 Show your host or hostess that you appreciate the invite with a gift chosen especially for food lovers by food lovers—the editors of THE NIBBLE. Photo by Lotus Head.
November 2005
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Host & Hostess Gifts
Show Your Appreciation With A Special Gift
A bottle of wine or a bouquet of flowers are traditional ways to thank the host and/or hostess who took the time to create that special meal or event. Let the others follow the well-worn path: set yourself apart by the host or hostess know that you appreciate their generosity by sending a token of thanks. Thanks to online ordering, you don’t even have to take the time to go to the florist!
Here are some of our favorite products, most reviewed elsewhere in THE NIBBLE, that are special—and affordable—gifts.
If you’re planning to be the host, check out our Entertaining Guides for ideas on what to serve, and what to serve it in.
Prices and item availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. In most cases, shipping costs are additional.
If you’d like our “Top Food Pick of the Week” product recommendation e-mailed to you each Tuesday, sign up for our free newsletter.
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Ineeka Tea: Organic Teas
Ineeka’s teas not only come packaged in an attractive silver gift tin, the tea bags themselves are a conversation piece. Your host(s) will be delighted to open up the silver box after the party to discover that the tea bag’s unique design lets them brew a cup of the finest loose tea right in the cup, with no strainer required. The novel design and top-quality organic teas make Ineeka a great gift for any host or hostess. Available in Mint, Chamomile, Himalayan Green, Green Osmanthus, or Himalayan Black. Click here for our review.
- Silver Tin
14 Tea Bags
$11
Purchase online at MiTea.com.
Ineeka.com
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Tea Forte: Elegant Tea Infusers
Tea Forte, another company whose unique tea bag design sets them apart, offers gift tins of their teas and tea trays. Instead of traditional tea bags, Tea Forte uses silken tea infusers, making a gift of tea into a luxury item. Their teas come in
seven flavors: Chamomile, Lemon Ginger, Earl Grey, Citrus Mint, Oasis, Black Currant and Flora. Click here for our review.
- Small Tin
2 Tea Infusers
$4.95
- Medium Tin
Contains 6 Infusers
$12.00
- Large Tins
Contains 15 Infusers
$24.00
TeaForte.com |
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| Baked Goods and Other Treats |
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Cakes by Jane
Treat your hosts to this unusual—and unusually good—southern-style cream cheese pound cake. It’s ethereal and chiffon-like yet as rich as a pound cake ought to be. There are enough flavors (Turtle is shown at the right, Lemon below) to get you invited back quite a few times.
- 7-Inch Cake (1.5 pounds)
Vanilla, Key Lime and Lemon only
$24.95
- 9-Inch Cake (3 pounds)
Almond, Cappuccino, Chocolate, Key Lime, Lemon, Maple Pecan, Orange, Raspberry, Turtle, and Vanilla
$36.95 to $39.95
CakesByJane.com |
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Dancing Deer: Cake
We loved their Maple Pumpkin Cranberry Streusel Cake so much, we ate two of them! For December, there’s Eggnog Cake. No matter what the season, the flavors are delicious. Moist from butter and sour cream, all-natural, baked fresh the day they’re shipped and packaged in a gift box. They’re even certified Kosher by Star-D.
- Gift-Boxed Cake
1.25 Pounds
$19.99
DancingDeer.com |
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L.A. Burdick: Dipped Fruits
L.A. Burdick’s chocolate dipped fruits are a gift we always love to receive. Delicious fruits like apricots, paper-thin pears, crystallized orange peel and ginger are hand dipped in dark chocolate packed in a festive, retro paper box.
- Assorted Dipped Fruit
1 Pound
$32.00
- Prices vary for single varieties, from $7.50 for 1/4 pound of dipped ginger or orange peel to $40 for 1 pound of dipped pears.
LABurdick.com |
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Ruby et Violette: Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookies
No matter how many cookies one may receive from Ruby et Violette, there can never be too many. Their dozens of exquisite specialty flavors are a rare treat, and what can’t be eaten today can be frozen. Click here to read our review.
- 1-Pound Box
3 Flavors, 12 Cookies
$18.00
- Additional Pounds
$18.00/Pound
- Special Gift Assortments (1 Pound)
Champagne and Roses, Oreos and
Milk, et al
$18.00
RubyetViolette.com
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| Candy & Chocolate |
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Carolyn’s Gourmet: Nuts, Bark, and Assortments
To satisfy a hostess with a notorious sweet tooth, show up with a gift box from Carolyn’s gourmet. Their Ultimate Nominee Therapy Sampler (named because it was part of a gift bag given to Hollywood celebrities before a big award show) contains pecans, toffee, chocolate bark and Dutch Stroopwafel, a chocolate-dipped waffle cookie. Unfortunately, an average-looking photo of some of the best products in the category.
- Ultimate Nominee Therapy Sampler
$31.50
CarolynsGourmet.com
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Cocoa Designs: Almond Pralines
Cocoa Designs makes classic French almond pralines, lightly coated in chocolate and cocoa powder. It’s an artisanal craft: the finest whole nuts are first hand-roasted and caramelized (sugar-coated) in small batches on top of the stove. They are then hand-dipped in the world’s best couverture chocolate and rolled in the best cocoa powders. The result is a wonderfully fresh, crunchy praline covered in exquisitely good chocolate and cocoa—called, appropriately, Cocoa Nuts. Click here for our review.
CocoaDesigns.com
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Saxon Chocolates
With their warm color scheme and delicious selection of treats, Saxon’s Autumn Collection offers a number of chocolate items that make excellent hostess gifts. Their enrobed selection gift box contains chocolate covered almonds and oranges and comes tied with a decorative bow.
- Enrobed Selection Orange Gift Box
$20
SaxonChocolates.com |
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Torn Ranch: Wine Truffles
If your hosts like wine and chocolate, introduce them to Torn Ranch’s Wine and Sake truffles. Each truffle center is flavored with sake, Champagne, Chardonnay, Cabernet, or Port and enrobed in milk chocolate.
- Prices vary depending on size and
assortment
- Call
1.415.506.3000 for information
TornRanch.com |
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| Household Gifts |
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Aerolatte: Frother
If your hosts like kitchen gadgets, here’s one of our favorites: you can froth cappuccinos, lattes, shakes, and frappes into a delicate foam. Sophisticated chefs use it to foam cream soups for a presentation panache. Dieters can mix powdered shakes on-the-go. We keep one at home, one at the office. Click here for our review.
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Vacu Vin Guy Buffet: Rapid Ice Wine Chiller
This arty version of the original silver wine chiller features the witty painting of Hawaiian artist Guy Buffet, featuring overworked sommeliers bearing champagne. It stores flat in the freezer, ready to cool down room-temperature bottles of wine in 5 minutes. It also keeps white wine and sparkling wine cool at the table, without the need for an ice bucket.
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Want more ideas?
We have 100 holiday gift recommendations, luxurious gifts, and hundreds of other gift ideas that make great gift-giving all year-round.
Go to the main page of the Gift-Finder.
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