French Macarons Party Tower
$135 • ‘Lette Macarons • Get Yours Now
We’ve already told you how amazing ‘Lette Macarons are and what a great gift they make for the special person in your life (or an even better gift for yourself!), but we wanted to take some time to tell you about their Macaron Party Tower. If you are going to a holiday party or dinner this year or hosting one yourself, this is the dessert you want on the table. First, it comes with 60 macarons. That is an insane amount, honestly, more than we’ve ever seen at one time outside of a bakery. As we already mentioned, every single flavor from the Blueberry Lemon to the salted caramel is delicious. Second, is the fact that this tower, which was really easy to assemble when it arrived, essentially creates a Christmas tree of Macarons. Sure, you can call it a tower all you want, but this is the most Christmasy looking dessert we can think of short of an actual Buche de Noel! If you want to make an impression on people this holiday season, this will go a lot further than a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates.
Thai for Two – Organic Curry Sampler Set
Verve Culture • $35.00 • Get Yours Now
When curry is bad, it can be the worst, but when it’s the best, it can soothe the soul in ways that no other food can. We had a chance to try the curry kits from Very Culture and they were absolutely some of the best homemade curry we’ve ever made. They are not only delicious but a great winter pick-me-up gift. You can get green curry, red curry, and Panang curry separately for $12 each, but we think it’s worth grabbing the whole sampler set instead. These authentic curry kits are made in Thailand on a family farm and you can taste the love in ingredients like the kaffir lime leaf and galangal that are grown locally for the curry kits. Give the sampler to a friend, or split it between three stockings and make more people happy!
Villa Real Mexican Hot Chocolate
$12 • Verve Culture • Get Yours Now
Forget Eggnog, there’s no better winter beverage than a steaming hot cup of cocoa! Villa Real Mexican Hot Chocolate might be some of the best and most unique hot chocolate we’ve ever had. It’s not your typical cocoa. Instead of just overpowering you with sweet or with one-note chocolate flavor, these pucks of goodness that you drop into hot milk and then whisk with your Molinnillo whisk are filled with cinnamon, ground-up nuts, and possibly magic. That’s the only thing we can use to explain why this hot cocoa is so great. Also, while most hot cocoa comes in a sad little plastic packet, Villa Real hot cocoa comes in these awesome little discs. They almost look like candy bars. We aren’t going to lie, we took a bite of one. We didn’t regret it. The only thing we regretted is that it meant we had a little bit less to melt into our milk and sip while watching cartoons.
Gourmet French Macarons Gift Box
$79.00 • ‘Lette Macarons • Get Yours Now
Forget chocolates. There is nothing like a classic French Macarons when you want to impress the special someone in your life. For our money, no one does them better than ‘Lette Macarons. We tasted more than ten different flavors and they not only didn’t disappoint, but they were the best macarons we’ve ever had in our lives. Our personal favorite flavors were Pistachio and Earl Grey Tea, but even flavors we’d normally shy away from (sorry, coconut) were delicious! What makes Gift Box Carree so great is the size and variety. The gift box comes with 35 macarons. That’s enough that the person you gift them too might even let you have one. We really loved that you can drag and drop the flavors you want directly from their menu into your box on the website. Even the presentation is stunning. It feels like you just stepped into a macaron shop in Paris. If you’ve got a classy friend who enjoys an even classier treat, you can’t beat the Gift Box Carree from ‘Lette Macarons.
World’s Largest Gummy Worm
$23.95 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
We’ve got a few different Gummy-related gifts to share with you this year, but if you know someone who loves gummy worms, you can’t go wrong with a 3lb, 2-foot-long monster gummy worm, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Seriously, we weren’t sure whether we should eat it or wear it like a scarf. In the end, we’re glad we ate it. It probably would have gotten sticky against our necks after a while anyway. You can get this monster worm in either one of several flavors, or in a mix of two. We tried the blue raspberry and cherry mixed worm and it was great. We even loved the texture. Some gummies can get a little too rubbery, but the worm was perfect. You could chew it without feeling like your jaw was going to fall off. It’s definitely not for your health-food minded friends, but this behemoth is sure to make someone’s Christmas morning.
Chocolate-Dipped Bacon Roses
$69.00 • The Manly Man Co. • Get Yours Now
There’s a big part of us that wants to suggest you buy the Manly Man Co Dark Chocolate Bacon Roses for your favorite vegan, but we don’t want to add to the increase in domestic disputes during the holiday season. So, you might want to keep this prize for the carnivore in your life. Why give actual roses? They die, and they smell like your grandma. Instead, give maple-candied bacon, folded into the shape of a rose and dipped in dark chocolate. It’s a gift so manly that even Ron Swanson would love. We had a chance to taste these bacon roses and even just opening up the package was a sight to behold. When you open up the box, you are treated to a tray of perfectly formed roses that didn’t grow from the dirt, but inside of pigs like all good things! The bacon had just the right amount of sweetness and it was accented wonderfully by the dark chocolate bases. If you’re looking for a unique holiday surprise for people who would rather starve than eat a salad, this is your huckleberry.
Gummy Chili Peppers
$2.95 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
Gummy Chili Peppers are an interesting thing. They start off with all the sweetness of a gummy, and then slowly creep in with the pain of jalapenos, habaneros, and ghost peppers. We had a chance to try all three of these spicy gummy treats and we were amazed at how spicy they really were. We eat raw jalapenos all the time, but even that one got us a little choked up (in a good way). We will say this, the ghost pepper gummy is definitely not for the faint of heart. It doesn’t sneak up on you as much as it hits you like a ton of bricks. Grabbing a few of these and adding them to a gift basket, or just dropping one in the unsuspecting stocking of your loved ones will guarantee a gift that isn’t soon forgotten!
