Some of my favorite types of gifts to give and receive are edible gifts. Who doesn’t enjoy receiving something good to eat? Here are my suggestions for food items that make good gifts.
These recommendations come from New England vendors, with a couple of exceptions. Most are from Massachusetts. I’ve grouped them into goodies that can be nibbled right out of the box, sipping indulgences, accompaniments a foodie can use when entertaining, and ingredients for chefs to use while cooking. I hope you’ll find some special gifts for your favorite folks.
Giving food that you’ve made yourself is always appreciated. I’ll share some of my favorite recipes next week.
Gifts For Nibblers
L.A. Burdick’s Signature Chocolate Mice
These mouth-watering chocolate mice are always a hit. Sixteen mice come in a pretty wooden box tied up with a ribbon. The mice are almost too adorable to eat, but chocolate doesn’t stay fresh forever, so everyone can happily consume these cute critters. The box includes the following chocolate combinations:
- Dark chocolate mice — filled with dark chocolate ganache with the juice and zest of fresh oranges
- Milk chocolate mice — filled with dark chocolate ganache with freshly brewed mocha
- White chocolate mice — filled with dark chocolate ganache of Ceylon cinnamon and port wine.
All mice are adorned with almond ears and a silken tail.
When the mice are finished, the box can be used to store paperclips, hair elastics, or whatever loose items get lost around the house.
Other seasonal chocolate options include snowmen and penguins. You can also give a box of assorted chocolates.
L.A. Burdick’s calls Cambridge, MA home, but they have several MA locations and stores in Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C.
Big Picture Farm Goat Milk Caramels
This holiday gift pack of the farm’s award-winning goat milk caramels contains two boxes: a box of sea salt vanilla caramels and a box of a classic mix of caramels, including raspberry rhubarb, brown butter bourbon, maple cream, wild chocolate mint, cider honey, cocoa latte, and chai. That’s a lot of creamy caramel goodness!
The farm offers other caramel gift options, such as a caramel-filled milk jug or chocolate-covered caramels. You might want to give a box of goat milk truffles.
Big Picture Farm is located in Townshend, VT.
Fastachi’s Chocolate Nut Mix
Fastachi’s chocolate nut mix will be a treat for the savory and sweet snack lover. It’s an addictive blend of almonds, sesame peanuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, cranberries, raisins, and chocolate pieces.
Fastachi also sells freshly roasted mixed nuts, succulent dried fruits, gourmet nut butters, and a variety of chocolate confections (chocolate-covered cherries, macadamia nuts, chocolate toffee-covered pretzels, and more).
You’ll find Fastachi in Watertown, MA.
Lark’s Best Sellers Combo Cookie Pack
These mouth-watering cookies are sure to please anyone with a sweet tooth. They are the perfect accompaniment to a warm beverage (see Gifts for Sippers). The Combo Cookie Pack includes boxes of Pistachio Cherry Sablé, Salted Caramel Almond Chocolate Chip, Salted Rosemary Shortbread, and Coconut Butter.
You can try other box combinations, such as the Warm and Spicy Favorites Combo, with Mighty Ginger, Mexican Chocolate Cha-Chas, Burnt Sugar Shortbread, and Tuscan Pizzetta Savory Biscuit or single boxes of many varieties, including Tea Cakes or Cranberry Oat Chip.
Lark also sells delectable savory biscuits. To gift a sampling, try the Best of Biscuits Combo, which includes Black & White Sesame, Toasted Almond, Tuscan Pizzetta, and Olive Scourtin. You can also purchase single boxes of the biscuits.
Lark is located in Essex, MA.
Gifts for Sippers
Tea Forte’s Warming Joy Tea Presentation Box
The aromas and flavors of Warming Joy teas will delight recipients. The Warming Joy Petite Presentation Box includes two each of the following teas: Ginger Snap, Sweet Orange Spice, White Ginger Pear, Harvest Apple Spice, and Winter Chai.
Tea Forte has many gift-giving tea boxes and tea drinking sets. You can choose gifts from various tea types, including Oolong, chai, rooibos, black, white, and green teas.
Tea Forte is based in Maynard, MA.
Broadsheet Coffee’s Headliner – Seasonal Blend
Coffee lovers will enjoy a bag of Broadsheet Coffee’s Headliner – Seasonal Blend that the roasting team describes as “an approachable cup that is full of chocolate and cherries.” You can purchase it in whole bean form or specify the grind. If you prefer, you can set up a subscription for your favorite coffee drinker.
