Drew Barrymore Is Gifting These Gourmet Spice Blends to Friends for the Holidays
Getty Images / Mike Pont
Just about everybody in the know—including the postal service and UPS—is encouraging early holiday shopping this year. With potential shipping delays on the horizon, there's no better time to start thinking ahead to what you'll be gifting to friends and family in December. The good news is that Drew Barrymore is ready with some A+ recommendations.
Barrymore (plus celebs like Billy Porter and Gabrielle Union) are all partnering with Amazon to highlight perfect Christmas gifts from small businesses that you can shop right now. Barrymore's picks include everything from hot sauce to self-care supplies—plus some delicious-looking artisanal spice blends for everything from coq au vin to mulled apple cider.
"This is Zen of Slow Cooking—it's these extraordinary spices made by two busy moms, so you can throw it in your slow cooker or Dutch oven and make extraordinary meals very easily," Barrymore said in a video posted to Instagram.
Barrymore recommends two products from the brand's lineup of available products—the first is a six-pack sampler of different spice blends, like smoky barbecue, Provençale and Tuscan (buy it: $21, Amazon). While you can find recipes to go with each spice blend on Zen of Slow Cooking's website, you could also mix and match your own dreamy meal of protein and veggies to fit whichever flavor profile you're in the mood for. Every packet contains enough seasoning to flavor four to six servings, and the recipes on the back take as little as five minutes of active time to prep—so you really can just set it and forget it.
Amazon
Buy it: Zen of Slow Cooking Gourmet Spice Blends Sampler Pack of 6, $21; amazon.com
Reviewers say the spice blends take all the stress out of making a flavorful meal, especially for those who rely on one-pot meals or dinner in the Instant Pot or slow cooker on busy days. "These six packets for the Instant Pot (or a pressure or slow cooker) completely transform ordinary ingredients into restaurant quality meals—and I mean fine gourmet restaurants—the kind you need to make reservations and dress up for," one reviewer raves.
Barrymore also recommends Zen of Slow Cooking's apple cider mulling spice mix (buy it: $21, Amazon). This blend of broken cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, star anise and cloves will bring some of that signature holiday spice to your favorite hot drinks, like cider, mulled wine and other cold-weather cocktails. Each adorable tin comes with five sachets of spice, each of which can be used for one very strong serving or multiple servings at once. You could even drop a sachet into our Big-Batch Hot Bourbon Cocktail with Maple & Apple Cider for a delicious pop of warm spice.
These gifts would be perfect for just about everyone, from the college grad with a new kitchen to the food-obsessed friend who has all the pots and pans they need. (Plus, Zen of Slow Cooking is just one of the many women-owned small businesses you can shop via Amazon.) Check out all of the small businesses with holiday gift selections with Amazon's convenient Small Business Gift Guide—you're sure to find something your friends and family will love.
