Lifestyle, food and drink, and our family life and travel adventures.
Ooh, festive food and drink! I love this gift guide and I think food, and of course, alcohol can make such lovely gifts for Christmas and I love receiving it myself too. Food makes me happy and Christmas is a time to indulge and enjoy great food, isn’t it?
So I hope you find some lovely gift ideas in this festive food and drink guide; there are some beautiful brands, both big and small so hopefully, you might find the perfect presents in here.
I think a gorgeous bottle of alcohol makes such a great present, and this beautiful bottle of Mermaid Salt Vodka is perfect as a gift. Mermaid Salt Vodka comes from the Isle of Wight Distillery and is infused with locally sourced sea salt that enhances its smoothness and flavour. With salt’s ability to enhance other flavours, the vodka is particularly brilliant to use in cocktails but also great on its own with a mixer.
The salt for the vodka is harvested from water collected in the powerful flood tide off the island’s southern coast – an area prone to extreme storms that churn up the ocean floor, releasing huge amounts of flavour-packed nutrients. Naturally evaporated by sun and wind, the resultant sea salt retains a depth of flavour and distinct sweetness.
I love knowing how much has gone into the creation of Isle of Wight Distillery’s products and I find it really interesting finding out what has gone into it and why. The bottle is so beautiful, with it’s sculpted scales like those of a mermaid, and it is also plastic-free, with an all-natural cork and wooden top, and with a plant-based, biodegradable seal, as well as being net-zero.
40% ABV.
Where to buy: John Lewis or Master of Malt RRP £40.00/70cl
I love this as a gift idea; not only getting some tasty ice cream delivered to your door, but also then getting some more the month after and the month after that! Oppo’s brand new ice cream subscription, the ‘Oppo Tasting Club’ is the ultimate subscription gift for any ice cream lovers in your life.
Oppo make tasty but healthier ice creams, using ingredients such as stevia and lucuma, to create lower-calorie, great tasting ice cream that is naturally sweet and creamy but with 60% less sugar and calories than regular ice cream.
You can choose either a 1, 2 or 3 months’ subscription as a Christmas gift, and the recipient will receive a gift box with a personalised message inside, an Oppo Gold Tasting Spoon and ice cream tasting notes, along with codes for either 1, 2 or 3 months’ worth of ice cream delivered to their door, so they can arrange delivery when they are ready.
Subscribers will be able to select the six tubs they receive each month, choosing from festive flavours such as Cinnamon Crunch and Maple Walnut, the new Caramel Chocolate Crunch or vegan and dairy-free Simply the Zest, as well as favourites such as Double Salted Caramel, Vanilla Pecan Praline and Colombian Chocolate & Hazelnut.
I think it makes such a thoughtful and unusual gift this Christmas, and Oppo are also donating 10% of profits to the NHS as a thank you to our healthcare heroes, so you can feel even better about your gift.
Where to buy: Oppo from £45.00
Buzzy Blends is an independent, family-owned business based in the UK, that was created to bring honey to the table with a tasty twist! Their blended honey offers all of the health benefits of honey with other delicious ingredients from Mother Nature. They make a wide range of lovely handmade flavoured honey, including honey with raspberries, lemon and ginger, sea buckthorn, and even honey with chocolate and orange!
They do some really lovely Christmas gifts such as a Flavoured Raw Honey Gift Set of 3, or a Flavoured Raw Mini Honey Gift Set of 9 which all come in a box so they make a lovely present to open.
Buzzy Blend’s bees are the focus of their business, and they enjoy well-cared-for living conditions and kind beekeeping practices, with a focus on ethical, sustainable beekeeping. Their honey blends are made with no additives or preservatives, just 100% natural ingredients that deliver all the nutritious goodness of honey.
If you’re looking for a Christmas present for someone interested in health and wellness, or just someone who loves honey and trying new things, then a Buzzy Blends gift box would make a wonderful present.
I have a giveaway running right now to win some gorgeous Buzzy Blends honey! Go here to enter: Buzzy Blends Giveaway
Where to buy: Buzzy Blends from £19.50
I always love a food and drink hamper as a gift and Bradfords do a brilliant range of lovely ones. For a Port and cheese lover, this Vintage Port and Cheese Hamper is an amazing treat and comes presented in a box with a ribbon.
The high-quality contents in this gift box has lots of delicious food and drink to enjoy, including a 75cl bottle of Cockburn’s Vintage Port which undergoes a rigorous two-year selection process, a savoury biscuit selection, a jar each of Bradfords own Fine Cut Orange Marmalade and Strawberry with Champagne Jam, a Truckle of Mature Cheddar with Herbs and a Truckle of Oak Smoked Mature Cheese, a Pate and a Victorian Jar of Toffees.
My mum loves Port and cheese so this would be perfect for her, although I’d really like to keep it for myself! Bradfords do an excellent range of Christmas hampers suitable for everyone at a wide range of prices, with food and drink gifts, as well as hampers suitable for families that are full of treats!
Where to buy: Bradfords from £17.90. Vintage Cheese and Port Hamper £54.90
This Luxury Indian Spice Tin from Spice Pots makes a gorgeous gift for a foodie. The set contains 5 perfectly balanced, 100% natural spice blends, a 150-page cookbook as well as a bespoke cook’s candle to help eliminate cooking odours. It all comes in a lovely tin that you can re-use afterwards, and the pretty spice tins can also be used again.