In addition to the seasonal blend, Broadsheet offers other blends and single origin coffees.
Broadsheet is located in Cambridge, MA.
Harbor Sweets’s Nor’Easter Hot Cocoa
Harbor Sweets describes their Nor’Easter Hot Cocoa as “an ode to the hallowed snow days of our youth.” It is a blend of mellow cocoa, vanilla, and malt, which sounds perfect for enjoying on a blustery New England day.
Other cocoa options include Parisien (with vanilla and chocolate flakes), Azteca (with vanilla, cinnamon, and Chipotle pepper), Kashmir (with cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger), and Mocha (with coffee).
Harbor Sweets makes fantastic chocolates that you can gift, such as Sweet Sloops (different chocolate types covering almond butter crunch toffee) and Gather (made with honey).
Harbor Sweets originates in Salem, MA and has stores in Beverly and Boston, MA.
Gifts for Entertainers
Blake Hill Preserves’s Cheese Loves Jam Mini Gift Box
Blake Hill Preserves’s Cheese Loves Jam Mini Gift Box includes eight mini jars of jams crafted to serve with cheeses. Here’s the company’s description of the jams and suggested pairings:
- Apricot with Orange & Honey – Pairs with washed rinds, Parmesans, GranQueso
- Fig with Pear & Honey – Pairs with Bries, cheddars, blues
- Spiced Plum – Pairs with fresh cheeses, Goudas, blues
- Orange Marmalade with 10-Year Single Malt – Pairs with Camemberts, fresh cheeses, cheddars
- Heirloom Apple with Maple Syrup – Pairs with mozzarellas, fontinas, cheddars
- French Onion with Rosemary – Pairs with Gruyeres, raclettes, Parmesans
- Raspberry Mostarda – Pairs with bloomy rinds, Bries, chèvres
- Tart Cherry with Cardamom – Pairs with blues, Bries, chèvres
Blake Hill Preserves offers several selections of Artisan Jams (such as Strawberry Rhubarb, Raspberry Hibiscus, or Cranberry Maple Medley), Naked Jams with no cane sugar added (for example, Peach, Triple Berry, or Blueberry), or Marmalades (including Meyer Lemon, Seville Orange, and Orange with Bourbon).
Blake Hill Preserves is located in Windsor, VT.
Stonewall Kitchen’s Honeycomb
Stonewall Kitchen’s Honeycomb will be welcome at any breakfast table. Recipients will enjoy it on biscuits, scones, or toast. The honeycomb is also a great addition to a cheese platter. Some might use a spoon to eat it on its own.
The company produces a large variety of food items, many packaged beautifully for holiday presentation. You can choose from jams and jellies (sweet and savory), grilling sauces, dipping sauces and oils, salad dressings, pancake and waffle mixes, and dessert sauces.
Stonewall Kitchen is based in York, ME.
Raye’s Mustard 6-Pack
Folks will be slathering Raye’s Mustard on slices of bread to serve “specialty of the house” sandwiches to their guests. This selection of six mustards will give your recipient lots of options for unique sandwich combinations. The pack includes:
- Fall Harvest (a mustard with chunks of Maine cranberries, perfect for turkey sandwiches)
- Sweet and Spicy (a balanced blend of sweet and spicy that goes with everything)
- Down East Schooner (an award-winning classic yellow mustard, ideal for hot dogs)
- Haba Habanero (a stone ground mustard with lots of heat)
- Dundicott Hott (a peppery mustard with a smooth finish, named after the dark red Dundicott chili pepper)
- A mustard of your choosing (lots of options, such as Maple Horseradish, Brown Ginger, or Bar Harbor Real Ale)
Raye’s Mustard is located in Eastport, ME.
Saltery’s Dessert Salts
Dessert gets a lot more interesting when you gift Saltery’s Dessert Salts. The Dessert Salt Bundle includes three salt blends: Chocolate (sprinkle on top of cakes, drinks, or ice cream), Maple Sugar (use it on oatmeal, pancakes, muffins, or cookies), and Ice Cream Sundae (sprinkle on ice cream, brownies, or smoothies).
