Christmas Gift Guide 2014
Every year we put together a gift guide to help you make those difficult decisions on what to buy your friends and family for Christmas. All the items featured in our gift guide have been tested by ourselves and come personally recommended by us. We hope you enjoy this years selection which is bigger and better than any previous year.
Neato – Botvac 85
home. We do prize ourselves as having a smart home however the Botvac is so
intelligent itself that it requires very little knowledge of how it works. You
can simply let it get on with its business and you get on with yours.
it has a laser built into the top of the robot. When your Botvac leaves its
home base (where it lives and charges) on one of its missions (whether manually
told to start or scheduled via the timer) it scans the room with the laser,
identifying any big obstacles and the general shape of the room. It then sets
out to clean the room systematically. It then moves onto other rooms if you
leave the doors open. A whole apartment cleaned in one go….amazing! The
Botvac is a little genius when it comes to avoiding smaller obstacles too such
as cat food bowls or shoes, or even you! It simply adjusts its course.
continuously being subjected to a bombardment of kitchen debris but the Botvac
has been an amazing help in the kitchen, completely eliminating crumbs or other
kitchen debris which results in baking or even cooking. Whether the debris is
sugar, oats, flour or just general crumbs the Botvac has no trouble at all in
lifting these. The spinning brush on the side of the Botvac works wonders at
pulling any debris away from the wall or kitchen kickboards and into the path
of the brush blades and vacuum. The vacuum power of this robot is something I
would like to particularly mention as some people have commented upon seeing
the Botvac that it may just be a novelty or a toy but we can assure you this is
not the case. The Botvac has not struggled with lifting anything we have put in
its path. It has found debris in our carpet that even our big brand name
standup vacuum didn’t lift. This amazes us!
price in our opinion. Another great point is that you can update the software
of the Botvac when it becomes available by connecting it to a PC. You’ll soon
grow to love your Botvac’s personality and you’ll soon find a name for it too.
Ours is called ‘Crumbs’. What will you call yours? You can purchase a Botvac
from numerous suppliers in the UK, you can find the list on their website. Prices around £449.
Botvac 85 here.
Wifi Kettle
adopters of new technology in our home especially if it makes our lives any
easier. The Wi-Fi Kettle is simply a
piece of technology that works so beautifully well that it is a pleasure to
use. First of all let us explain what a Wi-Fi kettle is as it sounds
like
something the Jetsons would perhaps have in their home. The kettle itself is
cordless as most are these days and it has a base which plugs into mains power.
This base is connected to your homes Wifi. Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at
all to set up! All you need to do is download the relevant app for your phone
either from the Apple app store or Google Play app store and follow the very
simple setup instructions. It then connects the base to your Wi-Fi. Then the
fun begins! The app has several different functions. The first simply being the
ability to boil the kettle at either 65, 80, 95 or 100 degrees Celsius
depending on what type of beverage you are making. We must admit to mostly
using the 100 degrees selection. The app
also allows you to trigger the ‘keep warm’ function to keep the water at the
set temp for a set range of time. The app will then notify you when the boil
cycle has finished and remind you to refill your kettle. You soon get use to
refilling it each time you use it ensuring you can turn it on via the app
without worrying whether it has enough water in it. The second functionality of
the app is the Wake up Mode. You can set your phone to notify you in the
morning when you wake up and ask whether you want to stick the kettle on. How
cool is that! But the best is yet to come….The Home Mode enables your phone to
detect when you arrive within range of your homes Wi-Fi network and then
trigger a popup message on your phone welcoming you home and asking if
you
would like to stick the kettle on. Amazing!!! These two additional modes are
completely optional so you don’t have to use them if you don’t want. Of course
if you are old school you can boil the kettle by pressing the button on the
base station. But why would you want to do that when you have a cool shiny new
app to play with. The kettle itself is designed with a modern stylish kitchen
in mind. The sleek stainless steel design is an icon of beauty in the kitchen.
