A Holiday Gift Guide for your Favorite Foodie

The holiday season has begun — and we’re in for a month of good cheer filled children’s glowing faces, holiday parties, connecting with our loved ones and enjoying our favorite treats. Along with this, comes holiday shopping — and we’d like to simplify your experience and present a gift guide for you favorite foodie. We want to  simplify your experience and offer a gift guide for your favorite foodie — complete with gifts that are local and can be found in downtown Delray Beach.

The Ancient Olive, A Taste of Italy Gift Basket ($85)

For our first stop, we enter The Ancient Olive — a gourmet food, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting room — located at 514 E Atlantic Ave. While we’ve adored their selection of extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars for quite some time now, we recently tried their new line of regional Italian products by Ritrovo — and our palates have been dancing with joy.

For the holidays, they’ve created a ‘Taste of Italy’ gift basket, complete with some of our favorites — with most of the products inside coming from artisan producers. This basket contains: (1) Sun-Dried Tomato Spread by Maida; (2) Classic Abruzzo red sauce made in small batches containing fresh tomatoes, oregano, garden vegetables and EVOO; (3) For pasta, ‘The Kaleidoscopic Mix’ features a mixture of assorted short pastas; (4) Balsamic Pesto  made with balsamic vinegar, garlic & cashew nuts; (5) Organic Garlic Infused Olive Oil; (6) Oregano White Balsamic Vinegar; and (7) Black Truffle Salt. If these products aren’t for you, The Ancient Olive will be happy to personalize a basket to your liking.

Taste History Culinary Tours ($40)

For our next selection, we bring you to Taste History Culinary Tours of Historic Palm Beach County. These gastronomic tours, presented by the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History, take guests on a 3-4 hour narrated tour combining food tastings with history and art. Every tour is different — and each will take you through Lake Worth/Lantana or Delray/Boynton Beach.

The tours take place on the second, third and fourth Saturdays of the month at 11:00 a.m. While the group will mostly travel by bus, some walking will be required. Cost is $40 per person and free for children under the age of 18 (must be accompanied by an adult). These tours sell out quickly and pre-payment is required. To purchase tickets or to see the calendar of upcoming events, visit TasteHistoryCulinaryTours.org or call 561-243-2662

Drink Like a Local (ie.t-shirts, hats, stickers, pint glasses)

For the beer lover in your life, we’d like to suggest the organization Drink Like a Local. This organization unites local craft beer drinkers and encourages everyone to support local breweries. This can be done by drinking local beer, visiting local breweries, attending dinners and tastings — and of course by helping to spread the word.

Any beer lover would enjoy being part of the movement and sporting some branded ‘Drink Like a Local’ products like t-shirts, hats, stickers, pint glasses and more — with most of them being priced between $3 – $19.95.  Any of these products would be a perfect holiday gift. Visit drinklikealocal.com for more information and to purchase gifts online.

Champagne Manicure & Pedicure – $100 (value $137) 

After the holiday season, a trip to the spa would fulfill anyone’s wishes and The Seagate Spa is one of our favorites. Located inside The Seagate Hotel at 1000 E. Atlantic Avenue in Delray, the spa area features an 8,000 sq-ft spa area offering complete range of services, seven private treatment rooms, a Vichy shower and a hot yoga studio.

During the month of January, The Seagate Spa will add a bit of elegance to your treatment with their special Champagne Manicure and Pedicure treatment. It is perfect to give or to get and will certainly put you into relaxation mode. This treatment also includes a champagne-scented bath for your feet, a raw sugar exfoliation and an agave mask.  For $100, guests will enjoy this 80-min treatment, complete with a glass of bubbly to enjoy.  For reservations or to purchase a gift certificate, call (561) 665-4950.

Himalayan Salt Tequila Shot Glasses

If you’re looking to buy a gift for that someone who has everything, check out these incredible Himalayan Salt Tequila Shot Glasses. The moment we saw these, we were in love — and our obsession for tequila skyrocketed. Forget adding salt to your tequiila shooting regimen, these glasses are salt. Lick the glass, shoot the tequila and bite into a lime — drinking has never been so much fun. And, did we mention that these also made the list for Oprah’s Favorite Things 2013. These glasses are available at The Spice Lab and cost $19.95+.