Looking for the perfect gift for your lover? From champagne and caviar to a sexy cookbook featuring nature’s edible aphrodisiacs, our gourmet gift guide for couples will help you deliciously turn up the heat during the cold holiday season.
Moët & Chandon Imperial Champagne
(World Market, price will vary based on location)
Set romance in motion with a bottle of champagne (and perhaps caviar) this holiday season with Moët & Chandon Imperial Champagne. Extra dry with a soft, semi-sweet finish, it has a light feel with straightforward effervescence, and delicately delivers peach and floral scents. World Market stores have this champagne reasonably priced, but you may also find it at your local wine shop.
Personalized Champagne Glasses
(PersonalizationMall.com, $30)
Make your champagne gift even more special by including two personalized champagne flutes that have your names on them. Even if you didn’t just get married, who is to say you can’t have your name and memorable date etched forever on two glasses? Maybe it’s time to renew those vows with a holiday celebration ceremony. The flutes have a crystal design elegantly engraved with your name and whatever date you choose, making every occasion you pop open the bubbly even more meaningful.
American Caviar Gift Set
(GourmetFoodStore.com, $75)
Caviar isn’t just for fancy cocktail parties. It is a succulent offering that you’ll want your mate to open as soon as you gift it. This American Caviar gift set is a sampler of the best caviars brought forth from the domestic rivers and shores in America, plus the essentials you need for the ultimate caviar sharing experience. You get three 1-ounce tins of caviar, a 36-pack of mini Russian blini and an 8-ounce container of crème fraîche. We can see a romantic evening in front of the fire scooping caviar and crème fraîche onto each other’s blini and drinking champagne.
Clif Family Winery Chocolate and Cabernet
(ClifFamilyWinery.com, $70)
Plan a romantic holiday evening and celebrate the season with Clif Family Winery’s Chocolate and Cabernet package, which joins a sultry cabernet with rich, dark chocolate covered almonds. Imagine setting the mood and feeding each other the almonds in between kisses and sips of Clif Family Winery’s 2009 Kit’s Killer Cab Cabernet Sauvignon. This indulgent pairing is delivered in a classic wood box with a gift certificate for a VIP Rifugio tasting experience at the California winery’s Velo Vino tasting room. Sounds like a great date for the new year!
Norman Love Confections 2012 Limited Edition Holiday Collection
(NormanLoveConfections.com, $14)
Has a box of chocolates from the supermarket really ever sparked a flame in your heart? We’re guessing not. So, this is the year to change your opinion on the too oft-given box of chocolates. Norman Love Confections handcrafts the most amazing chocolates we’ve ever tasted — and laid on eyes on! They are not only knee-weakeningly amazing, but also look too beautiful to eat (but, trust us, you will eat every single one of them!). The limited edition Holiday 2012 collection has white, milk and dark chocolates in 10 melt-in-your-mouth flavors, including eggnog, Kahlua, apple cider, habanero, s’mores and more. Boxes are available in 5- to 50-piece gift sets as well as year-round options. Love can be like a box of chocolates — and taste so good.
Lezzet Spices Gimicina Spicewater
(LezzetSpices.com, $80)
Not into champagne or other spirited beverages? No problem! Add some spice to your love life with Lezzet’s Gimicina Spicewater. You can stay hydrated and energized with this refreshing antioxidant-rich drink mix that perfectly blends stimulating flavors — ginger, mint and cinnamon. Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory and helps promote healthy digestion; mint boosts mental performance and cinnamon supports healthy blood sugar levels. The Best Deal collection is made for couples, giving you two containers of Gimicina Spicewater (96 servings), two (16-ounce) infusing travel tumblers for mornings you’re in a hurry and a 64-ounce infusing pitcher for the mornings you and your mate decide to have breakfast in bed.
The New InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook
(Amazon.com, $19)
Every couple needs an aphrodisiac cookbook to deliciously keep the flames of passion ignited. The New InterCourses cookbook by Martha Hopkins doesn’t steer you to Spanish fly or other odd ingredients to get you in the mood. Simply look in your kitchen right now and you’ll find most of the 19 sensual foods Hopkins recommends to cook up some lovin’. Her book is organized by type of aphrodisiac — chocolate, strawberries, pine nuts, asparagus and oysters to name a few — and includes more than 55 couple-tested recipes, histories of the aphrodisiacs, couples’ anecdotes and tantalizing photographs. If you’ve heard of this book in the past, you’ll be delectably delighted with this 10thanniversary edition of The New InterCourses, which features new steamy recipes and a completely revised appendix.
Bodum Bistro Salt and Pepper Grinder
(Birchbox.com, $20)
What’s a food-related gift guide without a gadget? Just like you and your lover just go together, the Bodum Bistro Salt and Pepper Grinder join salt and pepper in the same stylish gadget. This slick seasoning tool, made of rubber-sprayed plastic, has a non-slip finish that makes it easy to salt and pepper your dishes no matter how messy your hands happen to be. The grinder is adjustable so you can choose the right grind. Simply turn left for salt, and turn right for pepper. Go on a culinary adventure with your mate, and experiment with gourmet salts and multi-colored peppercorns — and be sure to turn the grinder together for extra fun in the kitchen.
More gourmet gift guides
Digital gadgets for the high-tech kitchen
Exotic ingredients for the adventurous chef
Chic accessories for the wine connoisseur
Leave a Comment