Gift ideas for foodies

Truffles are one of the world’s most highly-prized and sought-after foods, and their aroma and taste is one of the most delectable things in the gastronomic universe. As fresh truffles are hugely rare, prohibitively expensive and have an extremely short shelf life, what better way to experience their gorgeousness than through truffle oil? Truffle Hunter’s 100ml bottles are perfect as stocking fillers – this is perhaps the most delicious finishing oil we know of, and is made with real truffles. Excellent drizzled on pasta, potatoes, scrambled eggs, risotto, or simply brushed onto bread, it imparts a fantastically deep, lip-smacking truffle flavour to your dish that raises dishes to the next level and will be sure to delight any bon viveur!

Here’s one for the grown-ups. The deep, dark flavours of whole roasted coffee beans are a wonderful companion to milk chocolate, and the two go together like Christmas pudding and brandy butter! Chocolate is one of the most popular flavours of Christmas, and these bite-sized pieces of happiness are sure to be a hit with coffee lovers, and perhaps provide a much-needed shot of caffeine to stop everyone falling asleep during the Queen’s speech!

We are thrilled to be listing a delicious new range by Island Bakery Organics. Delicious, organic biscuits made on the Hebridean Isle of Mull using only local renewable energy. There are a range of delicious flavours, including Orange, Cranberry & Pecan, Apple Crumbles, Classic Shortbread and so much more! The perfect addition to Christmas hampers!

This traditional Greek balsamic fig glaze has a million and one applications in any foodie’s kitchen. Superb as part of a salad dressing or drizzled over a huge array of food such as fruit, soft cheese, feta, ice cream, yoghurt, meats and vegetables, it delivers a wonderfully tangy, sweet, lip-smacking taste explosion, rounded off with a lovely note of figs.

Balsamic vinegar is one of the home chef’s most useful and cherished store cupboard ingredients, and Fino There’s also a version with honey & vanilla, and an original dark balsamic glaze available.

A mainstay in any serious foodie’s kitchen cupboard, extra virgin olive oil is not only rich, deeply flavoured and essential for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking – it’s also rich in heart-healthy ‘good’ monounsaturated fats, high in antioxidants and has a multitude of compounds associated with decreased risk of many diseases. It’s perfect for salads, dipping bread into, drizzling over finished dishes or even for your hair and skin! Any foodie friend who was to receive this exquisite tin of cold-pressed Greek extra virgin olive oil would surely be your friend for life!

It’s the ubiquitous Christmas snack! Grab the nut crackers and get going – test your steady hand, and see if you can extract a walnut whole from its shell! You have to work to get these treats – but extracting an untarnished Brazil nut and popping it into your mouth is one of the most pure and simple joys of Christmas. We should also mention that in the midst of all the other festive treats, nuts are just about the healthiest thing you can eat.

St. Dalfour are one of our very favourite jam-makers, because of their healthier recipes and their supremely tasty products, all born out of necessity during World War One in France. As sugar was in limited supply, people instead used grape must, a by-product of wine making, as a sweetener. One winemaker, Monsieur Dalfour, shared his grape must recipe with one of his neighbours, Madame Kistner. She used it to make fruit spreads naming them in honour of Monsieur Dalfour, branding him a saint for such a fantastic recipe. Years later, St. Dalfour makes a beautiful range of jams and other natural products, all without cane sugar or any artificial colours or preservatives. Utterly divine on toast and muffins!

Vegan cheese has really moved on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Some really exciting things are happening, and at the forefront of these amazing new tastes and flavours in animal-cruelty-free cheese is the amusingly named I Am Nut OK. Its artisan cheeses are lovingly crafted in Hackney, London by an American and Italian couple who were struggling to give up dairy cheese after going vegan. Disapointed at the vegan cheeses available back in 2017, they set about using a mix of traditional and new techniques to create plant-based cheeses by hand in small batches which immediately blew most of the competition away! This bold, smoky cashew cheese is ripened in a coat of activated coconut charcoal ash, and there’s also a brilliant spicy paprika cheese, a vegan garlic ricotta and even a grated, Parmesan-style cheese to choose from too!

When there’s cheese, you definitely need some excellent crackers! These scrumptious ones are full of hazelnuts and cranberries, which are one of the most Christmassy flavours of all. The Foods of Athenry, a family company based in Ireland, has been going since the early 2000s, making delightful food without any artificial additives. Their soda bread toasta are one of the tastiest crackers we’ve come across.