If you don’t fancy the minimalist look of the stainless steel body of the
kettle or fancy something a bit different the designers have thought of this
too. There are a range of ‘skins’ available for the kettle in a multitude of
colours meaning your kettle will never become boring again. We have to admit
this is one of the coolest pieces of kitchen tech we have come across so far
and it is an absolute pleasure to use in our home. Priced at £99 and available
from a multitude of suppliers in the UK including Amazon, PC World, Currys,
Firebox and John Lewis. You can check out all the details on their own website.
Marks and Spencers
with great gifts at Christmas and this year has been no exception. We chose
this item to feature in our Christmas gift guide as it is such a wonderfully
presented treat that the recipient will be guaranteed to want to keep it! The
Marks and Spencer’s Carousel Tin (£10) is a beautiful vintage Christmas
inspired tin of shortbread with one major difference. The tin itself is a
rotating musical tin, making it easy to repurpose as a Christmas decoration
too! Another product from Marks and Spencer’s Christmas 2014 range is the
Sequin Tree (£15) which is a tree shaped box beautifully covered in gold
sequins and filled with delicious milk, dark and white chocolate truffles.
After something a little more traditional? How about box of Chocolates (£4) in
milk, dark and white chocolate or the beautiful Stag Shortbread Tin (£4.50)
which is filled with quality Scottish shortbread. Something for a small gift or
stocking filler, why not check out the box of After Dinner Mint Buttons (£5)
made with quality dark chocolate and mint oil or the Merry Christmas chocolates
selection (£4) which comprises of individually wrapped chocolates in the form
of the slogan Merry Christmas.
Sage Appliances by Heston Blumenthal – The
Smart Toast
it? Could it? Heston Blumenthal’s own team at Sage appliances have come up with
an amazing series of appliances for our kitchens including the Smart Toast toaster (£169 for the 4 Slice, £129 for the 2 slice). You may ask
what could possibly be different about a toaster that makes it smart. This is a
fair question but the guys at Sage appliances
have put a lot of thought into
the challenges we come up against when making toast, and they’ve come up with
the solutions! If ‘ Is my toast done yet? I better check in case it burns’ or
‘It could do with a tiny bit more time’ sound like scenarios you come up
against, which we believe everyone does when making toast, then this toaster is
designed for people like yourselves. The Smart Toast has two very specially
designed features built in, the ‘Lift and Look’ feature and the ‘A Bit More’
feature. The ‘Lift and Look’ feature does exactly what it says, the motorised
carriage lifts the bread (or whatever you’re toasting) up just enough for you
to peep to see if its brown enough. Saving your eye brows from a singe. And
then lowers the bread back into the toaster, all without interrupting the
toasting cycle. No more resetting the toasting cycle every time you need to
check the toast. The ‘A Bit More’ feature also does exactly what it says, it
adds a tiny bit more time onto the toasting cycle and lowers the toast back
down into the toaster. We particularly love the LED indicator panels on the
front of the toaster just above the heat settings which indicate how much time
is left on the toasting cycle, leaving you enough time to work out when to make
your tea to go with your toast. In our eyes this toaster has truly been
designed to be the most user friendly toaster we have ever experienced. Take the guesswork out of making toast and get
a Smart Toast.
Cabanaz – Bread Box
item of kitchenware is designed in such a way that it would take pride of place
in any kitchen
whether retro themed, modern or traditional. The breadbox is
available in several colours scarlet read, arctic blue, classic white and iron
grey so easily fits into a multitude of colour schemes. The dimensions of the
box are L40cm, H17cm and D22cm making it sufficiently large not only to hold
your loaf, but pancakes, buns, biscuits and whatever else you keep in your
breadbin. This designer piece, complete with its chrome look metal ends and
spacious interior is the perfect finishing touch to any kitchen. Available from
Formahouse
in the UK.
