Foodie gifts are great, but the downside is that they tend to be consumed quickly and forgotten even quicker. The solution? A subscription, so that your gift is one that keeps on giving throughout the year.
From great chocolates and coffee to recipe kits and foodie magazines, our round-up includes the subscription gifts that we think are best in terms of quality, value for money and ease of effort when it comes to purchasing.
1. Tasting Club: from £9.95 for first box (then £22.95 after that), Hotel Chocolat
A great gift for people who take their chocolate seriously as your recipient will receive a monthly box of sumptuous chocs with flavours that haven’t even hit the shops yet, along with scorecards to fill in that help decide which recipes do eventually appear on the high street. Choose from their ever-growing list of options, currently including classic, mellow milk, high cocoa, fortified and Rabot 1745 – rare cocoa from around the world.
2. Recipe Kits: from £36 for three meals, Hello Fresh
This is a godsend for people who love cooking but lack time, as each weekly box contains recipe cards for inventive, scrumptious meals, along with all the pre-measured ingredients you need to cook them. Choose from classic, veggie and family-friendly, as well as the number of meals you want per week. It’s easy to swap meals when you don’t fancy one and you can pause the service if you’re going away.
3. The Spicery: from £19.95 for three months
This company have supplied spices to the likes of The Fat Duck and Ottolenghi. Now, everyone else can get in on the action, thanks to their subscription service that sends out all the spices you need to make one really tasty three-course meal a month from Korean Bibimbap to Cajun Jambalaya. All you have to do is add the fresh ingredients.
4. The Cheese Shed: from £109 for three boxes
Blessed are the cheesemakers, especially the lovely people at The Cheese Shed, who have almost 10 years experience sourcing the West country’s finest cheeses. Their subscription service provides proper artisan options, including rarities and hard-to-find cheeses that are ideal for real enthusiasts, with every box different from the last.
5. Pact Coffee: from £20.85 for three bags
Bermondsey-based Pact sends out bags of world-class coffee (ground or unground), guaranteed to have been roasted within the last seven days, directly to your door. It makes most other coffees seem bland in comparison and they work directly with coffee farmers, paying them rates higher than Fairtrade. Your recipient can easily request their deliveries for as often or as infrequently as they require and they deliver to offices too.
6. London Tea Club: from £30 for three months
For £10 each month, members are introduced to three premium loose-leaf teas tailored to their personalised profile. Each tea arrives in a corked test tube that contains enough to brew three to four cups, along with tasting notes, brewing instructions and handy tea-bags ready for you to fill. The sweet peony tea and crème earl grey we tried were exceptional.
7.Cure and Simple Bacon: From £5.95 per month
Morning fry-ups reach a whole new level with rashes of salty bacon from Cure and Simple. Bred from traditional Duroc and Large White pigs, the bacon has had the water removed, so no gunk in your pan like the supermarket varieties. It arrives in the post and is even sprayed with dog repellent so it won't get demolished when it lands on the doormat. Our favourite is the mixed flavours service, which gets you 200g every fortnight for £5.95.
8. Bakedin Baking Club: from £28.99 for three months
This award-winning baking company has come up with the innovative idea of sending out no-waste baking kits, with exclusive recipes from Michel Roux. Each month, a box of goodies arrives, from which you can bake a cake from scratch, with just a few additional fresh ingredients to get you going. And it all fits nicely through the letterbox. We tried their sticky toffee banana loaf, which was to die for.
9. Olive Magazine: from £12.99 for six issues
There are plenty of food magazines on the market, but this is smarter than most of them, with imaginative but achievable recipes, along with plenty of UK-wide restaurant reviews and food focused travel. There’s plenty for wine lovers too. The visuals are stunning and the writing is sharp.
10. Taste of Italy Monthly Food Box: from £100 for three months, Vallebona
Buy one of these boxes of Italian goodies as a one-off or for three, six or 12 months. The produce they contain come from different regions of Italy and includs a seasonal selection of products such as artisanal Italian cheese, cured meats, pasta, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, pesto Genovese and fig marmalade. It’s all top quality and absolutely scrumptious.
11. Adopt an Olive Tree: from £33, Nudo
With this service, you adopt an olive tree for someone in one of Nudo’s groves in Le Marche, Sicily or Liguria and they get the oil from that tree, followed by seasonal deliveries of other top quality olive oils, plus 20 per cent discount on other extra virgin olive oils, antipasti and gifts from Nudo’s webshop. You can even visit your own tree, if you happen to be holidaying that way.
12. The Wine Society: from £40
The Wine Society wins almost every wine-club award going because its range and quality of wine, coupled with the ordering and delivery experience, is outstanding. You start with a one off payment of £40 for a share in the company and life membership, then you can place your orders for as little or as much wine as you like.
13. Black Mountains Smokery: from £90 for six deliveries
This company’s smoked foods are excellent. Their most popular subscription gift provides your recipient with either oak smoked meats or smoked fish monthly for £300 or bi-monthly for £150 and you can upgrade the first instalment into a wicker hamper or with a hand crafted oak platter. But there are other cheaper options too from £40 quarterly.
14. Dorothy and Theodore Brownie Club: from £24.99 for three months
Every month, your recipient will receive a handmade brownie in the post. And these aren’t just any old brownies – they’re gooey, melt-in-the-mouth ones with no artificial additives or flavourings, that also happen to be beautifully presented. Flavours include milk chocolate, pecan, chocolate orange and gluten free.
15. Graze Snacks: from £3.99 per week
Graze promises to offer the ultimate snacking experience and it’s true that everything we tried – from their Belgian Speculoos and apple and cinnamon flapjacks to their herby bread basket and jaffa cakes – was a cut above the rest. With over 15,000 snack combinations, there’s no shortage of variety and with the subscription as you can try a new snack every week.
Verdict
There’s something for everyone in our list, but if forced to pick two that stand out, it’s got to be Hello Fresh Recipe Kits, which are revelatory for those who love cooking but are time-poor, and Black Mountains Smokery because the smoked meats and fish are so utterly delicious and the company’s customer service is second-to-none.
IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing
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- Christmas 2015
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