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A food gift basket can be a glorious gift — when a good one is selected. The key is to know what your recipient likes and how to find the best basket based on their tastes. If you’re buying for a group (like your office pals), opting for as universal option as possible is a good bet.
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So how do find these magical, actually enjoyable food gift baskets? We’ve got a few favorites that’ll make everyone from the cookie lover to the hot sauce aficionado happy.
Harry & David’s Tower Of Treats Signature Gift
Harry & David has been cornering the market on the gift basket business for decades. In fact, they introduced their Tower of Treats way back in 1945. Talk about staying power! No doubt that’s due to its something-for-everyone vibe.
With this food gift basket, there’s a selection of fruit (in this case, pears), gourmet popcorn, mixed nuts, chocolate-covered cherries, and a variety of truffles. Harry & David Towers have also expanded into unique categories with other options offering delicacies like salmon, Gouda cheese, raspberry galettes, dry salami and much more.
David’s Cookies Holiday Cookie Gift Basket CrateÂ
You can’t go wrong with six pounds of handmade holiday cookies that are individually wrapped for freshness. Your recipient will have several varieties to choose from, including chocolate chip, cherry white chip, pecan, brownies, blondies, shortbread cookies, peanut butter chip cookies and more.
Chocolate Covered Company’s Dark Chocolate-Covered Gift Tower
A company called Chocolate Covered ought to know a thing or two about bathing foods in cocoa goodness. This trio of treats starts with a box of dark chocolate truffles on top. The two boxes below contain Belgian dark chocolate-covered mini pretzels and salted dark chocolate and almond bark.
Belgian chocolate, by the way, has a more pronounced chocolate flavor than the American variety. (The U.S. kind is a bit sweeter and creamier.)
Savannah Bee Company’s Hot Box Gift Set
If you know that your gift recipient is a someone who likes to torch their tongue, a hot sauce gift basket might be for you. This gift box comes with a squeeze bottle of spicy honey, which is made with scotch bonnet (a variety of chili pepper) and habanero peppers — and a box of fire sticks (which are straws full of the same spicy honey).
You’ll also get a bottle of Honey Hot Sauce, which was awarded the 2020 SOFI AWARD by the Specialty Food Association for “best and most innovative product” in the BBQ and hot sauce category.
Sugarfina’s Happy Holidays 3-Piece Candy Bento Box
If you need to keep the price down — but still want to offer something sweet — you might consider this collection of three gourmet candies.
Sugarfina specializes in candy made for grownups since many of their flavors are inspired by cocktails. This package contains a set of three boxes with Champagne-flavored gummies, berry-flavored gummies and dark chocolate sea salt caramels.
Brightland’s Set of Four Essentials
Any good cook will tell you: High-quality olive oil and vinegar can elevate almost any dish, not to mention a homemade salad dressing.
This four-pack set includes two varieties of olive oil (made with early-harvest Arbequina olives) and two kinds of vinegar (a balsamic fermented with Zinfandel grapes and blackberries and a Champagne vinegar fermented with Chardonnay grapes and Valencia oranges).
A Gift Inside’s Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries & Caramel Apple Duo
Fruit is a popular gift basket item, and there’s no doubt that people love to receive it. But is there anything quite as exquisite as a delicious chocolate covered strawberry drenched in white and dark chocolate? This gift box provides 12 of them, then ups the ante by adding two chocolate and caramel covered Granny Smith apples (a decadent blend of sweet and sour-sweet flavors to slice and share).
Stonewall Kitchen’s Blueberry Breakfast Gift
What do you give someone who’ll have a house full of guests during the holidays? A basket of high-quality ingredients for making a large breakfast, of course!
Stonewall Kitchen of Maine is best known for its jams, but it has a wide variety of gift baskets that encompass all kinds of breakfast foods you might spread that jam on.
And they’ve branched out into lots of other specialty food gifts, like a popcorn gift set with hand-crafted seasonings and a pretzel and dip gift basket.
igourmet Grand Assortment of Meat and Cheese Favorites
Got a charcuterie board lover in your life? They will love the premium quality curated meats, cheeses and crackers in this gift set. They also toss in some tangy artisanal mustards and some flavorful olives.
Gourmet Choice Gift Basket by Wine Country Gift Baskets
If you’re sending a gift basket to a big group, and you’re not sure what they like, consider this incredibly bountiful basket.
Let’s just say that it would be very hard to find a person who isn’t enticed by something in this breathtaking array of culinary delights.
Is there a chocolate lover in the group? They’ll find some Godiva and Lindt delicacies. A tea connoisseur? They can sample the Ahmad English tea. A fan of charcuterie boards? They can dig in to the Daniele salami with stone ground mustard.
And we’re just getting started. There are just too many treats in this basket to name them all. And someone gets to take a great basket home when it’s empty!
Jennifer has written features and essays for over a dozen magazines, including American Baby, Cosmo, Cosmo Girl, Fit Pregnancy, Good Housekeeping, Health, Marie Claire, Parents, Parenting, Redbook, Self, Teen People, TV Guide, and YM. More.
