presents for your in laws

my 2024 holiday gift guide (part 2)

Dec 02, 2024

In Laws

for people who love who you love

The build your own spice set from Diaspora Co. Tins come in sets of three ($30), six ($60), nine ($90), and twelve ($120).

My suggestions:

Guntur Sannam Chilli
These beautiful heirloom chillies are the pride and joy of Andhra Pradesh's heat-centric cuisine. They're ground with cold pressed sesame oil and rock salt for preservation and to bring out all their smoky, tomato-ey, and fiery flavors. They play nice with everything, so we find ourselves sneaking them into every cuisine!
Anamalai Mace
Mace is the dried, lacy covering of the nutmeg and is its sweeter, milder counterpart. With notes of raw mango, fennel, papaya, and lemongrass, it adds an irreplacable richness and depth to curries, spice blends, and slow cooked meats.
Nadir's Hawaij Masala
A savory, warming blend created in collaboration with cultural icon Nadir Nahdi and inspired by the flavors of his Yemeni and Pakistani roots.
Nandini Coriander
Our cult favorite coriander is lemony, nutty and floral like you've never had before. Crisp like fresh linens, and bursting with zesty aromas. Customers have been known to keep a jar close by for regular inhaling and tasting, I swear it's calming!
Baraka Cardamom
The wild cardamom we spent over a year sourcing and just can't seem to keep in stock! With a fragrance so heady you can smell it from outside the box (!!!), it's notes of licorice, mint and pine are deeply nostalgic. It's so potent you need half as many pods as you usually would, and it will make the best cup of chai you've ever had.
Pahadi Pink Garlic
This is garlic powder unlike any you've tried before — it literally tastes like garlic bread! Its depth of flavor will have you adding it to soup, stir-fries, eggs, and more. It's truly the new workhorse of your pantry!

A personalized pet ornament for the family best friend. Here’s one option ($19.94-$26.58), and another ($9.24).

A wifi connected picture frame ($139) that plays a rotating selection of pics you upload into an app. We got this for both sets of parents last year and it was a hit!

This flat jewelry pouch from Sezane ($35).

A National Park Pass ($20-$80), valid for one year. The regular annual pass costs $80, but if your loved one is over the age of 62 you can get them a lifetime pass for the same price, or a yearly pass for $20! You can purchase the pass for them or buy a gift card so they can do it themselves.

A selection of 3-5 kinds of fancy chocolate from Bar & Cocoa - you can choose from a bunch of different hard to find brands with free shipping $75+. Here are my suggestions. Note: I used to work for a chocolate company and unapologetically prefer milk chocolate!

From Dick Taylor (I am a Dick Taylor super fan)
- Orange Bourbon Pecan ($11)
  For this holiday bar, bourbon soaked pecans are candied with maple syrup & orange and paired with 65% Belize dark chocolate.
- Belize 72% ($9.50)
  This single origin Belize bar is made with exceptional cacao from Maya Mountain Cacao in the Toledo district of southern Belize! This multi award winning bar is made with just two ingredients; cacao and cane sugar. Belize is a mild yet complex chocolate that is wonderfully nuanced with floral and dried fruit notes.
- Peppermint Bark ($14)
  This year's Microbatch bar starts with a layer of 65% Belize dark chocolate, then is coated with a creamy peppermint-infused white chocolate, and topped with crushed peppermint candy.
- Gingersnap Milk Chocolate ($10)
  This bar features a rich 55% Belize milk chocolate combined with Bunches and Bunches Ginger Snap cookies. Crunchy, sweet, warm and spicy, this is a bar you can enjoy all winter long.
- Peppermint Drinking Chocolate ($20)
  A rich and velvety European style drinking chocolate, handcrafted using ethically sourced cocoa beans from Sambirano valley in Madagascar. Mixed with crushed pieces of natural peppermint candy.
From Pump Street
- Togo Swiss Milk 44% ($10.25)
  Two unique ingredients make this milk chocolate stand out; cocoa beans from the women-run Kekeli Cooperative in Togo, and superlative milk powder made in Switzerland from local milk. Their own version of a Swiss Milk bar, this extra creamy chocolate has notes of baked cheesecake (right down to the biscuit base), whey caramel, and warm spices.
- Sourdough & Sea Salt 66% ($10.25)
  A unique combination of two signature (and favorite) products from Pump Street: dark chocolate and sourdough. Their sourdough crumbs and a touch of sea salt add crunch and a smooth, malty flavor to the Ecuadorian chocolate. This is a unique combination and to their knowledge the first time a chocolate bar has been made with sourdough.
- Don Ramon's Farm La Pareja Peru 72% ($10.25)
  This unique chocolate is made from rare Peruvian white cacao, known as Piura Blanco, native to this region. Don Ramon processes beans from his 120-year-old farm in the village of La Pareja and is the founder of the local growers association. They were lucky enough to secure the entire 2020 crop after falling in love with this unique profile. This dark chocolate is brimming with fruity sweetness and notes of bright lemon sherbert, and blackberries, mellowing toffee apples, and almonds.
- Father Christmas 44% ($11.50)
  Pump Street's jolly Father Christmas figure is hand-poured from molten single-origin craft chocolate and is made from start to finish on site at their factory in Suffolk, England. Made with Togo milk chocolate.
From Goodnow Farms
- Unfiltered Hard Cider 70% ($19)
  Downeast’s Overboard 8% Cider, made from fresh, unfiltered, locally sourced apple juice combined with Goodnow Farm's favorite flavors into one incredible bar. To craft this bar they soaked their directly sourced Zorzal cacao nibs in TWENTY THREE GALLONS of Overboard 8%, so all of the fresh, sweet and tangy apple flavor is in the chocolate. And, since the alcohol evaporates during the drying process this bar is alcohol-free. Tasting notes: sweet apple, rich dark chocolate, tart apple fudge
- Mexico Almendra Blanca 77% ($17.50)
  Almendra Blanca means "white almond." The white color of this bean gives the finished bar a lighter look despite its high cacao content. Farmer Vicente Cacep grows these beans on his family farm in Tabasco, Mexico. As with all their bars this is crafted with their house-made cocoa butter, freshly pressed from the same fine flavor beans they use to make the chocolate. Flavor notes are creamy citrus and hazelnut. Great for pairing with a sweet dessert wine.
- Guatemala Asochivite 77% ($17.50)
  Crafted with freshly pressed Asochivite cocoa butter for intense single origin flavor and exceptional smoothness, this bar has delightfully bright fruit flavors of green banana and mango.