Adagio Teas – Fairy Tale Bags, Story Time
Bags, Tree House Bags
or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram you will know of our love of
Adagio Teas. Their massive range of teas, teapots and other associated teaware
amazes us and is always a first stop for any gift ideas for any lea lover
friends. Adagio Teas have launched three fantastic gift boxes aimed to
introduce kids to teas. We love this idea as all too often kids do not
understand what is inside traditional teabags, where the tea comes from or that
its available in an array of flavours. The three gift boxes are Fairy Tales, Story Time and Tree House (all
priced at £16 each). Each gift box contains three beautifully illustrated tins
(which are great for storage when you finish the teas). Each tin contains
different blends of tea in mesh pyramid teabags. We also love these teabags as
you can normally use the same teabag for multiple cups of tea. The Fairy Tales
gift set contains tins of teabags entitled Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and
Cinderella. The Story Time gift set contains tins of tea bags entitled Three
Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Alice in Wonderland. The Tree House gif
set contains tins of tea bags entitled Rocket Fuel, Tea-Rex and Monster Brew.
Each tin 15 tea bags. These make wonderful gifts for someone this Christmas
whether they are a child or adult.
Whittard of Chelsea
and long history as one of the most prestigious suppliers of tea and coffee products.
We have selected three of our favourite products which are also in their
Christmas Gift section this year. The first product is a wonderfully presented Flavoured Hot Chocolate Selection (£18) which comprises of 5 tins of flavoured hot
chocolate including crème brulee white hot chocolate, caramel hot chocolate,
rocky road hot chocolate, chilli hot chocolate and of course mint hot
chocolate. Hot chocolate wouldn’t be
complete without a generous topping of Mini Marshmallows (£4.50) and Whittard also stocks a wonderful large tub of
these filled with white, pink and peach mini marshmallows. If hot chocolate doesn’t quite cut it for you
then why not opt for Whittard’s specially selected Time for Coffee (£18) selection which includes three wonderful coffees including
Chelsea Espresso, After Dinner and Breakfast Blend. A coffee for every point in
the day!
Hotel Chocolat
luxury chocolates and innovative flavours and they certainly have not failed to
impress this Christmas! There is a huge selection of gifts suitable for Christmas
on the Hotel Chocolat website. We have chosen but just a few of these to
feature in this gift guide. For a
wonderfully indulgent Christmas chocolate gift why not try the Hotel Chocolat Truffle Tree (£26) which is comprised of alternate layers of 50% milk praline
chocolate with crisp feuilletine and layers of caramel chocolate enhanced with
a touch of sea salt. The tree is finished off with decorations of milk, vanilla
white and dark chocolate truffle baubles.
For a wonderful stocking filler or secret santa gift Hotel Chocolat have
created a Christmas H-Box (£12) which comprises of 14 festive chocolates including Christmas
Eaton Mess, Caramel Christmas Tree and Caramel Supernova among many
others. Why not try the cute box of 8 Tiddly Reindeer (£5.50). Each reindeer is made from delicious melt in your
mouth milk chocolate. A wonderful selection of Christmas gifts.
Charbonnel et Walker
established and reputable company with members of the Royal family counting
towards some of its loyal and illustrious clients. The original setting up of
the business was encouraged by Edward VII himself who convinced Madame
Charbonnel, a highly skilled chocolatier from Paris to form a partnership with
Mrs Walker and establish a chocolatiers in Mayfair, London. Charbonnel et
Walker is one of the few companies to be endorsed by the Royal Warrant as chocolate
makers for Her Majesty the Queen, and they are immensely proud of this. It will
come as no surprise to anyone that a company with this reputation of
commendation will produce some of the finest chocolates imaginable. This year
we have chosen to feature two items from their fine collection. The first is
their decadent Fine Milk Chocolate Selection (prices from £22) which is also available in an
alcohol free version. This collection of chocolates feature a range of our
specialities, including fudges, caramels, marzipans, fruit fondants, and
noisettes The second item we have chosen to feature are the Sea Salt Caramel Truffles which come in a wonderfully presented box. A perfect
gift for your loved one. The Sea Salt Caramel Truffles are truly taste
explosions which have to be experienced to be believed.