Gummy Burger
$7.45 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
We’ve never seen anything like the gummy burger before. It defied and surpassed expectations and became the sleeper hit of all the gummies we had a chance to check out for this year’s guide. What makes it so special? This burger isn’t just a big gummy in the shape of a cheeseburger. That’s been done before. No, this chewy treat is actually several gummies, each one has its own flavors, assembled to look like an unassuming sandwich. You can bite into the whole thing or separate each layer and enjoy them on their own. The buns were orange, the cheese was lemon, the patty is cherry, and the lettuce is sour apple. This might be the first time in our lives that the lettuce was one of the best parts of a burger! A gift like this is great on its own, but it’s affordable enough that you don’t have to break the bank by dropping a few into some stockings.
Threes Knees Spicy Gift Set
$44.99 • Bushwick Kitchen • Get Yours Now
If you’ve got anyone on your gift list who loves a little heat with their sweet, or even just loves a little heat, we want to introduce you to the Bushwick Kitchen Threes Knees Spicy Gift Set. Yes, it’s true that the set comes with a cute pepper towel and some great recipes, but the star of the show is the magic trio of Spicy Honey, Spicy Maple Syrup, and Gochujang Sriracha. The mix of sweet and heat in the honey changed the game when we added it to some cheese or a slice of apple, and the spicy maple syrup took our chicken and waffles to a level we didn’t even know existed. Now, mixing gochujang and sriracha? We don’t know why someone hasn’t done that before, but when we put it on our eggs and mixed some into our ramen… Wow! The individual bottles can be purchased on the site for between $10-$14 if you want to grab some honey or spicy maple syrup and slip it in someone’s stocking.
Gummy Pickle
$5.95 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
Gummy foods are interesting because they look like one thing, but then they taste like gummy candy. That is until you try the Gummy Pickle. We were not expecting the experience that overcame us when we bit into a gummy pickle. Sure. it’s sweet and chewy like any good gummy should be, but it’s also got all the traditional dill pickle flavor that you’d want when you crack open a jar of pickles. It’s weird, but it’s good. We couldn’t help but go back for more bites out of a combination of craving and curiosity. During the holiday season, the idea of the Christmas Pickle takes on special significance. Sure, the tradition of hiding a pickle-shaped ornament seems to have no real cultural backing and is more tied to the fact that pickle-shaper ornaments were just part of the assortment Woolworth’s used to sell in the 19th century, but why mess with a great thing? In fact, why not take it to the next level and trade in that glass pickle for a tasty treat no one will expect.
Gummy Donut
$5.99 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
If your last name is Simpson, or you’ know a good-natured cop with a sweet tooth, you can’t go wrong with the gummy donut. It’s everything it promises to be. It looks like a donut, sprinkles and all, but this thing is pure gummy! There’s a definite fun-factor to this one which makes it an excellent stocking stuffer. Aside from the obvious (that it’s a donut!), we loved the sprinkles on top. It gave just a little something different texture-wise that made this treat truly unique
Gummy Breakfast
$12.99 • GiantGummyBears.com • Get Yours Now
Why give someone a gummy treat when you can give them a whole meal. And, everyone knows that the most important meal of the day is breakfast, but waffles, bacon, and eggs can get boring… unless you are talking about their gummy counterparts! Visually, this was one of the most impressive gummies we saw this year. We can’t imagine anyone unwrapping this under the tree and not bursting into laughter. In the package, you get a maple-flavored gummy waffle, surprisingly tasty bacon maple-flavored gummy bacon, and the real mind-messer, berry-flavored eggs. Wow. Just wow. Honestly, that’s all we had to say about it as we cracked it open and started tasting. You want to make an impression this holiday season, this might just be the way to go.
Artisan DIY Cheese Making Kit
$34.95 • Grow and Make • Get Yours Now
Show us someone who doesn’t love cheese and we’ll show you someone who doesn’t have a soul. Cheese is a magical food, but most people have no idea how its made. Any lactose loving friend or family member on your would be thrilled to get a gift that’s not only a lot of fun, but that results in you getting to eat cheese that you made yourself! This kit teaches you how to make cheeses like Mozzarella, Chevre, Ricotta, and others. It was easy enough for us to use that we think this is also a great kit to consider for kids as a STEM gift. We live in a world where most kids don’t know anything about where their food comes from or how it is made. It’s been shown over and over again that when you get kids involved in making the food they eat, they will make better decisions about the foods they choose. Whether you are a child or a 90-year-old, taking milk and turning it into melty gooey, delicious cheese is one of the closest things we have to real magic.
DIY Deluxe Hot Sauce Kit
$39.95 • Grow and Make • Get Yours Now
Hot Sauce is always a great gift for any spicy food-lover during the holidays, but we loved the idea of a kit that helps you make your own so much more! That’s the fun of Grow and Make’s DIY Deluxe Hot Sauce Kit. It gives you the tools and instructions you need to make six different bottles of hot sauce. It comes with several different types of chillies, multiple different spices, and all the equipment you need. For us, this was just a really fun gift for anyone who loves spicy food. It’s also great for any kid that wants to learn more about where the stuff they sprinkle on their tacos come from. We are always for kits that help kids learn new skills and grow in the way they understand the world around them. These kits have enough going on in them that they are interesting, but they aren’t so challenging that they become a pain. The only pain you’ll get from this kit is the pain on your tongue when you use too much of your new hot sauce!