Spice Pots create spice blends that allow you to create quick and simple but delicious curries and other Indian-inspired food.
The Cooking Gift Set contains:-
It’s a beautiful gift to give as well as being practical and I think anyone who loves to cook or is looking to start will love it.
Where to buy: Spice Pots RRP £34.95
I remember buying jars of fruits in alcohol for my Grandma’s when I was young and now I am old enough to appreciate them myself I think they make a gorgeous gift! They look amazing and taste amazing too.
Opies make a lovely range of speciality sweet and savoury preserves and new this year they have the delicious-sounding Red Berries infused with Pink Gin, Figs with Dark Rum, and Apricots steeped in syrup infused with Famous Grouse Scotch Whisky. All of these new Fruits steeped in Syrup with Alcohol make perfect stocking fillers and gifts for foodie friends, and all are less than £10!
The tasty fruits can be eaten as they are or with a dollop of cream, added to cocktails (the red berries have back notes of juniper so go beautifully with a gin and tonic!) or added to desserts – the figs in dark rum go great with pavlova and the apricots in whisky can be used in a Christmas Chocolate Trifle.
Opies is one of the oldest family-owned food businesses in the UK and all of their products are made to the highest standards, with their pickled walnuts still being packed by hand!
Their speciality pickles, luxury fruits, chutneys, compotes, ginger and cocktail products make gorgeous Christmas gifts, either as a standalone treat or as part of lovely food hamper you could put together.
Opies have also put together around 30 new recipe ideas with their products, from cute Rudolph Fairy Cakes to Vegan Nut Roast, Christmas Leftovers and alternative trifle ideas, some of which you can find on the packaging of the products.
Where to buy: Fruits steeped in alcohol available at Waitrose and other independent retailers such as farm shops and delicatessens from £6.00
Bobby’s Schiedam Gin is a Dutch-Indonesian hybrid that celebrates the 150-year-old shared history of the two countries. It is described as ‘Dutch courage mixed with Indonesian spice’, with a blend of juniper and whole clove, cubeb pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, rose hips, fennel and coriander to create a fine and balanced distilled gin.
Bobby’s is a spicy and fragrant gin, with a burst of citrus and a bite of pepper, and contains no additives, sugars or extractions.
With a taste of familiar Christmas flavours and the beautiful Ikat pattern bottle, it makes a gorgeous gift for Christmas for a gin lover and I would love to receive this.
42% ABV.
Where to buy: MasterOfMalt or Amazon RRP ££37.99/70cl
Cookbooks make brilliant gifts for foodies or anyone who loves cooking, and this cookbook from the makers of the famous ‘Dairy Diary’ is a lovely one, with 79 fresh and tasty recipes. All of the recipes are easy to prepare and made with ingredients that taste great and also help you to feel great.
A Zest for Life contains clever, nutritious recipes with healthy superfood ingredients that are widely available and meals that keep you fuller for longer. It’s a really pretty and colourful book that makes a lovely gift.
Where to buy: Amazon RRP £9.99
Pip & Nut have created a tasty twist on their delicious Almond Butter as a Limited Edition for Christmastime, with this yummy Gingerbread Almond Butter! It makes a great stocking filler for nut butter fans, plus 25p from every sale goes to a charity local to Pip & Nut – Hackney Foodbank – at a time when they are in even greater need of support.
Pip & Nut’s new Gingerbread Almond Butter features a smooth blend of perfectly roasted, naturally sweet Californian almonds, fiery ginger root and spicy cinnamon finished off with a dash of dates for a hint of rich caramel. It’s perfect for Christmastime and there are lots of delicious ways to enjoy it.
This new flavour is perfect for swirling into porridge or you can simply spoon it straight from the jar, as I often do, as a sweet treat!
Where to buy: Pip & Nut or Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Ocado and Whole Foods. RRP £3.95
These yummy Christmas treats from OGGS are great as part of a food hamper (especially if you are doing one for a vegan!), to gift on their own, or to enjoy together over Christmas!
OGGS make great cakes without any animal products, including this lovely chocolate Celebration cake and these Mince Pies released for Christmas. OGGS mince pies are handmade without any eggs or butter making them perfect for vegans, flexitarians and anyone who loves a mince pie! These festive fancies are kind to the planet, animals and people and come in completely sustainable packaging.
The Chocolate Celebration Cake makes a great alternative to a traditional Christmas cake and is a vegan-friendly chocolate sponge cake filled and topped with chocolate fudge frosting and finished with chocolate curls, edible stars and festive gold shimmer. They look amazing and they taste good too!
Where to buy: Sainsbury’s or Waitrose: Mince Pies RRP £2.50 Celebration Cake RRP £8.00
Kids and grown-up’s love it so! A great stocking filler treat for kids (or adults!), the HARIBO Selection Box contains a mixture of 8 bags of favourites; Starmix, Tangfastics, Supermix and Giant Strawbs Gone Mini.
Where to buy: Amazon (but expensive at the moment!) or Asda RRP £2.00
I hope these gorgeous food and drink treats have given you some lovely ideas for Christmas presents or inspired you to ask for them for yourself!
The products featured in this gift guide were sent to me for inclusion, but all words are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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Oh dear, too much choice! Can I have one of everything please? The vodka, the berries in spirit, the mince pies, the haribo, even the cookbook (I used to love my dairy diary! But yes you’re right, your mother does love port and cheese 🙂
– Mum