Firebox – Tetris
we are no different. Whether its reminders of your childhood or toys you never
had growing up, everyone seems to want to own retro designed items at the
moment. Firebox has a wealth of retro goodies to keep even the hardest person
to buy for happy! We’re massive fans of Tetris so we were excited to find that
Firebox not only stocked Tetris Cookie Cutters (£6.99) but also an extremely cool Tetris Lamp
(£29.99). The cookie cutters are a great gift for someone who bakes or is
interested in starting baking. You can use any shortbread or biscuits recipe
from our website with the cutters. These are great for kids as you can
genuinely play Tetris with biscuits you have made yourself. We love this! The
Tetris Lamp is amazingly cool. Not only is it a lamp but it’s in pieces in the
form of Tetris blocks. The base of the lamp plugs into mains power. You can
then build the rest of the Tetris blocks on top of this base block in any
number of different combinations of patterns. As long as the blocks are
touching the metal edges conduct just enough electricity to light up the LED’s
inside the blocks. Meaning you will never become bored of your lamp again, in
fact you won’t be able to leave it alone, and neither will your friends! When
we ever leave our kitchen we return to find someone has rearranged the Tetris
lamp in a different form. Whether for a child or an adult who thinks they still
are a child this lamp is great fun and a really reasonable price for the fun
you have with it.
DotComGiftShop – Everything Stops for Tea
even follow any of our social media channels you will certainly know our
fondness for tea, black tea, green tea, any tea! We love DotComGiftShop’s
wonderful range of retro homeware. It’s hard not to get lost in their website
and discover items you didn’t know existed or bring back fond childhood memories.
One item we have fallen in love with this Christmas is tea themed and we
absolutely love it. It describes exactly what happens in our home when it’s
time for tea. The “Everything Stops for Tea” print (£14.95) is beautifully presented in a black PVC frame and
ready for hanging as soon as it’s received. This very reasonably priced print
is great for decorating a new kitchen or adding something new to an old one.
The retro design of the print means that it not only fits in well with retro
styled kitchens but also modern, sleek minimalist kitchens too. If puddings are
more your thing DotComGiftShop also stock another print entitled “Classic Puddings”
(£19.95) which pairs beautifully with the tea print.
Joe and Seph’s Popcorn
popcorn and it was always the same generic bland flavour, well Joe and Seph
decided to change all that and it’s been a massive success! They air-pop
their
corn opposed to the normal traditional British method of oil and sugar mix.
They have also developed a wide range of different flavours. From Strawberry
Cheesecake to Mince Pie they have an exciting range of mouthwatering flavours,
and this year they have released some very special Christmas flavours. Among
the new exciting flavours are Caramel, Maple Syrup and Roasted Pecan popcorn,
French Camembert, White Chocolate with Madagascan Vanilla Bean, Caramel and Spanish Brandy (creating a
wonderful Brandy Butter flavour), Mince Pie flavor popcorn, Mint Chocolate
popcorn (our absolute favourite). Not to mention their new range of cocktail
flavoured popcorn including Mojito, Margarita and Cosmopolitan. Proper grown up
popcorn!
Innis and Gunn – The Gift Pack
favourite beer to both drink and bake with. If you are regular readers of
BakingBar’s recipes you will have seen us using the various varieties of Innis
and Gunn beer. Innis and Gunn is based in Edinburgh and the beer is brewed in
Glasgow. A lot of time, love and thought goes into the development of the
different varieties which they create. Especially for Christmas Innis and Gunn
have released a special Gift Pack (£10) perfectly presented to be given as a wonderful Christmas present
for that beer lover in your life. The beers included in the pack are Original x
1, Rum Finish x 1, Toasted Oak IPA x 1, Bourbon Stout x 1 (all 330ml). Not only
is the beer included in the pack but an exclusive Innis and Gunn bottle opener.
