The Best Holiday Gifts for Gourmets
Unusual Present Ideas for Food and Wine Lovers Who Have Everything
Dec 6, 2008
With Christmas just a few weeks away, it can be hard to quell the rising panic: what to get for the dad who says he doesn’t need anything? The choosy best friend? Or that impossible-to-please relative?
Fear not. This holiday buying guide is packed with original gift ideas inspired by food and drink trends from around the world. And that’s not all. None of these items will break the bank. Simply follow the links for stockist details and this year’s gift buying will be finished before you can say “where’s the wrapping paper?”
Vacu Vin Wine Saver
The Wine Saver is the perfect gift for anyone who enjoys good vino. Available in black, white or sleek chrome, this vacuum pump extracts air from open bottles of wine, resealing them with a reusable rubber stopper. It slows down the oxidation process so that opened wine tastes good for longer. In addition, the most recent model has a patented ‘click’ that sounds once the optimum amount of air has been extracted. This means it’s no longer necessary to guess when to stop pumping.
Other unusual items from this Holland-based, award-winning design company include a flexible, space-saving wine rack and handy drink coolers.
The Wine Saver is available from Amazon.com.
BODYCOFFEE Body Lotion
Russians have known for a long time that coffee is not just an inner pick-me-up. During the cold winters, Russians head to the banya (sauna) for a steam and a revitalizing body treatment. Traditionally, coffee grounds are used as a skin exfoliant and coffee’s essential oils as a moisturizer.
All of BODYCOFFEE’s beauty products are based on this tradition and contain coffee along with other nourishing ingredients such as hemp seed oil, shea butter and herb extracts. The product line includes body polish, body wash, body oil and lip balm; but perhaps the most unusual product is the body lotion. Made from coffee blossom essence, it has an exotic, delicate odor reminiscent of jasmine, and is rich enough for use on the body but light enough to be used on the face.
The website has a complete list of products and global stockists.
Zotter Austrian Chocolates
Josef Zotter, a chocolate researcher, so-called ‘taste artist’ and the founder of Austrian chocolate brand Zotter, could be described as a real-life Willy Wonka. He has established a chocolate factory in the town of Reigersburg and offers multi-sensory chocolate tours to the thousands of people who flock to the facility annually.
But what makes the chocolates themselves so special? The factory is one of very few in Europe that carries out the entire production process from cocoa bean to chocolate bar under one roof. In addition, all the cocoa is organic and certified as Fair Trade.
And if Zotter’s ethical credentials weren’t enough, the 180 different kinds of chocolate it produces actually taste really good, too. The mini bars, for example, which come in exotic flavors such as Fennel-Orange and India Masala, can be melted directly in glasses of warm milk – a novel way of making hot chocolate.
The most recent addition to Zotter’s collection is this season’s Labooko!, two different bars of chocolate in one pack, which enable the eater to compare – just as a wine taster might with grape varieties – different cocoa species, regions and percentages. The perfect gift for anyone with a sweet tooth.
Zotter chocolates are available through independent delicatessens and health food stores.
FACES Ferran Adrià Cereal Spoon
Tired of eating soggy cereal? Apparently Ferran Adrià and his team of designers were too when they came up with the idea for a straining spoon. The chef of renowned elBulli near Barcelona, Spain (the restaurant has been voted the best in the world three times), Adrià is expanding his empire with FACES, a culinary collection as quirky as his molecular cooking.
The straining spoon is covered with small holes, like a sieve, so that milk drains away leaving behind a spoonful of crunchy cereal. The spoon can also be put to other uses such as straining olives preserved in oil or brine. An unusual and fun gift for people of any age.
The website has details of online and offline stores that stock the FACES collection.
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