Foodie Gift Guide

Gifting food and drink items for Christmas are great for presents that will be used, enjoyed and won’t end up in landfill. A great alternative to the throwaway culture that has been building around consumer days like 'Black Friday' and perhaps prevents that unwanted gift. Here's a few suggestions grouped in to themes, from the range of food and drink items available in Ethical Shop.

For the budding chef, there’s an interesting range of recipe books on offer with some different meal ideas from the norm. I have a copy of Ripe Figs at home and the Sunshine Salad has now become a staple on our meal planner. Bring sunshine to your plate, with juicy tomatoes, salty halloumi and crispy sweet potato! The Spice Kitchen spice tins are brilliant for experimenting and provide a good collection of flavours. We’ve also got a range of grow bars so you can grow your own herbs and spices. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction of eating something you’ve grown yourself. And these complementary tea towels and mugs from Weekend 365 guide you on growing your own veg throughout the year.

Still on the diy trend, have you given Barretts Ridge Beer Bread a go yet? 6 delicious flavours to choose from, including Italian cheese (my personal favourite). Pair this with the Italian herb set, decadent Zayton extra virgin olive oil and delicious greek olives and that’s a lovely little hamper.

Chilli lovers For a gift that packs a punch, try the set of Ukuva hot chilli sauces, the chillies of the world tea towel, red hot grow bar and hot chilli pesto for a fiery feast. I bought these for my brother who loves cooking and is notoriously difficult to buy for and they went down very well!

Brew up Perhaps your friend is big into their tea? (which Brit isn’t?!) The Nemi tea gift tubes are a brilliant present, as not only do they look great but you'll be supporting a brilliant social enterprise in London giving work to refugees. The loose leaf Cardamom Chai is delicious and warming. Pair this with a rainbow teapot, cute penguin tea cosy and a mug of choice (wildlife, birds, rainbows, cats, shipping forecast?) and some salted caramel chocolate buttons from Coco Pzazz. That’s a tea themed gift right there!

Coffee aficionados I mean, you could do the same with coffee too. There’s a great selection of coffee beans, ground coffee, coffee bags (who knew?! compostable too), mochaccino chocolate, mocha fudge and more mugs (women who changed the world, Roman roads and blue dogs) paired with a book from the fabulous collection from Myriad. Plus circular cups to encourage the use of reusable cups whilst on the go.

Bake Off Busy away in the kitchen with some Christmas baking. Get the kids involved with this easy to follow gingerbread house baking kit. I’ve had a go with my niece and the perfectionist in me had to be very restrained whilst letting her take charge of the decoration! Or chocolate orange panettone for a citrusy, chocolate festive hit. Once you've finished baking, reward the kids with Divine spiced or salted caramel hot chocolates - pure indulgence for this time of year. Or a different use for mugs, with these mug kits that are great for a quick fix of Christmas pudding and perfectly proportioned - and prevents that last quarter ending up in the food waste bin.

Fancy a tipple? Cotswold Gin Fudge, a G&T guide tea towel, a grow bar of exotic fruits for cocktails and gin botanicals spice tin are perfect for any promising mixologists in the house. Just go with it, I’m sure it will taste delicious (!)

And when the Christmas food gets too much, change it up with a curry night. Rukmini Iyer's India Express recipe book is bursting with authentic recipes with 'minimum effort and maxium flavour'. Accompany with the fairtade curry condiment or spicy trio sets including mango chutney and lime pickle to dip your poppadoms into. Curry collection spice drops add an intense instant flavour, containing concentrated extracts of spices that retain all the natural goodness and authentic taste and get your fairtrade rice, coconut milk and organic cashew nuts too.

So there’s a range of food themed ideas which I hope are useful! And all practical, useable and thoughtful.