The Best Gifts for Food Lovers
Brie Passano
Consider your holiday shopping done! Here's what the EatingWell editors are stocking up on this year for the food lovers in their lives.
Amazon
1. Stonewall Kitchen Birch Breakfast Basket
This breakfast set makes a perfect hostess gift or holiday treat. It includes a pre-made mix that can be used for pancakes or waffles, fresh blueberry jam and Grade A Dark Amber maple syrup from Maine (read: all of the essentials for a lazy Sunday morning). ($40 for the set, Amazon)
Amazon
2. TRUFF Hot Sauce
This truffle-infused hot sauce made Oprah’s favorite things list last year and this year’s Amazon’s holiday guide—and for good reason! It blends red chili peppers, Italian black truffle oil and organic agave nectar for a sweet-and-spicy sauce with a silky mouthfeel that’s delicious on everything from pizza to veggies. This makes the perfect stocking stuffer for the foodie in your life. ($18 for a 6-ounce bottle, Amazon)
3. Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark Tartan Gift Crate
For the coziest holiday ever, treat your loved one to a gift crate with William Sonoma's gourmet peppermint hot cocoa mix and the retailer's legendary peppermint bark. The set even comes with two tartan mugs to get everyone in the holiday spirit. ($72 for set, Williams Sonoma)
Amazon
4. Golden State Fruit Comice Pears Gift Basket
Sweeten your recipient’s day with nine rich and juicy California Comice pears from Golden State Fruit. Best part? Since the box is already adorned with festive green holiday ribbon, you don’t even need to wrap it! We’ll call that a win-win. ($37 for nine pears, Amazon)
Williams Sonoma
5. Williams Sonoma Amish Popcorn Library
Treat the snack lover (or holiday movie binger) in your life to this deluxe popcorn set. Grown on a family farm in Indiana’s Amish country, these 12 prized popcorn varieties are all-natural, non-GMO and, best of all, absolutely delicious. ($40 for a set of 12, 4-ounce bags of popcorn, Williams Sonoma)
6. Daydream's Roasted Pecan Caramel Turtles by Milk House Chocolates
All of these turtles (above) are made with milk from one Jersey cow named Daydream. Her owners, Kimberly and Clint Thorn, of Thorncrest Farm in Connecticut, milk a whole herd for their Milk House Chocolates business, but swear Daydream's milk is best for making caramel. We agree. ($48.95 for a box of 16 turtles, milkhousechocolates.net)
7. Adopt a Hive with the Mad Rose Honey Subscription
Send one sweet year's worth of wild Italian honey, each jar labeled with its place of origin and specific flower source (think: Cherry Blossom, Clementine and Eucalyptus). The subscription comes with a card detailing a hive your gift helps support. ($270, madrosefoods.com)
Related: Try These Healthy Honey Recipes
8. Cheesemonger Box
Ash-ripened chèvre? An herbaceous sheep's-milk wheel? Sign us up any time of the year for this cheese subscription, showcasing three different artisan varieties each month from across the country, selected by cheesemongers Laura Downey and Chris Palumbo. ($75-$95 per month, cheesemongerbox.com)
Related: Unique Gift Ideas for Your Friend Who Loves to Garden
9. Salmon Sisters Wild Alaska Sockeye Salmon Box
This gift box from sisters Emma Teal Laukitis and Claire Neaton comes packed with 20 8-oz. frozen fillets of wild Alaskan sockeye salmon fished by their family's boats. Also known as red salmon, it's the leanest, most flavorful variety of salmon you can buy. ($229, aksalmonsisters.com)
Related: Try These Quick-and-Easy Salmon Recipes
10. EATINGWELL EXCLUSIVE! Wild Idea Buffalo Co. Prairie Sampler Bundle
Our friends Dan and Jill O'Brien at Wild Idea Buffalo Co. wrangled up a special package of bison meat just for EatingWell readers. All cuts are 100% grass-fed-and-finished at their South Dakota ranch (pictured above), where they work to preserve the Great Plains prairies. It includes: two 10-oz. New York strip steaks, two 10-oz. rib-eye steaks, 1 lb. Italian buffalo sausage and 1 lb. ground buffalo meat. ($149, wildideabuffalo.com/EWbundle)
11. Castillo de Canena Smoked Olive Oil
The family behind the Castillo de Canena estate in the south of Spain has been making olive oil since 1780. This special bottle is infused with smoke from a blend of oak, beech and birch chips: a genius way to give chicken, fish and grain dishes a summer-barbecue vibe in the dead of winter. ($27 for 250mL bottle, Amazon)
Related: Gift Ideas to Inspire Your Friend Who Loves Fitness
12. Zen Hot Sauce Gift Set Sampler
This trio of creatively flavored 2-ounce hot sauces—Garlic Sriracha, Ginger Habanero and Fire-Roasted Poblano—is hand-crafted by organic pepper farmers Ryan and Chrissi Scherer in Roanoke, VA. Each one is ideal for stashing in a bag to spice up work lunches or any meal that needs a little extra kick. ($15, zenhotsauce.com)
13. Bar Hill Gin Gift Pack
For your favorite mixologist, this gift set offers a taste of some of the best craft gin in the country. Founded in 2009 by Vermont beekeeper and farmer Todd Hardie, Caledonia Spirits blends raw honey with juniper for their unique gin—every bottle of which comes sealed with real beeswax! ($50, totalwine.com)
Related: Pour one of these Healthy Cocktail and Wine Recipes
14. Big Spoon Roasters Nut Butter Variety 4-Pack Gift
Handcrafted nut butters in fun flavors and colorful tins make for seriously tasty stocking stuffers. And these are TSA-friendly to boot. Just wrap up this 4-pack of 3-ounce jars, handcrafted by Big Spoon Roasters in Durham, North Carolina, and hop on your flight to the holidays—no sweat. ($25, bigspoonroasters.com)
15. The Spice House Global Flavors Gift Box
Our editors are obsessed with these small-batch artisanal spice boxes that come in global flavor collections. Ship a friend the taste of Asian street food with the East Asia collection, the flavor of a Lebanese canteen with the Middle East collection, or a hint of an Italian bistro with the Trattoria Italiana collection. ($30 and up, thespicehouse.com)