So your recipient can crack open a bottle of beer the instant they open their
gift. Perfect! If you’re looking for something for an Innis and Gunn beer fan
(which you will soon become after tasting it) there is a wide variety of gift
items also available including T-shirts (£16) and
our favourite Innis and Gunn Genuine Cask Head (£60) perfect for hanging in your mancave or
kitchen.
Rococo Chocolates
best chocolate delights time and time again is inspiring and they have some
treats in their Christmas range this year! They have a wonderful range
this year but
when we seen these bars we knew we had to share it with
you. This year Rococo has specially designed three amazing Christmas
themed chocolate bars. The first bar is Christmas Pudding (£4.50) and has
wonderful flavours of Cognac soaked raisins, toasted almonds, cloves and
cinnamon which burst through the rich 65% dark chocolate of this Christmas bar.
The second bar is Gold, Frankincense
& Myrrh (£4.50) Taking the three elements from the time of the wise men, Rococo
have added a hint of orange oil. The gold leaf is 22 carat, the
frankincense and myrrh lend distinctive aromatic resin
notes. Christmas would not be the same without this bar, first
created by Rococo in 1996. The third bar is Morello Cherry (£4.50)
which as the name suggests is made with sun dried morello cherries, which are
rich, moist perfectly balanced tangy fruit and give citrus notes to this
delectable Rococo Christmas bar, complementing the intense rich 65% dark
chocolate.
Slated.ie – Candle Holder
is the presentation. We absolutely love Slated.ie range of tableware and food
platters which are all made of natural slate and crafted by the Hammond family
who have worked with slate since the 18th Century. Slated.ie is a 100% Irish family owned and
run business so please check out their website and consider their wonderful
products for your next gift. We love all
their products but we have made the tough decision to feature an item from
their new candle holder range, The Candle Holder
(€20) which is also available in a trio Candle Set (€35). These
are a beautiful addition to your coffee table and fit into any home whether
ultra-sheik modern or traditional farmhouse. Slate is such a tactile material
which is natural and durable, we love it. You can purchase these candle holders
and more directly from the slated.ie website. Before you know it you’ll be
adding to your slate collection at every opportunity.
Henri Willig – The Tulip Gift Basket
Netherlands and it doesn’t stop there. We are massive fans of Henri Willig
cheese. Henri Willig’s traditional Dutch methods of making cheese attract over
a million tourists annually to their farms in the Netherlands. If you’re ever
in the Netherlands keep your eyes open for their 12 stores. But don’t worry,
Henri Willig has exceptional customer service meaning you can order all the
cheese you need online from their website! This Christmas we highly recommend
the Tulip Gift Basket (€54.55) as a wonderful present for someone. The basket contains
a wonderful selection of cheeses including four delicious Gouda varieties
(Natural, Herbs, Cumin and Smoked), combined with a cheese slicer and a pack of
traditional Dutch sweet button bonbons.
Bettys
established and illustrious histories and Bettys is one of those companies.
There is a lot of history behind the business and even a little mystery around
where the name Betty actually came from! Its far too much to explain here so
grab a tea or coffee and pop over to Bettys website to read ‘The Bettys Story’
about where this fabulous company came from here. Bettys always produce wonderful seasonal ranges
and this Christmas they have not failed to disappoint. We made the difficult
decision and chose to feature two of our favourite items. We have browsed their
fabulous selection of Christmas treats and decided to feature the Large Christmas Chocolate Selection (£25) which contains a wonderful selection of
handcrafted chocolates in a beautiful presentation box inspired by vintage
Christmas cards. Or if you’re looking for something a bit different but equally
delicious you should check out Bettys Swiss Milk Chocolate Glacé Orange (£5.95) which is a beautiful Christmassy house
box filled with Tangy glacé orange strips coated in rich Swiss Grand Cru
chocolate made with prized Venezuelan Criollo cocoa. Delicious!