They also make these fantastic almond & rosemary toasts and some particularly divine multiseed toasts as well. They’re made from twice-baked slices of soda bread, and are magic just munched on their own or topped with cheese and chutney – speaking of which….

Ouse Valley is a manufacturer based in East Sussex and is a prime example of a small British company that’s passionate about the seasonality and provenance of what they make. They use nothing but the freshest, most natural ingredients, and are dedicated to maintaining the excellence of their chutneys, jams and jellies. They always produce everything in small batches, using local growers to ensure authenticity and quality. Their red chilli jelly is perfect with cheese, meats or veggies, and their incredible hot picalilli takes the humble ploughman’s lunch into the realm of the gods!

Cocoba’s products are made in Kent, we thrilled to be listing their delicious hot chocolate sets. The perfect addition to your food hamper this Christmas. A gift for the chocolate lovers in your life!

Recommended by Delia Smith, Maldon sea salt has exploded in popularity in recent years as the go-to sea salt for chefs’ kitchens everywhere. This superlative kitchen essential has been harvested by hand in Maldon, Essex since 1882 from clay-lined salt pans which date back to Roman times. It comes in large flakes which are brilliant for sprinkling over food. They even now offer a smoked sea salt, which adds a deep, sophisticated flavour to any dish and is produced using traditional cold smoking methods with oak chips.

Here’s a wonderful gift idea for the adventurous foodie – tonka beans are actually the seeds of the kumaru tree, which is found growing across Central and South America. These mysterious almond-shaped seeds are ground in small amounts into dishes, primarily desserts, where they impart a tantalising flavour reminiscent of vanilla, amaretto, spices and nuts. They will lift any soufflé or bake to a whole new level with their enchanting loveliness, and they’re sure to delight anyone who loves to taste new things!

NHR Organics is one of our favourite small producers. Their ethos is simple – the purer the quality of the oil, the stronger the therapeutic and healing effect. NHR manufactures the finest quality essential oils we have ever found, and luckily, many of these are certified as food grade, which means you can use a drop or two to give a heavenly, deep flavour to cakes, bakes, stews, desserts and all kinds of dishes. And seeing how we’re coming up to Christmas, we love the fact they offer pure, organic myrrh oil and frankincense oil for all your festive needs!

Perhaps the most opulent, luxurious ingredient in the world, saffron is more expensive than gold, mainly because picking the tiny strands – known as stigmas – from the centre of the crocus is so time-intensive and laborious. But when it’s added to a dish, saffron imparts the most beguiling, complex, nuanced flavours to your food, not to mention the deepest, most beautiful rich yellow colour.

There’s some wonderful Persian saffron grown in the mountainous region of Ghaenat, and also Spanish saffron harvested from the rugged region made famous by Don Quixote, La Mancha.

Turkish Delight has been made and enjoyed in the Ottoman Empire, across the Levant and beyond for hundreds of years, and this soft, sweet confection is enjoyed just as much today as it was along the Silk Road way back then. Whether you want the nut-studded variety with hazelnuts, pistachios and coconut, or the one delicately flavoured with rose and lemon – or even a sugar-free version, this makes a delicious treat served with coffee, and a fantastic Christmas gift.

Pukka make teas of superior quality, and they know a thing or two about presentation as well, which is why this organic tea selection box looks so gorgeous. All Pukka’s teas are made using non-GM ingredients that are vegetarian, organically grown and ethically sourced.

Pukka’s packaging is recyclable, compostable and FSC-certified. This gift box contains nine different tea blends, including Elderberry & Echinacea, Turmeric Gold, Night Time and Three Ginger.

If you can’t decide from our massive range what to buy for your loved ones, why not let them make the choice themselves? One of our Healthy Supplies gift vouchers will put the ball in their court, letting them browse and pick what they fancy at their own leisure. Our vouchers are electronic, and when you buy one, you’ll be emailed a PDF document which can be printed and given inside a card. This will contain a special code to enter at checkout to cover payment for the amount you’ve chosen. This is an excellent gift for anyone you know who’s planning some healthy New Year resolutions!

Come and have a look at our wonderful gift section here!