Saltery sells several salt options, Pinot Noir Infused Salt, Summer Vibes Citrus Seasoning Salt, Aqua Finishing Salt, or Honey Habanero Infused Salt to name a few.
Saltery (also known as Duxbury Salts) is located in Duxbury, MA.
Gifts for Cooks
Graza’s Sizzle and Drizzle “Squeeze Duo” Gift Set
Olive oil makes everything taste better and it’s good for us! Graza’s flavorful olive oils will be a hit with your family and friends who like to cook and enjoy eating good food. The Sizzle and Drizzle set includes two extra virgin olive oils: Sizzle is for cooking and Drizzle is for finishing. The oils come in convenient squeezable (recyclable) plastic bottles, but you can also purchase them in glass bottles. Refill cans of oil are available.
Graza also makes a high heat cooking olive oil, called Frizzle. You can purchase a set of all three oils.
If you want to keep your chef in oil all year, subscriptions are available.
Graza is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY.
American Vinegar Works Essential Kitchen Vinegars
A chef’s pantry needs several vinegars to make vinaigrettes and sauces, among other things. American Vinegar Works has a set of Essential Kitchen Vinegars that will cover a cook’s basic vinegar needs. The set includes the following vinegars:
- Better Than Champagne Chardonnay Wine Vinegar — bright, delicate, slightly nutty; perfect for vinaigrettes, beurre blanc, and mignonette
- Ultimate Red Wine Vinegar — rich, meaty, and sharp with savory length; built for marinades, Greek salads, sauerbraten, and even gin cocktails
- 19.53 Miles From The Tree Apple Cider Vinegar — tangy with a hint of sweetness and natural caramel color; great for dressings, warm grains, roasted roots, shrubs, and cocktails
- California Junmai Rice Wine Vinegar — rich, round, and bolder than most rice vinegars; ideal for cucumber salads, sushi rice, seafood, soups, and delicate sauces
American Vinegar offers sampler sets, including a create-your-own set. They also sell olive oils.
American Vinegar Works is based in Worcester, MA.
Masienda’s La Familia Masa Harina Bundle
Masienda’s La Familia Masa Harina Bundle is sure to be a hit with Mexican food lovers. The bundle includes the company’s four types of heirloom corn masa harina: white, yellow, blue, and red. Your recipient can use them to make fresh tortillas, tamales, enchiladas, and much more. As the makers of this masa say, “the tortilla makes the taco.”
Masienda’s website includes lots of ideas and tortilla-making tools. There’s a recipe and instructions on how to make tortillas, as well as other recipes. The company sells a starter kit, which includes a tortilla press with two bags of their masa harina and reusable tortilla press liners.
Masienda was founded in CA, but is now fully remote.
Curio Spice’s Mediterranean Pantry Spice Set
Your chefs are probably aware of the benefits of a Blue Zone diet. A gift of Curio Spice’s Mediterranean Pantry Spice Set provides the Mediterranean flavors for their Blue Zone cooking. The set includes the following spices:
- Signature Aegean Salt Blend — Piney, lemony salt blend with Chios mastic
- Bazaar Baharat — Deeply aromatic Turkish-inspired blend with cinnamon, cumin, and nutmeg
- Lebanese Sumac — Tart and fruity with wild-harvested sumac
- Turkish Maras Chile — Chile flake with mild to medium heat and fruity flavor
- Greek Oregano — Boldly aromatic with bright, spicy, and piney flavors
Create a gift basket with these spices, olive oil (see earlier in this post), olives, and a package of couscous or lentils.
Curio Spice has a large selection of spices, teas, and infused sugars (see below).
Curio Spice is located in Cambridge, MA and has a stall in the Boston Public Market.
Curio Spice’s Sofra Molasses Cookie Sugar or Saffron Sugar
Bakers will love Curio Spice sugars for topping their baked goods.
Sprinkle some Molasses Cookie Sugar on your Glorious Morning Muffins or sugar cookies. This sugar blend is a collaboration with Cambridge, MA’s much-loved Sofra bakery and it is delectable!
Try the Saffron Sugar on Brown Butter Apple Bread or Plum Bread. You can also experiment with a sprinkle on savory casseroles or soups.
Curio Spice has other infused sugars, including Vanilla, Moroccan Rose, Cinnamon Maple, Cambodian Banana, or New England Balsam.
For other gift ideas, check out Curio Spice’s offerings of spices and spice blends.
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