Lindt
and in our opinion no Christmas is complete without receiving some Lindt
chocolate of some sort. We have chosen two items from their wonderful Christmas
2014 range. We absolutely love their Master Chocolatier Collection (£12.99) which is full of a generous selection of
Lindt’s finest chocolates from the sharp raspberry ganache to the smooth almond
truffle, there’s something for everyone. If a smaller item is on your mind,
whether for a child or just as a little extra something then the Lindt Bear and Friends Sharing Pack (£4.99) is perfect. The pack contains a
selection of hollow bears, Santas, reindeers and bells made using Lindt’s
finsest milk chocolate.
Thorntons
reputable brand known by children and adults alike for decades, in fact
Thornton’s recently celebrated their 100th Birthday! Thorntons was set up by
Joseph William Thornton in 1911 who then handed the business to his two sons
who made it into what it is today. Thorntons have released a wonderful
Christmas range this year and we found it difficult to pick what we wanted to
feature in our gift guide. But we eventually decided that the perfect advent calendar
this year is the Thorntons Smiles Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar (£7.00). If you’re after something more to
give as a gift the Thorntons Continental 60th Birthday Chocolate Box (£10) has the perfect selection of Thorntons
chocolates to enjoy.
Cocoaloco
companies where you know a lot of love and passion goes into the crafting of
their chocolates. All Cocoaloco’s chocolate is organic; they even use packaging
which makes minimal impact on the environment. Sarah and Rory of Cocoaloco set
out to make their company “build a premium treat reputation around words like
approachable, affordable and genuine choice” and they have certainly done that!
With a new website this year’s Cocoaloco’s range is even easier to order and
browse through. We selected just a few items from the Christmas range.
Cocoaloco has a wonderful range of stocking filler items including the Milk and White Chocolate Penguins (£3.99), Milk and White Chocolate Christmas Pudding (£2.99) or how about one of their Hanging Chocolate Angels (£2.49). If you’re interested in trying something a little
different why don’t you choose their Sloe Gin Truffles (£5.99) which are made with a subtle sloe gin ganache tossed
in raspberry powder. If the winter months have you craving a large glass of
creamy hot chocolate why not try Cocoaloco’s Citrus Infused Hot Chocolate Spoons (£3.99).
Butlers Chocolates
luxury chocolatier for over 80 years, being originally founded in Dublin in
1932 by Marion Butler and then bought in 1959 by the Irish Sorensen family who
still own 100% of the business today. Butlers Chocolate takes pride in their
heritage, even offering the ‘Butlers Chocolate Experience’ which allows you to
see behind those secret chocolate factory doors. This years Christmas range
contains a lot of classics, but classics done exceptionally well. It’s really
hard to beat a good box of chocolates and Butlers obsession and passion with
chocolate means that each chocolate is exceptional, combined with the beautiful
presentation makes the Gold Christmas Star Decoration (£6.50) stand out to us. This gift is another one
we have discovered this Christmas that also doubles as a beautiful Christmas
decoration. If you’re after that something extra for someone why not check out
Butlers Christmas Assorted Twistwrap (£5.50) containing 17 assorted chocolates. As every year
Butlers also offers Christmas Crackers available in assorted sizes including small, medium and large
(priced from £8.50).
