7 Luxe Mail Order Treats to Spoil Yourself With This Holiday Season
It’s been a tough year, and you deserve to treat yourself. As the lines wrap around stores this holiday season, you might want to find gifts for others — and a little something for yourself — online this year. Here are a few delicious and luxurious treats for the new year that you can have delivered to your doorstep. As always, order early because the pandemic has lengthened shipping schedules for so many companies.
Give the gift of the Central Coast – and allow friends and family to travel here through their taste buds – with our Edible San Luis Obispo artisanal holiday gift boxes. We’ve curated delicious pantry foods and cozy home items from across our area, so you can give the most personal gifts this holiday season. There’s a package for every occasion and recipient, even those hard-to-buy-for colleagues, finicky friends and kids whose ages and interests escape you — the only requirement is that they love good food.
The gift boxes include delicious things like Paso Almonds brittle, Nightshift Cookie Co duos of snowmen cookies, Twenty Four Blackbirds Hacienda Elvesia chocolate bars, Stepladder Ranch honey, Underwood Ranches Carolina gold bbq sauce, Kiler Ridge Tuscan extra virgin olive oil, Bren’s Original Blends all purpose seasoning, Chapparal Gardens mission fig balsamic vinegar, Kiler Ridge Tuscan extra virgin olive oil, Spice of Life chamomile tea, Christiana’s Preserves apple butter, and Hartley Farms plum merlot jam.
Your kids, meanwhile, will love the Kids Kit, which features Pipsticks lettuce get together, bon appetit, skip the veggies and big puffy avocado stickers, Bentgo Kids lunchbox, Edible San Luis Obispo children’s book, Nightshift Cookie Co cookie painting kit, Twenty Four Blackbirds elvesia chocolate bar (1.4 oz), in a custom Edible pantry box.
So you’ve had that grocery store mochi ice cream — the one with the cheerful green tea balls on the front. Mochidoki isn’t even a distant cousin of that stuff. This gourmet ice cream encased in mochi is formulated by Natsume Aoi, who grew up making mochi dough in her grandmother’s kitchen in Japan, trained in classic French pastry with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and was the Executive Pastry Chef at Morimoto before joining Mochidoki. So it’s no surprise that the flavors sound more like five-star restaurant desserts — like sweet and savory caramel mochi wrapped around salted caramel ice cream and infused with cracked caramel candy, a creamsicle-like mandarin orange mochi with vanilla ice cream, and smooth raspberry puree combined with white chocolate covered pearls. There’s also apple miso caramel, pumpkin and cookies, espresso, vanilla chip, ceremonial-grade matcha, roasted black sesame, coconut, ube, And for gluten-free and vegan folks, there are 10 gluten-free flavors and two vegan flavors. You can choose from Mochidoki’s 24-piece Signature Collection with classics like chocolate, mango, passion fruit, red bean, and Thai tea, or 24-piece boxes of your favorite flavor. This summer, the company started shipping throughout the state of California for the first time in dry ice-packed insulated coolers, so Mochidoki can be on your doorstep in just a few days.
The well-priced kits from Global Grub make it easy for you to embark on a culinary project, from mochi to tamales to fortune cookies. After all, who wants to go out and brave three grocery stores just to find specialty items like corn husks, matcha powder and porcini mushrooms? The Mochi Kit comes with an ice cream mold for shaping your sweet treats, along with sweet rice flour, matcha powder, cocoa powder and a dough cutter. The Tamale Kit is packed with New Mexico, Ancho and Pasilla chilies, corn husks, masa mix, and an easy spice packet. The Ravioli Kit features 00 flour, a super-refined, silky-soft flour perfect for pasta, along with porcini mushrooms, truffle oil and a square ravioli stamp. The Fortune Cookie Kit is one of the most charming, featuring 60 pre-written paper fortunes, plus blank slips. This kit comes complete with everything you need, encompassing pastry flour, superfine sugar, cocoa powder, an edible ink pen and a silicone baking mat.
“Akola” means “she works” in a local Ugandan dialect, because these stunning gems are handmade by Ugandan women. Based in Jinja, Uganda, the 200 women who make this jewelry use local, sustainable materials like up-cycled cow horn, raffia sourced from palm leaves, and sisal that comes from the agave plant.
The women who make these pieces live below the poverty line, and these jobs help sustain their lives. When a woman is employed by Akola, she is more likely to keep her kids in school, learn financial literacy, and operate as a leader in her community. That’s because the company offers the women programs in leadership and financial literacy.
You can help put food on the tables of these women and their families by purchasing beautiful gifts like the Wren Stud, a fan-shaped sculptural gold earring layered with sustainable raffia from Ugandan palm leaves, dyed and braided by Akola women. The Inner Strength Chain Pendant features hand-carved horn set in a scalloped metal pendant that dangles from a vintage-inspired gold paperclip chain. The Perla Earring showcases gorgeous white horn and crystal is a dangle format, accented with golden metal. DIY Necklace and Bracelet Kits also make great gifts that you can make together, gathered as a family by the fireplace.
This San Rafael-based dry-aging steak purveyor supplies prime grade beef cuts and burger blends that Chef Thomas Fundaro at SLO Brew is a fan of, serving Flannery’s on the menu seasonally and for special events. Flannery Beef will also be featured at Park 1039, a perfect match for their serious wine list.
You can order Flannery’s restaurant-quality steaks online to be delivered to your door to enjoy at home. Enjoy a unique cut like the Picanha or the custom California Reserve Dry Aged Jorge Ribsteak, a full rib cut named after Flannery’s favorite Spanish wine importer, Jorge Ordoñez, available in 28 and 32 ounces for three to four people to share. Savor a Midwestern Bone-in Ribsteak, considered the most flavorful steak when compared with the filet and the New York. Midwestern steaks have a larger “eye,” or diameter, because Midwestern cattle are heavier. Or go classic with a Dry-Aged Ribeye Steak, which nearly equals the tenderness of the New York Strip, but packs in unbeatable flavor. The Tenderloin Roast also makes for a perfect holiday centerpiece for a small family gathering.
Mulberry silk is a high-quality silk packed with protein-rich fibers and amino acids, which skin absorbs and retains — meaning that these Silken Pure sleep masks and pillowcases hydrate your face while you sleep. The high-quality silk also protects your skin from bacteria and allergens like dust mites that cause irritation and breakouts. One of the best parts about the silk is the feel, of course, but the smoothness also extends blowouts instead of wrinkling hair.
Silken Pure uses a OEKO TEX 100-rated mulberry silk farm to ensure non-toxic dyes and natural fibers. They also feature luxurious short and long mulberry silk robes in a variety of colors that bring a little bit of old Hollywood glamour to your evening or morning routine — and they’re machine washable on a cold delicate setting. The company is currently featuring daily deals for the days leading up to Christmas, including 30 percent off pink leopard pillowcases and sleep masks, and 20 percent off pink leopard face masks.
Fancy a fresh apron for all that holiday baking? Apron company Blue Cut has collaborated with illustrator Alexandra Bowman to co-design “Planting Change” – a special edition adult and kids apron and face mask collection celebrating and supporting Black Americans in food and farming. Bowman’s artwork is recognized for sparking dialogue for social change and visibility for the underrepresented, and her illustration portrays a community of Black individuals growing and harvesting crops to sustain themselves. Proceeds will support BCAGlobal and Soul Fire Farm and champion their work in bringing equity, equality, and empowerment to the Black community in restaurants and farms. Celebrity chefs Nyesha Arrington and Jason Fullilove are big fans!
