — he’s giving away the baked variety. And he’s going to an awful lot of trouble to do it.
Every month, Paprica — better known as the Cookie Guy, or by his Instagram handle, “Mad-Villan” — treats three of his online followers to a batch of his specialty cookies made with toppings such as Rolo candies, pretzels and Rice Krispies.
“I just enjoy giving them, meeting with people and, like my hashtag says, sweetening up people’s day,” he says.
A manager at Lowe’s, Paprica says he’s no baker — he started making his own cookies a few years ago only because he couldn’t master Pillsbury’s ready-made collection. During Christmas 2011, Paprica started a giveaway with his Facebook friends, posting photos of gifts to his profile and giving them away to the first commenter.
Because he “can’t afford to buy gifts for everybody all the time,” he swapped the presents for cookies and extended the tradition beyond the Christmas season.
These days, Paprica, who has 1,900 Instagram followers, operates solely through the app, posting a photo that says “Free cookie giveaway” once a month. The first three people to comment get a batch.
“At first, nobody wanted anything,” he says. “Now when I post them, they disappear relatively quickly.”
The fastest response time was 40 seconds.
The Star caught up with Paprica Saturday as he made one of his exchanges.
Anticipation was high. “Is that him?” whisper a couple of passersby, who catch wind that Paprica is on his way and want to know if he delivers “special” cookies. (He doesn’t.)
Paprica arrives near the intersection of Queen and Bathurst for his second delivery of the day. He explains that his next recipient, Peter Petsopoulos, is a winner from a pre- vious month who had bailed at the last minute.
About 30 minutes later, with no word from Petsopoulos, it looks as though history is doomed to repeat itself. But after almost an hour, Petsopoulos shows up, blaming the delay on traffic.
As for the “one-on-one interaction” Paprica says he enjoys, it’s fairly min- imal on this delivery.
“I just heard he had good cookies,” says Petsopoulos when asked why he liked Paprica’s Instagram post.
Upon tasting a Rice Krispie-flavoured cookie, he deemed it “delicious.”
Using a tiny wide-angle lens attached to his iPhone, Paprica snaps a photo of himself and Petsopoulos for Instagram.
Over the past three years he says he’s drawn a variety of responses — from outright suspicion, to being stood up, to celebrity treatment. Sometimes, “sponsors” who hear what he’s up to donate gifts of clothing and other baked goods that he can hand off with the cookies.
Even though Paprica has downsized his batches to around 30 cookies, it’s a fair amount of work. He spends hundreds of dollars buying bulk candy, and spends hours in the kitchen and travelling around the GTA by transit to satisfy the sweet teeth of complete strangers.
A few become friends, but mostly, “it gives them a cool story to share with their family,” he says. “Something maybe they can reflect on later in life and say. ‘Remember that time that guy gave us cookies? Those cookies were great.’
“Whatever the case may be, it’s just the fact of giving.”