Stellar Cookware – James Martin Knife Block
and Winchester Cutlery Set
Homeware Ltd brand and was established in Bristol in 1896 and is still a family
business priding itself on traditional values and excellence in products and
services. What Stellar Cookware don’t know about knives simply isn’t worth
knowing. A lot of expertise goes into designing the perfect high quality
kitchenware that we all need in our homes. With this very reason we have chosen
to feature two fantastic products from their range which in our opinion make
great Christmas gifts! The James Martin Knife Block Set comes with a selection of 5 knives in a sturdy knife
block. The set was designed exclusively by James Martin and therefore includes
a wonderful recipe book holder on the back of the knife block. A wonderful
multipurpose piece of kitchenware. The handles of the knives have been
carefully designed including molded compound anti slip handles. We also
discovered the wonderful range of cutlery designed and supplied by Stellar. The
range which caught our eye was Winchester 24 Piece Polished Cutlery Set. The perfect gift if you want to impress.
These polished utensils create a dazzling display at any dinner party. The
cutlery is made using 18/10 quality stainless steel (knives 18/0) crafted in a
modern yet timeless design. Completely dishwasher safe and comes with a Stellar
lifetime guarantee. Who wouldn’t want to receive one of these gorgeous sets for
Christmas?
Premier Housewares – Contigo Flask and
SweetHeart Range
Housewares Pastel Sweetheart Collection. This stoneware
collection is a
wonderful addition to any kitchen. It beautifully crafted with their sweetheart
design yet its soft pink or cool green colours are clean and modern so fit in
well with any kitchen. The collection is perfect for baking needs comprising of
a wonderfully sized mixing bowl, storage canister, numerous baking dishes,
ramekins and even a basting jug. The collection has clearly been designed
with looks in mind as this collection would steal the show at any dinner party.
Don’t be ashamed of your worn and battered bakeware, present your creations in
this superb collection. This collection will be available from WayFair. The items are all priced separately
so you can mix and match to make up your perfect collection for someone. Prices
range from £2.49 for a ramekin to £26.49 for the mixing bowl. We also have decided to feature the Contigo flask (£42) which is also stocked by WayFair. The Contigo flask is absolutly brilliant for someone who is always on the move or whether its for use during your morning commute to work or school. The Contigo flask has a brilliantly designed autoseal function meaning it seals completely, no drips! You must press a button on the flask while drinking, it is this design which ensures this flask stays sealed. A wonderful gift for someone who claims to have everything.
Nuance – Pocket Flask
or equally the woman! This delightful Pocket Flask
(£30) from Nuance is sure to put a smile on its recipients face. This pocket
flash is classically designed with inspiration coming from the scout canteen.
The flask is slim and perfectly curved to fit nicely in your pocket against
your body. Yet the neck of the flask is wide enough to make filling, and
drinking easy. A silicone tether keeps the flasks cap safely attached. Nuance
is a Danish brand and they take a lot of pride in the design and functionality
of their products. An optional extra which comes with the flasks are a set of
four cups in a practical case (£14.95).
Sabichi – Mugs and Tea Towels
household brand in British and rightly so. They stock a huge range of homeware
and we particularly love their kitchenware they offer. We have chosen two
kitchen essentials which also make wonderful Christmas gifts too. We love
Sabichi’s 4pc Ahoy Mugs Set (£10) which comprises of 4 porcelain mugs with a striking blue and
white anchor prints in various designs. These are a wonderful set and come in
their own gift box, ready for you to add a ribbon and a name tag! If you want
to add something a little extra then Sabichi also offer a beautiful range of
tea towels, we particularly love the Boucherie 3 Pack Tea Towel set (£8) which comprises of three tea towels with a striking
blue and white butchers style pattern. However we think they match perfectly
with the Ahoy mugs set too.
Bonieri – Bella Grande
hazelnut chocolates, gianduja pralines, nougat and other specialities, from the
master chocolatiers in Turin. Combining
ancient recipes, only the highest quality ingredients, and luxury modern
packaging, Bonieri’s decadent chocolates, colourful foils and stylish “Bella”
selection boxes taste as good as they look!
Bonieri also recently won gold stars at the world’s largest blind
tasting food award, Great Taste 2014. This Christmas we recommend their Bella Box ‘Grande’ (£34.95). This box has a wonderful combination of Bonieri’s
decadent chocolates for your loved ones to enjoy.
