Christmas 2024: The ultimate gift guide for gourmands

Instead of buying a loved one a cheeseboard, they can feast on once, why not ensure they have a consistent supply of their favourite cheeses? Homegrown cheesemakers D’Artisan Cheese offers a cheese subscription service, perfect for those who can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. In each box, you can expect to receive four to six unique varieties of locally made and hand-cut cheeses.

While there’s no guarantee these options will appear in a subscription box, D’Artisan Cheese is best known for its Truly Malaysia series of locally inspired cheeses from nasi lemak flavoured asiago to its rendang cheddar. 

A bottle of wine may seem like a run-of-the-mill Christmas gift but Vyne Wine is redefining this with its variety packs. Its Juicy Favourites Pack comes with a duo of wines, a red Italian blend of merlot, corvina, crotina and a rosé with notes of raspberry, pomegranate, and watermelon that can each pair with weeknight dinners or festive feasts. 

See also: Meet the couple redefining Bordeaux’s wine scene with Chateau Shuette

Nothing screams holiday gifting like a box of chocolate. In collaboration with acclaimed illustrator Anna Higgie, Venchi has released its Christmas collection complete with an assortment of gift boxes perfect for any appetite or degree of chocolate dependency. Find its signature treats packaged in star- and Christmas tree-shaped tins, smaller boxes filled with Chocoviar, Gianduiotti, and Lingottini chocolates, and more. 

Nespresso has brought back its Nespresso Advent Calendars for 2024’s holiday season, the perfect gift for the person in your life who cannot part with their daily cup of coffee. This is bound to spice up their morning coffee ritual, stocked with a variety of coffee including limited-edition festive flavours behind each of the calendar’s 24 doors. You’ll find both its Original Advent Calendar and Vertuo Advent Calendar filled with capsules compatible with various Nespresso machines. 

When looking for a last minute present to bring along to a Christmas get-together, there are few gifts better than edible ones. Huckleberry has recently unveiled its Christmas collection comprising a slew of festive treats. Expect holiday-themed cupcakes adorned with Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman decor, flavoured with accords of the season like gingerbread, peppermint mocha, and more.

You’ll also find whole cakes including vanilla sponge laced with lingonberry jam, Black Forest or chocolate orange Yule logs, and a tiramisu loaf cake. Keeping true to Christmas eats, the bakery is also offering a myriad of Christmas cookies like gingerbread, buttery shortbread, German spiced cookies, and more. 

If you’ve happened to fall down the TikTok recipe rabbit hole, chances are you’ve seen bottles of Graza’s olive oil. Refillable and beautifully designed, bottles from Graza come filled with two varieties of single-origin extra virgin olive oil, one made for sizzling and one made for drizzling.

The first, a cooking oil made from slightly more mature olives, works best for everyday cooking while the second, a finishing oil made from younger and greener olives, boasts a more robust profile making it perfect to drizzle over dishes. Any gourmand in your life will be thrilled to get your hands on a bottle that is sure to become a fixture in their kitchen. 

Bouquets always seem like an afterthought when it comes to Christmas gifting but Miss J Florist offers a floral bouquet that is bound to impress any cocktail connoisseur in your life. Surrounded by dried pampas and artificial parvifolia leaves lies a cocktail gift set equipped with almost every essential bartending tool. From bar spoons and a cocktail shaker to strainers and muddlers, those who relish mixing their drinks will be thrilled to have this gift set in their arsenal. 

Don’t miss: 5 weird and wonderful cocktails to try in Kuala Lumpur

Elevated incarnations of staple ingredients always prove to be thoughtful Christmas gifts for foodies. Maldon Smoked Sea Salt is exactly this, offering home cooks a simple way to reinvent their favourite meals. Used as a finishing salt rather than a seasoning to cook with, this sea salt is perfect when wanting to amp up smokey, charred flavours or to sprinkle over simple plates for added complexity. 

For those who are vehemently against sugar but still find themselves with an incurable sweet tooth, a gift set of globally sourced honey is a great option. Junglehouse’s Signature Honey Variety Pack offers eight miniature jars of its best-selling Sumatran Royal White honey, strawberry-accented Jungle’s Heart Honey, woody and bittersweet Royal Black, and more. For a slightly more luxurious gift, opt for its Jungle Dazzle, a gift box stocked with raw honeycomb, Jungle’s Heart honey, tropical Jungle’s Eye honey with notes of longan, and its Sweettooth honey derived from mango blossoms. 

If you know someone who can’t go a month without hosting a dinner party, gift them handmade tableware that’ll take their spreads to the next level. Stoneworks Ceramics, a homegrown specialist in bespoke and contemporary tableware, crafts stunning ceramics each imbued with rustic charm. No two pieces are the same here from wheel-thrown bowls covered in different glazes and textured plates with rustic edges to speckled round cups finished with white glaze. 

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