THATInventions – SpreadTHAT and ScoopTHAT
ScoopTHAT before so first we will tell you a little about the team. The team is
made up of a group of enthusiastic designers, engineers, UX specialists, two
college professors and three PHD science advisors spread across three locations
worldwide. With that combination of experts you would think they could create
some pretty amazing products, and you’re right! The SpreadTHAT butter knife is
credited with being the most advance butter knife in the world. The SpreadTHAT
knife is made of a material which is incredibly good at conducting heat,
meaning that it heats up in seconds from the heat of your hands allowing you to
spread even the hardest, straight out of the fridge butter. The knife, unlike
conventional knives as no sharp edges so perfectly safe around kids too. The ScoopTHAT is made of a
similar conducting material but with this product only the ‘Thermo-ring’ of the
scoop, that’s the outside edge of the scoop part to me and you heats up with
the heat of your hands, the rest of the scoop maintains a cool temperature.
Meaning the scoop easily cuts through ice cream frozen solid that traditional
ice cream scoops could not. No more soupy ice cream from having to dip your
scoop in warm water each time. These guys are experts at solving problems that
no one else has though to solve yet. We watch with excitement at what these
guys will develop next.
Mocha UK – Dog vs Cat Kitchen Roll Holder
kitchens otherwise we end up with the runaway kitchen roll across the kitchen
floor when it rolls off the worktop. Mocha UK have recently just took stock of
a beautiful kitchen roll holder called the Dog vs Cat Roll Holder (£24.99). This comprises
of a decorative metal kitchen roll holder in the form of a cat sitting upon a
post and a dog sitting beneath. When you place a kitchen roll upon the holder
it looks like the cat is sitting on top of the roll itself. A cute addition to
a kitchen. This makes a wonderfully unique Christmas gift this year.
Klipy – Cake Divider
in 2009 by Guy Klipshtein. Guy is professor at the Technological Institute in
Holon and the head of KLIPY Studio. Klipy design LTD is a small and flexible
company, but large and experienced in its Kitchenware, Kitchen tools,
Kitchen gadgets, and manufacturing capabilities. Klipy’s products are
often characterized by a minimalistic form, based on a simplistic and
innovative approach. We decided to feature their uniquely designed Cake Divider ($12.99) in our Christmas gift guide this
year. This product really caught our eye when we first discovered it. Upon
first glance the design leaves you wondering its purpose and when you discover
its purpose soon leaves you discovering how this ingenious device works. You
simply pop the cake divider into the centre of the cake and using its labelled
markings for 6, 8, 10 or 14 equal pieces move the divider around as you use the
knife guide to cut the perfectly equal pieces of cake. You’ll never be left
with an unusually large or small last piece of cake.
Snow Leopard Vodka
mission we decided we had to try this spirit. Not soon after we were certain we
must feature this wonderful vodka on our gift guide. Snow Leopard Vodka is a
‘Spirit with a Soul’. 15% of all Snow Leopard Vodka’s profits, and monies
raised by their fundraising activities, are given directly to snow leopard
conservation projects through the Snow Leopard Trust. That is incredibly generous but that is not
all Snow Leopard Vodka has to offer, its taste and quality is rivalled by few
other distilleries. Snow Leopard vodka is made in Poland by Polmos Lublin, one
the world’s finest vodka distilleries. Snow Leopard is the first luxury vodka
made from the rare Spelt grain. Snow Leopard vodka is distilled six times using
natural spring water to achieve perfection. Produced in small batches each
bottle is of the very highest quality. The brand was awarded a Gold Medal at
the 2014 International Spirits Challenge. If this isn’t enough to convince you
of this Vodka’s quality give it a taste yourself. Available in many good
cocktail bars globally as well as good spirit stockists. Lists available on the
Snow Leopard Vodka website.
